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"count": "1" } ], "description": "[b] プロジェクト：「[color=#cc0000]オリオン[/color]」\nPROJECT:「[color=#cc0000]ORION[/color]」[/b]\n[i]'A boy who wanted a brother. A nation that wanted a weapon.'[/i]\n\nProject:Orion focuses around an anthropomorphic arctic wolf cub created in secret by a branch of the Japanese government. Given the projects namesake [i]'Orion'[/i] by his human creators, the young wolf is being slowly groomed by the military to become the perfect hybrid assassin in order to further Japan's political interests.\nAs Orion begins to challenge the predestined path of bloodshed bestowed by the nation that created him; the young cub starts to develop an attachment to the lead scientist's human son who is the same age.\nThis story explores the unbreakable bond between these two young boys; and challenges they must face together as they travel their separate paths in extraordinarily different worlds.\n\nThis submission is the first three introductory chapters into the Project:Orion series. I hope that you enjoy reading these much as I enjoyed writing them. There will be more chapters coming out soon, I promise!\n\n[color=#cc0000][i]For best formatting, please download the submission .doc file to view this story. [/i][/color]", "description_bbcode_parsed": " プロジェクト：「オリオン」
PROJECT:「ORION」
'A boy who wanted a brother. A nation that wanted a weapon.'

Project:Orion focuses around an anthropomorphic arctic wolf cub created in secret by a branch of the Japanese government. Given the projects namesake 'Orion' by his human creators, the young wolf is being slowly groomed by the military to become the perfect hybrid assassin in order to further Japan's political interests.
As Orion begins to challenge the predestined path of bloodshed bestowed by the nation that created him; the young cub starts to develop an attachment to the lead scientist's human son who is the same age.
This story explores the unbreakable bond between these two young boys; and challenges they must face together as they travel their separate paths in extraordinarily different worlds.

This submission is the first three introductory chapters into the Project:Orion series. I hope that you enjoy reading these much as I enjoyed writing them. There will be more chapters coming out soon, I promise!

For best formatting, please download the submission .doc file to view this story. ", "writing": "[b][center]プロジェクト：「[color=#cc0000]オリオン[/color]」\nPROJECT :「[color=#cc0000]ORION[/color]」[/center][/b]\n[center][i]'A boy who wanted a brother. A nation that wanted a weapon.'[/i][/center]\n\n\n[center][b]Foreword[/b][/center]\nProject:Orion is a story that I've wanted to write for a very long time. After a ten year hiatus from fiction writing, I finally decided to just sit down and get this long awaited story down on paper. \n\nAt this juncture I feel it's important that I give my readers fair warning about the nature of this story going in. Primarily; not only is this first writing project of this scale that I've ever undertaken, it is also my first real fictional work in a very long time, and therefore I'm sure I have become quite rusty with my good writing habits. Additionally, this work will at times touch on sensitive subjects throughout its development. These subject maters include 'coming of age' experiences between underage characters. While these are intended only to be innocent encounters to assist with character and plot development, more conservative readers may find these scenes and subject matters discomforting. If you are opposed to reading fictional works that touch on the age old topics of 'boys will be boys' or 'coming of age' type themes, then this story might not be relevant to your interests. I should also forewarn you all that this story resides in a universe that consists almost exclusively of human characters. If you're looking to read something that takes place in a wholly furry universe then this particular tale may not be to your liking.\n\nAs this story takes place in Japan, I have chosen to employ some simple Japanese expressions in some minor parts of my writing in order to complement certain character development and provide some cultural continuity within the narrative. I've specifically kept all Japanese phrasing very simple and easy to understand so you shouldn't need to run to Google translate to figure out this dialogue. \n\nFinally, I'd like to thank my friends and my amazing editor for all of their support, encouragement and kind words that they have so generously offered throughout this project. I couldn't have done this without you guys. \n[i][color=#cc0000]\nFor best formatting, please download the submission .doc file to view this story. [/color][/i]\n\n\n\t\n[center][B]Chapter One[/B][/center]\nDavid checked his watch under his white lab coat sleeve. 5:47. \"It's ok, I still have plenty of time, I don't need to rush this\". He placed his hand back on the black leather steering wheel of the SUV. It was early enough in the morning that there was next to no other traffic around on this small twisting island road, but the corners were sharp, and came up quick. Combinations that with a little too much speed, a misjudged corner could cost you dearly. David knew this better than anyone. He resisted the urge to speed up as he rounded the next bend. \nDr David Ashford Aldrich had lived on Okushiri going on seven years now. The island is quite a small one, about twenty three kilometres long and about ten wide. It sits around eighteen and a half kilometres off the west coast of Japan. It has very few roads and even fewer vehicles. There is only one major town on the island, and despite having schools and a hospital, there are only three major roads in and out of it. The majority of the traffic on inland roads this early in the morning was purely military, traffic David was used to passing on his way to and from his home on the North East side of the island. It was all mostly soldiers or intelligence offices on these roads, returning to work up the mountain at Japanese Defence-Force Army base on Mt. Kamui. He often noted that the soldiers on Okushiri were always well presented, clean shaven and obviously well looked after at home. David admired these people for being able to go home and sleep so soundly. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept well, at least not since this project begun seven long years ago. \nThe doctor rubbed his eyes under his glasses and pushed his spectacles back up his nose. All these late nights... he was going to need stronger glasses soon. The clouds and fog hung low in the early morning sky, the roads wet from earlier rains, everything around him smelt damp. He flicked his cigarette ash out of the SUV's window, looking off into the clouds as he did. David couldn't help but feel a deep sadness wash over him. He'd known this day had been a long time coming, he had just hoped it would have arrived a little slower. He definitely wasn't ready for it. Maybe he never would be.\nAs he rounded the next bend, the gates to the military base appeared ahead. David leaned over to rustle through in his bag on the passenger seat for his ID. He pulled the SUV to a halt at a second set of gates slightly off to the right of the main gate, bringing the vehicle to a swift stop next to an armed military policeman already stepping out of a gatehouse. A bare chain link gate stood in front of his car, serving as the last line of defence before a large facility that loomed behind it, its bland concrete walls blending in with the grey of the morning sky. The gate was still dripping wet, it hadn't been heavy rain, but there had been enough that everything in sight was still soaked through. A large white sign attached the middle of one of the gates read 'National Institute for Advanced Medical Sciences - Okushiri', beneath it an embossed 'Restricted Area' spelled out in a threatening red. Each line of text on the sign had been translated into Japanese, just smaller kanji symbols beneath each word, useful for the local fisherman and their families on the island that didn't read or write English fluently. David guessed that every now and then a local might wander up this way, but he couldn't imagine why. There was nothing up here on this mountain but death. \n\"Your ID please sir\" the guard leaned into the open window on the driver's side with an open hand extended, his expression emotionless and serious looking. Having located what he was searching for in his bag, David handed the guard a small red badge with his photo on it, attempting a weak smile while he did. The guard didn't seem impressed by David's attempt to be polite. Looking at the ID card in his hand, the guard read aloud, in almost an almost accusing tone; \"Dr David Ashford Aldrich, Lead Researcher, CL Five\". The guard looked at the photo on the card, then back at the doctor, then back at the card again, as if he doubted that the man before him was actually the person in the photo. David had never seen this guard before, he was probably new. The base seemed to constantly rotate its personnel with those based on the mainland with increasing frequency as of late. Without another word, the nameless guard placed the ID card on a small PDA he held in his other hand, and after a moment of studying the display intensely the gate in front of the David's SUV squeaked to the side, sliding slowly out of the way of his vehicle. \"Have a nice day sir\" the guard said without even so much as a change in expression, handing the ID card back with just a nod. David tried to offer another friendly smile but was met only with the guards turned back as he spun swiftly around and disappeared back into the warmth of the gate house. \"Today is off to a great start\" the doctor mused to himself. He rolled up his window driving past the gate and up the drive, parking in his preferred place close to the main building’s front door\n[I]Jeeze, seven years. This place never really changes, does it, [/I] David thought as he locked his car and headed for the lobby doors. He'd been coming to this lonely place for so long now, the only real changes he'd seen in its layout was the beginnings of a new construction site towards the far end of the campus grounds. The steel frame of a warehouse was now beginning to take a recognisable shape, although most of its form was still obscured, buried amongst cranes, piles of sand and the various construction machinery that littered the building site around it. He looked at his watch again. It was still in the young hours of Sunday morning, it seemed logical that no one was working on the site this early on a weekend.\nFlicking his extinguished cigarette into the nearby garden, David pushed his way through the heavy revolving door into the monstrous lobby of the main NIAMS research building. His wet business shoes squeaked loudly on the polished green granite floor as he made his way inside. David never understood why the NIAMS had at some point decided to waste so much of this buildings lower space on such a huge lobby. The building was only fifteen stories tall, with an additional three sub levels residing below ground, essentially what you saw was what you got. In his mind, the lobby was just a huge waste of space that could have been better allocated for more much needed laboratories that were urgently required for the countless research projects the facility currently played host to. Besides, the building had already sacrificed its top two levels to office space. David felt the reasoning had always been strange, being attached to the military base meant that only those with clearance would ever see this building. He fancied that the person who designed the place was possibly aiming for a design that would impress visiting government officials. But other than General Munroe, the doctor couldn't remember ever having seen anyone from the government ever visit this place, at least not since he'd been here. \nDavid turned his head slightly as he walked, adamant to stare out of the nearby floor to ceiling windows that lined the lobby’s walls. His scuffed black shoes continued to squeak loudly against the floor as he made his way slowly towards one of the elevators. The doctor’s pace was now intentionally slower than usual, he wasn't in a hurry, not now that he was actually here. He knew he was on the cusp of having to deliver undesirable news, the kind he knew that came with a hidden meaning underneath and beheld nothing short of a heavy price to pay. Worst of all, he knew others wouldn't see it that way. This was all just progress to them.\nDavid pulled a hand out of the pocket of his lab coat and ran it through his short brown hair. Recently he'd had to try harder and harder to keep his overgrown fringe out of his eyes while he worked. [I]'Who had time for a hair cut these days?’[/I] Wisps of grey had started to show recently on the thirty eight year old’s hairline, the cost of being a lead researcher, he supposed. David even fancied that the grey hair made him look more like a professor now. His six year old son liked to compare him to cartoon shows of mad scientists. David couldn't help but smile at that thought. [I] 'Dr David Ashford Aldrich, Mad Scientist of the NIAMS.'[/I]\nOutside the glass walls of the lobby, clouds still hung heavy in the sky, riding close to the tree line almost like a thick fog. It was impossible to see the ocean on a day like this. The sky was still dark, the sun extinguished by the impenetrable mass of opaque grey clouds, each threatening rain again before the day was through. The view of the rest of the campus grounds from this window was also somewhat obstructed by a large ten story building called The Residency. Another plain grey building that adjoined the main research centre by a single undercover walkway. David had slept at The Residency on many occasions in the early days of the project, when he was still working 20 hour days. The beds were very comfortable at least. Many staff said it was like a mini private four star hotel, although owned and operated by the NIAMS exclusively for its research staff. \nWhen he had first started researching here, David had been quick to pick up on the fact that the majority of the research staff all lived in The Residency. They were not permitted to leave the campus because of the highly secretive nature of their research. Research was their now effectively these peoples entire lives. David huffed to himself as he starred at the building on the other side of the glass, [I]'Turns out the government doesn't much care for the idea of their top secret projects being leaked at the local bar when researchers go out drinking. They like to keep everyone on-site, nice and cosy, where they can monitor them'. [/I] The thought bothered him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He'd been the lucky one, with his leverage on the project David had been able to convince the key people at the Ministry of Defence to let him come and go from the campus as he pleased. It was a priceless benefit that allowed him to spend his nights at home with his son. Not that the Ministry had much choice in the matter, Dr David Aldrich was critical to the project's success, and containing an information leak on an island as small as Okushiri, where the military already had control over the only two cellular towers on the island, was not a difficult task for a project as important as his. David also knew that it was not beyond the Ministry of Defence’s power to make certain island locals disappear if one of them happened to learn too much about what goes on at the NIAMS.\nThe sharp sound of the elevator chime broke though David's daydreaming. It took him only a moment to realise that he'd pressed the elevator call button while his mind was elsewhere. \"Yep, it’s decided...” he muttered to himself as he stepped inside the elevator cabin \"... I'm definitely working myself too hard\". The doctor pulled his ID badge from his lab coat pocket and touched it to a small black plate above the numbered floor buttons. There was a quiet beep, an audible confirmation that his card had been accepted. Unable to prevent a small sigh escaping as he did, David pressed the 'SL1' floor selection button and with a dull clunk, the doors closed and the elevator slowly descended below ground.\nThe elevator ride was short, there wasn't that much distance between the lobby floor and the first subterranean level. Certainly no time to daydream. The elevator came swiftly to a halt, and a soft female voice came from hidden speaker in the cabin. \"Sub Level One... Subu reberu ichi desu.\" The doctor smiled again, he had become quickly accustomed to just about everything on campus being in both Japanese and English, from signs to PA announcements, everything was bilingual, but then again so was he. A necessity, he supposed, the NIAMS commonly played host to expert researchers who came from not only Japan but just about anywhere around the world. This place really was just a huge think tank after all, a pressure cooker for the some of the world's greatest minds to come together and create. Or destroy.\nStepping out of the lift, David was greeted by the familiar long hallway of Sub Level 1, spanning well over fifty meters in each direction before disappearing around sharp corners. Everything down here was brightly lit by fluorescent light. It didn't matter what time of the day it was on the surface, it was always daytime down here and impossible to tell the actual time without a watch. The doctor shivered, the air was its usual icy cold on this level, kept that way by a massive air-conditioning plant that ensured it was always colder than Greenland, all the time. He knew it had to be frigid though, there were labs all though this level working on god knows what, and the cold was a great first line of defence against germs in the labs, so the colder it was the better. \nDavid's footsteps echoed though the wide empty hallway, he was all alone. He knew subconsciously it was too early for most of the other researchers to be on site, and even if they were it would be likely they would keep to their own labs. It was rare to see someone in the halls, even in the middle of the day. \nThe sound of each one of the doctor’s footsteps bounced off the pristine walls of the hallway, completely unmarked white nothingness, except for the occasional gouge missing from some sections where equipment or a trolley or some type had clearly hit the wall and the resulting mark and had been quickly painted over to hide the damage. \nThe floor below his feet was a dull textured grey, David imagined who it was at the NIAMS that decided on such a horrible floor pattern for down here. Probably the same person who decided on having a ridiculously large and unnecessary lobby. His research assistant had once joked to him that if you stared at the floor for too long it would give you a migraine. The joke stopped being funny when David realised it was partly true if you worked over twenty hours straight.\n The floor’s bland headache-inducing pattern was only broken up by the three coloured lines that stretched the length of the corridor, disappearing around the sharp bend as the hallway turned right. These lines were the easiest system for highlighting the optimal routes to certain research areas, a type he'd seen in many facilities he had visited. David remembered when he first started working here, how it was easy as hell to get lost on the lower levels. Those silly colour-coded paths had been a lifesaver for him. To ask people passing in the hallway for directions was futile, and there were so few people down here you could go for hours on end without seeing a soul, and the ones you did see didn't always know the way. \nA thought made him shudder, just as it had seven years ago. [I]'You could die down here', [/I]all alone in the cold and its likely no one would find you for days, unless of course your absence was noticed by someone you worked with. David never envied the researchers around here that worked solo. This place was as cold as a tomb, and could easily become one.\nThe doctor shook his head, he was over thinking things, and his mind was seeking out distractions. He tired to clear his thoughts, there was more important things for him to consider today, more important than his personal distastes for the lower levels. Arriving now in front of a reinforced metal door more than halfway down the hallway he had just walked, David turned his body to face it. What strength he had promptly left his body. \nHe must have gone through this door a million times, but today the doctor couldn't seem to bring his gaze off the floor as he hung his head in despair. He imagined for a moment this was, at least in part, how Kenneth Bainbridge must had felt in 1945, when created the most destructive technology on the planet. It was said that after the atom bomb detonated successfully on the test site, Bainbridge, realising what he had unleashed on the world, turned his colleague and said \"Now we are all sons of bitches\"\n[I]So, now I to finally know how it feels to create something bigger than you, something the military will only use as a weapon of war. [/I]David's head buzzed with the voice of his own distorted reasoning, a voice brought on by his severe lack of sleep that he fought to suppress as stress momentarily got the better of him [I]Bainbridge always knew that his bomb would be used as a tool of war and yet he kept going to see if he could do it... I suppose it's no different then what we're doing down here now... we were always going to turn this corner eventually... and now we're here, making the final preparations before we release a brand new weapon upon the world... [/I]\nShaking his head clear again, David brought his hand up and gripped the cold metal of the door handle, in an instant he felt a shiver travel though him, his stomach sank, he felt ill. Completely involuntarily, and only through the simple muscle memory that he had instilled from years working in this place, his other hand moved automatically, leaving the pocket of his lab coat and scanning the ID badge he held past a reader next to the doorway. Straight away the doctor felt the mechanical click of the locking mechanism move, the sound of the heavy door unlocking in his hand. David straightened up, drew in a deep breath and held it, gripping the door handle harder. Internally he was trying relentlessly to focus through his accumulation of grogginess and exhaustion. His mind was foggy, brought on from too many hours spent lying awake, staring at the ceiling worrying about this very moment in the months prior. Desperately, David tried to push all feelings he was experiencing, all the dread he was fighting within this one moment, to the back of his mind, if only just for a few moments.\nHe let out a short puff of air, unable to hold his breath any longer. \"I just have to do this one thing, I have to just get this over with, and...\" David spoke only to himself, alone in the hallway. His eyes flicked up and inadvertently met with the sign on the door 'Project:Orion'. For a moment he felt himself falter again, his heart thumped hard in his chest, dread clawed its way back his throat, his legs wanted to give out from under him. He fought back the monstrous urge to just let go of the door handle and run away. \nSwallowing hard, he tried to calm himself \"This isn't about me now...\", the doctor pressed his forehead against the cold metal of the door, it's handle only marginally stronger than the death grip he now had on it \"...There is nothing I can do to stop this....\" He felt a tear start to blur his vision in one of his eyes but he blinked it away with anger. David took another deep breath and let it out again, his anger quickly fading now as he pulled his forehead away from the door \"... the least I can do is make this moment a special one...\" \nHis mind worked harder now, pushing all his negative emotions back deep down inside. With nothing more than sheer will power, the doctor suppressed his fear, his anger, and his sadness all at once. With great effort, David then drew back his facial muscles into a broad, yet forced smile, with a twist of the handle he pushed the door open and stepped inside. [I]Now we're all sons of bitches. [/I]\n\n[center][B]* * *[/B][/center]\n\n\"Boring\" he huffed. Using a single claw he turned to the next page and read aloud \"The Heckler and Koch USP is a semi-automatic pistol developed in Germany as a replacement for the P7 series of handguns...” The cub let out a loud yawn, lowering the book onto the white fur of his stomach as he laid there on his back in his small bed. With a short grunt, he let the book drop onto the white tiled clean room floor, swinging his legs and foot paws around and sitting upright on his bed. All around him were mirrors, or rather one way mirror glass, used for observing the contents of the clean room. The cub sat on his bed and stared intently at his reflection across the room. Before him stared back a reflection of a small shirtless wolf cub, who also sat upright on a small bed inside a room full of mirrors. His fur was as white as pure, untouched snow, which did a good job of hiding the cub’s thin but athletic build. His fur was short enough on his stomach and chest to make out the beginnings of well toned stomach muscles. Those push ups and sit ups each morning weren't for nothing. Two crystal blue eyes stared back at him, studying him. They shone like sapphires, and held a piercing intensity to them as they scanned over his body. \nHis legs were half covered by red cotton gym shorts. Lately the cub had been wearing just shorts during leisure hours, favouring going shitless more and more. He always found it a pain to have to constantly change in and out of disposable shirts and pants, which he fancied were made from some kind of special paper, which were ridged and didn't flex easily with his body. The few research staff he ever saw always insisted that he change after ever experiment to avoid what they called 'cross contamination', however the young wolf had no idea what they were on about, the word meant nothing to him and no one had ever bothered to explain its meaning. He'd never thought to ask.\nTo the young wolf, his shorts were one of the few things we was allowed to wear that made of real fabric, and above all they were comfortable. He couldn't really explain the feeling to anyone if they asked, but inside he felt as if these red shorts were one of the few real things here in his fake mirror world, the world he'd been stuck in for the last 6 years.\nJumping up onto his bare feet, the wolf padded around the clean room's perimeter, trailing a paw behind him along the mirrored glass. His paw pads left no mark on the mirrors, not even so much as a smudge. A few months ago, while bored, the wolf cub had used a claw, and marked the glass in a jagged line all around the room. Shortly after he'd done that though, people he had never seen before came into his room, and he was quickly injected with something that made him feel very sleepy. When he woke up, he was incredibly groggy, he knew he was in the same room, but the marks were all gone, and there was a faint scent of glue in the air. He quickly realised the researchers had made him go to sleep by force, and then had come and changed the glass panels for new ones while he was unconscious. The young cub didn't like being forced into a dreamless sleep like that. He didn't like how groggy and sick he felt afterwards either. As a result of the incident, without ever being specifically asked, he never made a mark on the mirror glass again.\nThe wandering cub finally reached the far side of the clean room, where there was just a plain metal toilet and a basin. The three hundred and sixty degrees of mirror glass in this room offered no real privacy to use these facilities, but the cub had never been taught to care about such things. A small orange handled toothbrush rested aside a meal basin, along with an unmarked tube of toothpaste. The cub's muzzle scrunched up in thought, he couldn't remember if he'd brushed his teeth today. With a single digit from his paw he tested the toothbrush bristles. Dry. He must have forgotten when he woke up. He'd been unusually excited today, it was his 6th birthday after all. \nBirthdays didn't mean the same thing to the cub as they would to a normal little boy. While birthdays meant presents and surprises for most kids, to this little wolf birthdays meant the start of a new challenge, or some kind of change to routine, it was one of the few things he looked forward to. The cub quickly decided against the idea of brushing his teeth, he hated the taste of the toothpaste, and he was far too awake now to ignore how bad it smelled. Instead, he decided to continue his lap around the room, the short wolf padding slowly on, his paw pad still trailing along the glass until he reached a small book case. The book case was full of many books, mostly ones to teach reading and spelling, books about math, about science. Some books were much more complicated though, books he didn't really understand, these were about Japanese culture, the history of war, and weapons, like the one about guns he was reading before. \nThe young cub studied the book case for a moment as if weighing his options, then removing his paw from the mirrored surface, he suddenly sprinted over to the book he'd dropped next to his bed, and with a lighting quick change in direction, he darted back to the bookcase. Crouching down on one knee, he carefully replaced the book back into the empty gap in the bookcase where it had come from.\nIt was a habit the young wolf had picked up in his time in this room. He'd been taught to keep the clean room, well, clean. He knew that if it got too dirty, or messed up, they would put him to sleep, and then clean the room themselves. Just like the time when he had scratched the glass. The young cub had developed an appreciation for cleanliness, and constantly made a conscious effort not to even leave a book out of its place for too long.\nWith a nod, satisfied with his job of cleaning up, the young wolf padded back over to his bed, then sitting up on the edge he looked around his empty clean room of mirrors then down at his paws. He used one claw to pick at the other on his other paw in frustration, letting out a little sigh. \"...He's late.\"\n[center][B]* * *[/B][/center]\n\"Good Moring Orion!\" Dr David Aldrich beamed a smile as he pushed open the door, practically marching inside. At the far side of the room, a small white wolf cub looked up from fiddling with his claws. The door had opened so suddenly it took a moment for the cub to process what was happening. Immediately the wolf's face lit up \"Dr Aldrich!!” The cub jumped to his feet and ran up to the figure, grinning wide. The doctor immediately put his hands on his hips and looked down at the cub, but didn't stop smiling for a second \"Come on Orion, what do we say now when we greet people?” The cub’s muzzle wrinkled up in frustration as he struggled to remember the correct pronunciation when put on the spot \"O...Ohayo gozaimu...su... Aldrich Sensei!\" he struggled, but still kept on grinning up at the doctor. \"Correct!\" David praised him, putting a hand on the cubs head and ruffling his headfur. Raising a finger he announced \"And your pronunciation was almost perfect this time\". Orion continued to show his toothy grin up at the doctor, his white canines practically shining under the fluorescent light of the clean room. Without a moment's hesitation the cub then quickly spun on the spot and took off at lightning speed back to his bed. With a little spring of his powerful legs he jumped up on the edge of the bed to sit again, now waiting eagerly for the doctor to join him. The young wolf was used to David coming into his room, it happened frequently each week, in fact he saw him more often than any other of the research staff. He usually decided to sit on the bed next to Orion due to the lack of furniture in the clean room, so it was not unusual for the little wolf to pre-empt the doctor and get there first.\nThe cub’s instincts were undoubtedly correct this time too, David quickly sat himself down next to the cub with a thud. \"So\" the doctor began without missing a beat \"I hear your turning 6 today Orion\" The cub nodded, kicking his legs back and forward nervously, he knew that this would be the part where he'd get told about some change to his schedule or routine. Orion was well aware that something that always happened on his birthday, but this one... they had been making a big deal out of this one for months. \n\"This year, as you know, is a special year...\" David continued \"...This year...” he hesitated for a moment, \"...you're going to get to leave the clean room.\" The wolf immediately stopped kicking his legs. All the neurons in the cub’s brain began to fire at once as he struggled to process this impossible information he had just been given. Slowly, Orion looked up at the doctor, his eyes practically shining with excitement. The cub's jaw trembled and he could only stutter out his next sentence \"R-r-really Dr Aldrich? Do ya m-mean it? I get to leave the c-clean room?\" David nodded back at him \"You're old enough now, we think you're ready\". \nThe young cub was an explosion of excitement, his heart pounding in his chest as he struggled to now keep still on the bed. \"But...\" David added \"It means there will be some big changes to your routine, you'll be starting a new training program with a new instructor... his name is Yosuke-sensei, and his training schedule is a difficult one, even for people twice or three times your age.\" The cub nodded, but was still grinning from ear to ear, eyes still shining. There could have been fire and brimstone in the doctor’s explanation of the training regiment and the young wolf wouldn't have cared amidst the prospect of seeing somewhere new, somewhere outside the room of mirrors. From birth, Orion had never been allowed to leave the confines of his clean room, and there was so much he wanted to know about the world that lay beyond the four mirror walls of his tiny space. \"You're also going to be training in a special new building\" David added \"I hear, it's on the surface, so you'll have to go outside in order to get to it.\" \nThe cub’s heart almost exploded out of his chest \"OUTSIDE? YOU REALLY MEAN IT?!?\" the cub blurted out, immediately resizing the volume of his outburst he covered his muzzle with his paws. The sudden unexpected exclamation from the young wolf made David chuckle \"Yeah, I really mean it.\" After a moment of consideration, Orion launched himself backward to fall onto his back now laying on the bed with a dull thud, his arms out to the side in excitement \"This is soooo coooool.... going outside...” \n\"Now Orion,\" David let his smile harden a little as he looked down at the cub laying on the bed beside him, \"There are two things I need you to do for me, one is easy, the other is quite hard.\" The young wolf flicked his eyes away from the ceiling above his bed to meet the doctor’s steady gaze again. The cub's heart started beating relentlessly, his mind raced. [I]Was this a test? What if I mess it up, will I still get to go outside? [/I] David, seeing the look of concern forming on the cubs face, continued quickly \"First, I want you to promise me, that you'll be careful outside the lab. There are a lot of dangerous things you'll be exposed to now, and in the coming years, so I want you to be extra careful, ok?\" The cub nodded solemnly \"And the second thing?\" the young wolf asked. David's expression became more serious \"This is the hard part ok? ...I won't approve your new training if you can't do this...\" The cub’s mouth went dry in an instant, fidgeting against the bed nervously. David let the silence drag out some more, longer then he needed to, both him and Orion could practically hear each second as it ticked away on the doctor’s wristwatch. \n\"...I need you to count up to your age in Japanese\" David concluded grinned extra wide. The cub groaned loudly “Dr Aldriiich...\" David folded his arms and stood up \"Come on, let's hear it, I know you can\". The young wolf now sat upright, his face serious as he concentrated on the task at hand, he crossed his legs, gripping his knees with his hand paws, he rocked back and forward slightly as he began counting up, trying to contain his obvious excitement from the news he'd been given today, but not wanting to mess up a test. \"Ichi...ni...san...shi\" The cub began, but couldn't keep a serious face let a smile escape \"...go...” the cub then grinned toothily up at David as he announced \"roku!!\"\n \"Correct!\" exclaimed the doctor with a warm smile and a small clap \"Yoku yatta... well done.\" Orion beamed up at the doctor with another big grin. David turned and started to walk towards the door, adding \"I can't stay long today, Orion. I have a lot to plan for with these new changes. You can take it easy for the rest of today ok? No more tests. Tomorrow, your training starts, and you're going to need all your strength...\" David hesitated, then added \"Yosuke-sensei is a tough teacher.\"\nWithout a moment's warning, the cub leapt to his feet and sprinted over to where David was now standing as he started to leave the room. The young cub tugged on the doctor’s lab coat “Dr Aldrich, I need to tell you something super important.\" David kneeled down to the cubs height, and before he could ask what the small wolf wanted, Orion wrapped his arms around the doctors chest pushing his muzzle into his shirt \"Thank you Dr Aldrich...\" the cubs muffled thanks came as he buried his muzzle deeper into the doctors shirt in embarrassment. For a moment, David couldn't process the situation. While Orion had a great deal of respect for the doctor, it was rare the cub exhibited truly loving behaviour towards him. To the wolf, David was just a teacher, and a friend, not really a parent figure, so the cub hadn't hugged the doctor at least not since he was very young, and just doing it out of reflex. As time caught up with them, the doctor placed a hand on the cubs head and ruffled his white headfur, clearing his throat, \"You're very welcome, Orion.\" Quickly though, David rose to his feet as the cub’s grip slowly released him from his embrace. The young wolf's blue sapphire eyes studied the doctor as he turned quickly to leave. David offered a quick wave and a parting \"jaa ne\" as the door closed behind him.\nOrion stood by the room's closed door. His mind replaying the whole encounter again and again, subconsciously checking for any mistakes he may have made. He could tell the doctor was bothered by something, he could feel it the moment the doctor had walked in, but he couldn't place the meaning behind it, and he wouldn't dare ask. The wolf cub, although young in years, was very sharp. He could easily identify the authenticity of someone's emotions, and he could instantly tell that the doctor was hiding something. \nThe young cub dismissed these bad thoughts, swatting them away with a paw, determined not to spoil his good mood after the great news he’d been told. But as he turned away from the door to pad slowly back towards his bed, he paused, his mind replayed the scene where David stood up and left the room moments ago. The cub suddenly realised, he could have sworn he had seen tears in the doctor’s eyes.\n\n[center][B]* * *\nChapter Two[/B][/center]\nOrion had stretched himself on top of his queen-size bed. He was lying on his back with his head propped up against the headboard, a thick novel entitled 'Last in Command' clenched in paw. The slim twelve-year-old was clothed head to paw in what could only be described as black tactical attire. These cloths resembled something similar to what a Special Forces officer might wear, but it was nothing like those currently worn by soldiers or police in this country. The cub's unusual attire was made from a wearing cargo type fabric, almost form-fitting in shape, but it still moved easily with him. Knee and elbow pads sat atop of his shirt and pants, a tactical vest littered with numerous pockets and pouches hugged his chest snugly. \nWithout looking away from his book, the small cub loosened the Velcro strap of an empty gun holster that was strapped firmly to his right thigh. He'd been using this type of holster for only a few months now. The institute had been favouring issuing just the one particular type of pistol to him lately, this holster had obviously been designed to fit only that particular make of weapon. It wasn't as comfortable as his last one.\nThe holster wasn't the only thing bothering him. Since waking up Orion had felt distracted and somewhat off beat. The cub knew he had awoken too early, and being unable to get back to sleep, he'd just gotten up, had a shower and dressed into his tac-gear. He quickly realised that getting dressed that early was also a miscalculation on his part. In hindsight, he'd have much rather have just sat around in his boxer shorts all morning. 'Tsk...' Orion clicked his tongue in irritation. He'd been reading the same sentence about six times now; clearly he couldn't focus on the story anymore. The young wolf had been excited by the concept of a new 'off-base' mission since he'd heard about it at yesterday’s briefing. It seemed like a suitable gift in his eyes, and just in time for his twelfth birthday.\nThere was a loud knock on the door, a familiar Russian voice called out loudly through the heavy wood. \"Ten minutes to wheels up. Put on boots. Get things. Time to go.\" The cub grinned, he should have known if he left things to the last minute, the Russian would come get him. He shrugged to himself. The way he figured it, it was worth pissing him off a little in order to get a little extra reading in, and it certainly beat standing around outside in the cold waiting for him. \nThe cub swung his legs over the bed and pulled on his new boots. These had been a present from his instructor. Well, probably. Orion wasn't completely certain if the Russian had actually had these boots made at his own request, or if the institute had just asked him to give them to the cub. The unusual foreigner had only offered a very vague explanation consisting simply of, \"Here, birthday present for you\" before dropping these boots at the cub's feet and wandering off to light yet another cigarette. [I]Heh, [/I] thought Orion. That was his instructor to a tee, never big on the details.\nDespite who was ultimately responsible for having them come into being, Orion loved his new boots, and they were practically a work of art. They were completely custom-made, designed to fit only him. Made of tough black leather and some kind of light weight composite that reinforced some areas, they didn't look like they would break or scuff up easily. Each boot was even ventilated in parts of the padding on the sides and on the front. This probably also served as added protection from strike damage on those areas during combat. \nThe boots came most the way up the cub's calf and were held in place by large Velcro straps. Orion especially liked the bottom part of these boots; they weren't like normal human shoes, and they were custom moulded to fit the shape of each of his foot paws. They had even stylized the black moulding to look like the wolf's foot paws themselves. Where each of the wolf's claws would be, the boots mimicked this with an exaggerated two inch knife-like non retractable blade that extruded from each toe to form makeshift 'metal claws'. These 'claws' looked incredibly sharp to the cub, part of the reason he didn't want wear his boots on the bed. He wasn't even game to touch them with an ungloved paw.\nThe cub jumped up onto his feet, the boots felt good. With a grin, he strode over to the room's door, an evacuation diagram screwed into the wood. It was just simple map with the words 'Evacuation Route - The Residence' printed above it. The cub must have read this map a thousand times. [I]Always know your exits, [/I] that's what was drilled into him by his instructor. Orion supposed this was good advice. You never knew when you'd have to get out fast, and it helped to memorize these things. He'd made a habit of committing things like this to memory.\nThe cub yanked the door open. Before him stood the familiar towering solute of his Russian weapons and tactics trainer Alec Mikal, an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth as he wore his usual unimpressed grimace. \nWith just one look at Alec you could tell he came from a somewhat dark military background. He was an ex-Russian spetsnaz officer and someone who'd obviously seen a lot of action during that time. The now sixty one year old Russian still hid his age well though. Alec stood easily over six foot tall, his hairline was well receded and met only a patch of short spiky black hair on the top of his head. His arms were like tree trunks, even hidden under his dark t-shirt you could tell that he was incredibly well built. Spend enough time with him and you would soon come to realise that Alec's body had also paid the toll for his years of service to the Russians. The most prominent damage, a gunshot wound he sustained to his left leg, had secured his discharge from Russian special forces at age thirty nine. It left him with a slight limp when he walked, and a sour attitude that lingered.\nAfter leaving Russia, Alec had quickly transitioned into a life of instructing at special force academies around the world. He was well in demand too, it was understood throughout the international community that all of the students this old Russian instructed turned into some of the best in the business.\nGiven his unique background in specialist training, it was easy for people involved to understand why the Ministry of Defence in Japan had moved mountains to get Alec onto Okushiri and make him a part of the Orion Project shortly before Orion had turned ten. When the wolf and Alec were first introduced, the Russian had been surprised at first, as anyone would be, but by only the second day, thought no different of the small cub than any other student he'd taught. [I]Unlimited untapped potential.[/I] That's how he'd described Orion in his report on the first day. Alec was as interested to see if the wolf could out-perform a human out in the field.\n\"You're late\" slurred Alec in his usual broken English, his accent was still as strong as the day he left Russia \"You were suppose to be on landing pad BEFORE aircraft landed, not still be in bed like tired little girl.\" The wolf just shrugged up at the large figure, unfazed by the Russian's words \"I'm ready now aren't I? ...And there is still six minutes before dust off.\" The young wolf retorted, folded his arms \"Besides, it only takes four and a half minutes to reach the landing pad from my room via elevator if we walk, three if I sprint the stairs\". The old Russian grinned down and replied \"You're twelve....but somehow you are bigger pain in ass then before... Come, aircraft is waiting.\" Alec paused for a second, looked the cub up and down before turning away to lead the way towards the elevator adding \"You look good in new boots.\"\nOrion grinned to himself, it took a lot to impress his instructor, and he rarely made any comment about the wolf's appearance unless he was not up to his grooming standard. The wolf figured even if these special boots weren't from Alec, this Russian must have at least had some input about the design to make a comment like that out of the blue.\nOrion and Alec boarded the hotel elevator at the end of the hall, the doors closing quickly behind them. As the lift descended downward to the ground level the Russian stopped chewing on his unlit cigarette for a moment, as if deeply contemplating something. \"Malen'kiy volk, I have question.\" began Alec suddenly without once looking away from the closed elevator doors in front of him. \"Do you ever get urge to just howl at moon?” The cub's ears twitched, he knew his too instructor well. Alec liked to ask questions he didn't really care about the answer to. He'd always start such a line of questioning with the condescending address of 'Malen'kiy volk', which roughly translated to 'Little Wolf' in Russian. Alec greatly enjoyed belittling the cub's size openly, which is why he translated the Russian phrase to English when the small wolf had first asked him what it meant two years ago. \nOrion flicked an ear again, but maintained his composure. He refused to look up at the Russian. With a sneer, the cub replied \"Hey Alec, do you ever get the urge to not be an asshole?\"Alec let out a hefty laugh and replied \"Da, however only on day off\". The cub went to retort at him again, but the elevator doors opened. They were on ground floor, it was time to move.\nWithout another word between them, the Russian stepped out of the lift and began to cross the miniature lobby towards The Residence's front doors. Orion followed close behind, the new rubber soles of the cub’s boots squeaked loudly as they both crossed the white tiled floor. In the distance Orion's sensitive ears could just barely make out the faint thumping of aircraft rotors. Their ride was here.\nThe Russian looked at his watch as he strode along the lobby floor. 05:27. They were still within the set timeframe. The old Russian grinned to himself, this cub really had memorised the time it took to get downstairs. He was learning quickly. Effortlessly, Orion's instructor pushed open the two glass lobby doors that lead into the still dark outside world. \nNo longer protected by the sound proof doors and walls of The Residence, right away Orion was immersed in the deafening sound of large aircraft turbine engines running at idle speed. It sounded like a machine gun firing into the air. The temperature around the wolf had also rapidly dropped, easily now 30 degrees colder than before, the cub felt a shiver run though him. Even with all his fur and all his clothes, it was still damn cold outside. It had even been snowing for a short while before, but it just wasn't quite cold enough for it to take hold on this island.\nOrion stepped out into the dark courtyard, Alec walking close behind him, furiously attempting to get a light on his cigarette. There was a faint glow of sunlight on the horizon, but not enough to provide any really useable light. Only the lights on either side of the path towards the helipad illuminated anything around them. The wolf yawned, it was still so early and he'd stayed up far too late.\nEven though it was still dark out, Orion could tell the sky all around was crystal clear, there wasn't a cloud anywhere in sight. Probably explains why it was so cold. The cub squinted at the sky as he walked along the concrete path. The stars had already faded from view, abandoning the sky to make way for the fast approaching dawn. The wolf shivered again. It was really damn cold.\nAhead of them, at the end of the small path loomed the dark grey silhouette of the institute's V-22 tilt rotor. It was illuminated only by the dim red landing lights that surrounded the helipad and the intermittent flashes of the tilt rotor's white navigation strobes that lit up the aircraft like lightening every few seconds. The two massive engines pointed straight up at the dark sky, both rotors pummelling the air relentlessly, even at idle speed. The short dark grass that surrounded the helipad thrashed back and forth as the air currents punished everything that got too close to the enormous rotor’s downwash.\nThe cub squinted his eyes closed as he neared the aircraft at the end of the path. The turbulent air now thrashed around him, his exposed face fur whipped against his eyes making him squint harder. He wished he'd brought his shooting goggles. The heavy hand of his instructor touched the wolf's shoulder from behind, which prompted a jerk from the cub, not expecting the contact. Alec leaned close to the young cubs ear \" You are arctic wolf right? You can't be cold. Hurry up, you have one hundred twenty seconds to board aircraft\" The Russian had to yell to be heard over the immense rotor noise. The wolf nodded in reply, but didn't look back at his instructor. \nLeaving Alec behind, Orion broke into a slow jog towards the noisy aircraft, less than fifty feet away now he felt heavy vibrations surround him. The monstrous engine noise thumped through the young wolfs chest. The sound of the rotors now at its most deafening as the tiny cub jogged past one the aircrafts engines that towered over him. Orion, eager to get away from the wind and noise, ran up the small set of fold down steps on the side of the aircraft and entered the fuselage of the tilt rotor.\nEven with the door still open, the inside of aircrafts fuselage was much quieter. The cub glanced quickly around the unfamiliar aircraft in an attempt to get a layout of his new surroundings. It was fairly dark inside the V-22, with the whole interior of the tilt rotor cabin was only illuminated by a small number of faint red LED lights. Having just come from darkness of outside, the young wolfs eyes rapidly adjusted to the red ambiance, but it was still quite hard to make everything out clearly.\nEmpty jump seats lined both walls of the aircraft, with light green aircraft headsets that hung loosely above each seat on straps. A closed ramp at the back of the aircraft made up the back wall of the tilt rotor, yellow and black warning markings and the words KEEP CLEAR scrolled all around it. Against the forward bulkhead, a massive flat screen TV and a single jump seat mounted next to it. There was also a closed door that leads further forward, which Orion fancied probably accessed the cockpit.\nHaving surveyed his surroundings, the young cub picked out a jump seat halfway down the line of the seats on the left hand side of the aircraft. The seat was positioned next to a small window that offered a somewhat limited view of outside. With the sky still dark, there wasn't much of anything to see beyond the flash of navigation strobes lighting up the wing over and over, but it was better than just staring at the inside of the tilt rotor the whole flight. \nSitting down with a thud inside the dark cabin, the wolf let out a deep breath and folded his arms close to his chest trying to warm himself. Orion had anticipated he was going to feel nervous, it was to be expected before an operation, but he still found it difficult to manage the feeling of fear and anticipation that bounced around in his stomach relentlessly. While it wasn't unusual for the cub to not be told about the location and purpose of his training in advance, this was the first time he was going officially off-base, and in the institutes' expensive tilt rotor of all things. \nThe idea of leaving the base both excited and scared the cub. Wherever they were headed, he knew it probably wasn't on the island or they would have just driven him down there. It seemed logical to the small wolf that is was a fairly substantial operation being undertaken by the institute. This aircraft must have been expensive to utilise, and if they have chosen to use it, they must be sending him further than just the island or the very edge of the mainland. The fact they were taking the young wolf off base at all was a giant step forward in his mind, he must have been performing well so far to deserve this. \nA loud slam and a sudden drop in the ambient noise inside the fuselage caused the cub to snap out of his wandering thoughts and sit upright. Alec had stepped inside the aircraft, pulling the door closed behind him. The cub imagined the Russian had likely stayed outside a little longer trying to light his cigarette, but the rotor wash had made that impossible. The young wolf grimaced at that thought. His instructor was going to be in a strange mood for the whole fight now.\nNo sooner had the Russian slumped down in the lone jump seat at the front of the aircraft, the cub suddenly felt the roar of the engines. The vibration inside the fuselage was intensified. It felt like the aircraft was trying to vibrate itself to pieces at its huge engines screamed. The goliath like rotor blades assaulted the air outside in an onslaught to gain lift for the heavy aircraft. \nThe tilt rotor lifted off into the still dark and cold morning sky. The cub’s stomach sank as he felt the aircraft leave the ground. It wasn't that he was afraid of flying; in fact he'd had to do several parachute jumps out of one of the helicopters they kept on the neighbouring army base some months ago. He'd found jumping out scary the first time, but he'd starting having fun quickly as he got the hang of it. \nThe young cub still hesitated; the V-22 was so much bigger and louder than a small helicopter. It vibrated like nothing the young wolf had ever experienced. He also knew this beast of an aircraft could fly a hell of a lot higher and faster than the helicopter could too, so he'd be lying if he said that it didn't scare him just a little. \nA bright flash from the front of the aircraft caught the cub's eye and made him squint. Orion looked away from the small window towards the source of the uncomfortably bright light. Alec was blinking a small but very powerful flashlight at the wolf in an attempt to get his attention in the impossibly noisy environment. The Russian put down the light and tapped the headset he was wearing over his ears, and then pointed at the cub indicating the wolf to put his on as well. Orion looked up, a headset swung above his head. He'd completely forgotten about it. He reached up and pulled on the headset down with sharp tug, it released easily from the strap that held it up above him and fell into his paws. The wolf pulled the awkwardly shaped headset down over his pointy ears the best he could. Unlike his boots, this headset certainly hadn't been designed with his anatomy in mind. Surprisingly, even though it fit quite poorly the headset still halved the noise inside the aircraft for the cub. It was a relief\nNo sooner had the cub finished donning the headset than he heard a loud mechanical whine begin to screech though the aircraft cabin. The little cub flicked his eyes to look out the window again, trying to locate the source of the sound in the low light. He immediately found a grin begin to creep onto his muzzle. This was this aircrafts most impressive feature by far. Even in the darkness, he could see the two massive rotors were now beginning to tilt forward to face the front of the aircraft to create massive props in order to increase forward airspeed. Orion had decided to read about the V-22 when he learned the institute had acquired one some months ago. The cub recalled a book he'd read about it which said that this aircraft could cruise at up to five hundred kilometres an hour with ease; it had a range of over one thousand six hundred kilometres, too. It could hover like a helicopter and land anywhere, but it could also cruise as fast as a plane and get you places quickly. When the wolf learned that all this was all possible due to tilting of the rotors, he had really wanted to see it in action first hand. Sure, the book had pictures and diagrams of the way everything worked, but seeing them move up close and in action was nonetheless impressive to the still young cub.\nAs the rotors finally locked into their forward facing position, a click from the speakers in his headset made the cub look away from the window again. \"Ok, we start briefing now\" The Russians voice came though the headsets tinny speakers almost comically. Alec was now standing up the front of the tilt rotor beside the flat screen, one hand holding onto a roof strap above him to steady himself in the rough air. The TV next to him suddenly glowed to life, displaying a map of the whole of Japan and a few highlighted areas. \nThe Russian now grinned towards the cub sitting only a few meters away from him, he was clearly excited about the exercise. In his hand Alec held what looked like a telescopic antenna, some kind of improvised pointer and then traced against the TV screen as he started talking. \"We are here\" he pointed to a small arrow which was slowly moving away from an island mass on the digital map that said 'Okushiri'. Orion concluded quickly that this arrow must illustrate their aircraft's current position and heading. [I]So we are leaving the island, I knew it, [/I] the cub thought to himself with a little satisfaction of having guessed correctly.\n\"Approximately forty minutes flight time we will reach training target site here\" the Russian continued, now pointing to a small red dot south east of their position deep in the mainland. The red dot flashed inside an area labelled [I]Iwate Prefecture[/I] on the map. The TV then suddenly changed to display an enlarged satellite image the area Alec had indicated to, and began to zoom in. \"Target insertion point 150 meters from primary kill box. You will perform low altitude aerial insertion and land here.\" Alec tapped his pointer on the screen then traced it upwards to a set of buildings shown just above the landing area. \"You proceed east north east, engage hostile targets and reach here, office building of designation Tango One\" The Russian then pointed to building in the middle of the cluster then retracted his telescopic pointer looking back at the cub while placing it in one of his vests many breast pockets. \"You eliminate Tango One. He'll be on top floor. Shoot in head, he is just dummy, it will make you feel better.\" The Russian grinned wider, but the young wolf just listening intently with a serious expression. \"On completion of objective, egress from building, proceed to LZ, pop green smoke and rendezvous with this aircraft, designation Overseer One for extraction, Understood?\" Alec concluded.\nOrion just nodded once in reply. The Russian seemed satisfied with the simple response and turned to grab some equipment that was strapped against the wall. Orion was well use to these types of briefings. It was the usual 'get in, go kill something, get out' explanation, but this time with an aircraft in play and a much larger training area to work in. There wasn't really a lot more he could ask about. If the Russian wasn't saying something, it probably meant he didn't want the cub to know.\nAlec pulled off his headset and walked over to where the cub was sitting. He handed the wolf what looked like a large backpack. \"Put on parachute.\" the instructor yelled, fighting to be heard over the deafening rotor noise without his headset.\nThe wolf dropped the headset off, and the loud drone of the engines attacked his ears once more as he did. Getting up, the young cub awkwardly pulled the heavy parachute bag over his shoulders as Alec watched on. \"Don't mess up parachute or you'll die.\" The Russian yelled with a familiar idiotic grin. The cub shot him a death stare. He knew Alec liked to mess with him anytime he could, but he wished he wouldn't say things like that before he had to jump out of an aircraft.\nThe cub adjusted the last parachute strap across his chest, and Alec nodded at him in approval. The Russian wasn't so reckless as to just let some kid, wolf or not, put on a critical lifesaving device all by himself without at least a bit of adult supervision.\nLooking the cub up and down, his instructor then pulled a handgun out from his waistband under the back of his shirt and offered it to the wolf. [I]H&K USP .45 [/I]\"12 rounds in mag, all rubber type so you don't kill my guys.\" said Alec with a smirk. As Orion took the weapon from him, the Russian added \"Confirm weapon clear, safety on\". \nHe didn't need to be reminded. As if by instinct, as soon as he took the gun from Alec's hand, the cub immediately ejected the magazine and checked it, quickly inserting it back into the pistol. [I]12 Rounds. [/I]In one fluid motion he pulled the slide back slightly, eyed the breach, decocked the hammer and set the safety again. [I]Nothing in the chamber. [/I]\"Clear and safe\" announced the cub only just loud enough to be heard over the whirr of the engine noise. Alex nodded again in agreement with the cub’s findings, but said nothing back. The Russian just turned and wandered back to his lone seat at the front of the V-22.\nOrion holstered his newly issued weapon in his leg holster as his instructor left. The cub dropped back down into his own seat with a thud, the bulky parachute bag he now wore prevented him from being able to lean back in his seat. Attempting to find a comfortable way to sit now, the wolf lent forward and folded his arms again. He was still uncomfortable.\nHe stared off at the empty jump seats across the way from him. The young cub's mind began to wander as he considered what he'd been told in the briefing, mulling it over. This was clearly the usual 'assassination with significant resistance' type of training operation, nothing new except for the aircraft and the outside setting. That aside, Orion could sense that Alec wasn't giving him the whole story either, he never did, the Russian liked to test the young cub to see how well he could improvise when things changed during a mission. [I]There is definitely a catch with this one. [/I]\nA heavy hand on the wolf's shoulder startled him. The wolf snapped his head to find that Alec had stealthily moved up the cabin again and was now sitting next to Orion with wearing his usual stupid grin. \"You're daydreaming. I could have killed you seven times since take off Malen'kiy volk\" sneered the Russian. \"That would have helped, too.\" He pointed towards something at the rear of the aircraft. Orion followed his finger with his gaze, his eyes searching the fuselage for what Alec was pointing at. [I]The exit ramp? But it’s closed. The fire extinguisher on the wall? Something he wasn't seeing? [/I]A sudden pressure on the back of the wolfs neck made him jump up forward out of his seat and immediately take up a defensive stance now six feet opposite the Russian. \"Eight\" shouted the Russian triumphantly with a laugh \"You drop your guard too easily among friends, malen'kiy volk. I could have killed you now eight times\". \nThe young wolf lowered his fists slightly, his blue eyes burning holes in his instructor \"You're an asshole Alec\". The Russian simply raised a hand to his ear as if to signify he couldn't hear the small cubs retaught. After a moment, Alec looked down at his watch .He got up out of his newly acquired seat, walking past the wolf towards the back of the aircraft. The wolf instinctively took a step back from him as Alec walked past. The cub kept his eyes trained sharply on his instructor, anticipating another surprise attack.\nBut his instructor had no further ambition to test the wolf's defences. Once Orion was on his guard, he knew that it would be impossible to trick him again in the same way. Instead the Russian pressed his thumb into a flush mounted button on a switch box at the back of the aircraft. \"Time to go\" he yelled as the high pitched whine of hydraulic motors were now added to the cabin noise. \nGradually, the rear ramp of the V-22 began to open, the icy cold wind flooded into the fuselage. The cub dropped his defensive stance as if defeated by the cold air that now whipped at his body. The wolf's paws fell to his side as he watched on anxiously while the ramp opened to reveal the outside world. A new world beyond their little island. \nThe sky outside had gotten lighter, and it had quickly become dawn during their short flight. The morning light now stretched its way over the untouched white snow covered hills. Fog still hung low over the ground like thick clouds. As quickly as something came into sight from the back of the slowing aircraft, it fell away into the white mist as if it was being erased from the earth. The small cub watched on in awe, he'd never seen a view such as this. \nOrion's appreciation for the scenery was short lived, his Instructor suddenly yelling at him. \"Jump in twenty seconds! Try not to die, you'll make me look like bad instructor!\" The cub nodded at the Russian, Orion closed his eyes and counted down.\n[I] 19. [/I] The young wolf draw in a deep breath, the icy air filled his lungs, it felt cold but it was invigorating, like splashing ice water on your face in the morning. [I]14. [/I] He felt his neck stiffen up. It was a low altitude drop, he would need to account for the very short free fall and then pull his 'chute, he couldn't miss the timing by a second. [I]10. [/I]The insertion point was a small target to hit, he'll need to nail the approach or it'd be over before it stated. [I]7. [/I] It'd be a quick one hundred meter run from the LZ to the first building, and he'd be in the open for that time, so he'd need to be ready to take off as soon has his boots hit the snow. [I]4. [/I] The cub closed his paws into tight fists. [I]One chance to nail it, don't mess it up. 2. [/I] The cub opened his eyes, and the light from the outside blinded him momentarily as he struggled to adjust the increasing brightness. He was focused on the exit ramp now, with everything else just background noise to him. 1. \nThe V-22's jump alarm buzzed loudly, the green signal light mounted to the roof above the ramp suddenly glowed to life. The cub sprinted forward towards to the exit without a moment's hesitation. He'd run only a few steps before he felt the metal ramp fall away from under his boots as he leapt into the cold air. The V-22 disappeared above him. The fog bellow looked like a soft pillow just waiting to catch him. He was flying.\n\n[center][B]* * *\n\nChapter Three[/B][/center]\nThe small wolf panted hard, attempting to catch his breath. He felt the cold air that chilled him as it threatened to freeze his lungs each time he breathed it in. Several tall decaying buildings surrounded him, concealed only by heavy wisps of the low lying fog. To his left was the main structure, his target. A series of eight or so desolate buildings linked to each other by enclosed tunnel like walkways. At the furthest edge of the complex, two enormous spires pierced the foggy sky. They dipped in and out of sight as the mist rolled on, unused chimneys whose purpose had long since been forgotten.\nThe cub leaned his back up against the decaying bleach white wall, the first building in a row of three off to one side of the main complex. Light snow-covered shrubbery growing close to the structure gave little concealment, offering the cub no safe refuge to fully recover his strength. It'd been harder to run in the snow than Orion had first thought. It was deeper than it looked, it took twice the effort to cover the same amount of ground, and it was far slower than moving through grass. \nThe wolf had been in the open now for longer than he wanted, just trying to make it to the first building for cover had taken far too long in this snow. He knew his position wasn't safe, being open to attack from several different approaches to his position. From the second he'd hit the ground, the young wolf could sense there were people all around him, concealed by the fog, but all watching. While they remained hidden from sight, he could still sense the enemy, feel their fear, their anticipation, he could tell they all wanted to pounce on him, and end this mission before it started.\n Damn the wolf thought. They had been expecting him. While that wasn't unreasonable to imagine this fact considering the training nature of the mission, they also appeared to know exactly where he was going to land and where he would likely run to for cover in the moments that followed. [I]Tsk... that damn Russian had told them way too much[/I] the cub thought to himself angrily. [I]This whole thing is set up like one big trap. [/I]\nSurprisingly, not a single shot had been exchanged between the wolf and his foes hiding in the fog. Orion imagined that his adversary had been told to stay hidden and to give the cub a count in, a period of time before they would be allowed to attack him. This was a critical moment for the wolf, he knew had to re-establish the enemies position quickly and formulate a plan where he would only have to confront a few of them at a time. If he got pinned down by too many enemies at once, it would be incredibly difficult to escape unharmed, it could even cost him the whole mission. The cubs blue eyes burned with determination, this situation wouldn't get the better of him. \nThe wolf drew his firearm from his leg holster and chambered the first round with a click. His thumb claw flipped off the safety as he grasped the USP with both paws, carful to keep his finger off the trigger. [I]12 rounds. No spare magazine [/I] He chanted to himself. There was no margin for error here. [I]I need to get out of sight. There is no use in finding good cover out here if I just get pinned down in the end. [/I]The wolf's eyes flicked around, studding the building behind him. There was a broken window just to his right, not too far off the ground, large enough from him to fit though. [I]It's not the building with the target in, but it's better than being out in the open [/I]the cub thought confidently.\nThe white canine peered around the edge of the window frame. Just an empty room, he couldn't see anyone else inside. [I]Good. [/I] He hoisted himself up onto the window frame and dropped inside the rotting room with a dull thud. Broken wooden furniture littered the dirty floor. He sniffed the air, it smelt musty, wet, like wood rotting, but he couldn't smell anyone else close by. [I]So far, so good[/I] he thought. [I]One door in and out of this room though, it's a bottle neck, I need to keep moving. [/I] \nOrion moved his way out of the room and into a wide empty hallway. Just like the room, it was littered with broken furniture and rocks. The canid's gun was aimed at the floor in front of him as he moved. Rubber bullets or otherwise, if he shot someone in the head at close range in here he would likely kill them. He needed to be careful, these were only soldiers that were here to assist with his training mission, and he didn't want to kill them. That would cause trouble for his instructor.\nHe carefully advanced along the hallway, the young cub placing one boot quietly in front of the other attempting to make as little noise as possible as he moved down the corridor. Every few steps he would pause, checking behind him to ensure he wasn't being shadowed by an enemy. The hallway was empty behind him, but it did little to assure him he wasn't being monitored at a distance.\nThe wolf froze in his tracks, he'd moved maybe fifty meters down the hall from his entry point. He could sense someone was ahead, waiting. He concentrated, focusing on the very edge of his hearing range. He could just make out shallow breathing. [I]It's slow and controlled, whoever it is, is trying to conceal their presence... twelve meters ahead. [/I]The young canine considered his options, ahead was a trap, but it was also likely that the enemy had closed off his escape behind him with forces still outside the building. [I]How much time before they finish the count and start shooting? No choice, I have to move. [/I]\nThe cub holstered his weapon and without another moment’s consideration, he sprinted in the direction of the breathing. No sooner than the wolf started running, a tall figure appeared in the hallway blocking his path; the silhouette of a soldier carrying a machine pistol. Orion recognised the shape at once; he dropped to the ground in the last two meters using his momentum to slide towards the silhouette as it raised its weapon at the young canine. In only the split second that passed between the start of his slide and meeting his target, the cub kicked out the soldier’s leg with his heavy boot, knocking the man off balance and causing him to fall forward. Time slowed down for Orion. The cub used the soldier's fall to his advantage, reaching up and grabbing the soldier's weapon which he held tight in both hands. The wolf halted his horizontal slide along the ground and heaved himself upwards towards the man using the soldier’s weapon as a pivot point. He used the momentum as the soldier fell to hoist his much lighter body up from the ground, up and behind the man to follow the soldiers fall downward from behind him.\nThe soldier hit the ground and an instant later the confident white wolf had planted a knee on the man's back drawing his weapon in one fluid motion and placing it to the back of the soldiers head. \"Bang\" the canine announced with a grin, \"You guys are going to have to be faster than this if you want to stop me.\" The downed soldier remained motionless and said nothing. Just like all the training at the NIAMS, soldiers that assisted with these types of exercises had been taught to 'play dead' during a training mission if 'shot', even if no real round were fired at them. This signified a clean kill, and prevented accidents with rubber rounds.\nOrion, still kneeling on the soldiers back reached down beside the man and picked up the machine pistol that soldier had let go of. \"An MP7, huh? Wow they give you guys some good guns\" The cub spoke aloud to himself but directed the comment at the 'dead' soldier on the ground. Holstering his USP, the cub stood up and ejected the MP7's magazine and cleared the chamber. \n\"You won't need this anymore\" the wolf quipped as he tossed the soldiers gun out of one of the many high windows that lined the hall. Then, for some reason, one he didn't even really understand, the canine just happened to look at the ejected magazine in his paw before tossing it. Orion stopped mid throw, there something was odd about what he'd seen. He looked closer at the magazine, his blood turned ice cold in his veins and his paw began to tremble a little as he carefully ejected a strange looking round from the magazine he'd obtained. He'd seen these bullets million times before on the gun range at the NIAMS. This was a live round, it wasn't rubber, or some kind of blank; it was a real bullet. He pushed a few more rounds out of the magazine, all the same deadly type, they clattered the onto the dirty, rock covered floor\nThe cub's horrified gaze now fell on at the soldier still laying face down on the ground. The man was breathing shallow to appear dead. He'd been trained well, whoever he was. The wolf threw the mostly empty MP7's magazine on the ground next to the dead soldier, who didn't so much as flinch as it clattered next to him. The cub squeezed a single round he still held in his paw, it dug into his pads as his eyes burned with a deep blue fury. [I]Why am I being shot at with live ammunition? [/I]\nThe cub screwed up his muzzle in frustration. There wasn't time to interrogate this man, he was for all intents and purposes, a just corpse. Orion knew the soldier wouldn't respond even if he asked him to explain himself. [I]I bet this was Alec's stupid idea [/I]thought the wolf as he squeezed the round even tighter in his paw. The canid shoved the live round into his pants pocket. He was going to ask that damn Russian to explain this to him later. \nThe wolf redrew his USP and stepped over the soldier continuing down the hall at a quicker pace. A realisation suddenly hit him as he ran that made him stumble. If he hadn't stopped that soldier just a few minutes ago, he probably would have fired on the cub. Fired on him with live rounds. Rounds that were intended to kill. Orion felt his mouth go dry as he considered this possibility, his pace wavering as he felt his whole body tremble. His vision went a little fuzzy. The wolf shook his head trying to clear a growing feeling of dread that now began to overtake him. He knew he had to focus harder now, this wasn't just a training mission anymore, he was fighting people that could kill him, he couldn't afford to make even one mistake, one miscalculation. He was fighting for his life. \nThe young wolf emerged from the end of the buildings hallway, pausing at the exit to look around. The familiar chilling breeze from the outside world assaulted his face as he did. He wasn't protected by the building's walls anymore and the wind was picking up. Outside, the fog was being blown around, the cloud like substance swirling about the surrounding buildings, lapping at them like waves. The cub studied the swirling fog, it was impossible to see further than a hundred meters at best. Visibility dipped and then returned with each swirling cloud. \nHe knew his objective was ahead, picturing the building across the compound. He went to dash in its direction, but his legs refused to move. There was no way for him to know if he was being targeted in someone's crosshairs in the distance. Could they see him even if he couldn't see them? It was possible, if they had a thermal scope. But was he up really up against that kind of technology?\nA loud snap close by instinctively forced the cub to instantly flatten himself against the building; a close ricochet of a live round. Half a second later, he heard the shot. [I]A high power rifle? [/I] He half panicked, his head trying to catch up with the events unfolding around him. [I]No, that didn't sound right for a high power sniper, it sounded like a rifle, close by. [/I] That narrowed it down to an M4, a SCAR, or another MP7. Those were all Japanese special forces weapons, all firearms that could be scoped, and all capable of accommodating thermal technology. \nAnother loud snap, closer this time. The young canine considered everything he'd read, everything he'd seen on the range on the base. Facts whirled around in his head as he scanned for an answer. If they were sniping him with it, it was more likely to be an M4 that he was up against. They favoured that weapon for this kind of operation. [I]Ok, eighty percent chance it's an M4, and maybe it’s thermal. Work the problem. [/I]The wolf continued to analyse his situation. [I]5.56mm live rounds are being fired at me. [/I] If he made a run for it, it will likely create a clearer shot for the shooter. But something didn't add up. [I]These are special forces soldiers, they don't miss. They don't take shots unless they are going to connect, unless they are trying to trick me... [/I]\nThe cub concluded he was obviously in a place where they couldn't hit him cleanly, so soldiers were putting rounds into the wall to try and scare him out into the open or to get him to dig in until another force could flank him from behind. The young wolf gripped the USP tighter in his paws. It was also possible that they didn't have thermals at all and they could be blind firing at the glimpse they got of him through the fog when he first exited the building. The young canid decided it was time to test the theories. Either way, he couldn't remain pinned down in the building with a closing enemy. Another thick cloud of fog rolled by, lowering visibility even further. Without another moment's hesitation, he seized his chance, pushing off from the wall and sprinting into the open towards the main complex, keeping as low as he could.\nSixty meters later the wolf hit the closest wall of the main complex and slid around the corner of the buildings entryway into cover. Nothing, no rounds fired. The cub sighed with relief. The enemy couldn't be using thermals, or they would have taken a shot when he was in the open. It must have been fire aimed at the wall, a tactic to force him to dig in under fire until they could out flank him from behind. [I]Clever. [/I]\nThe wolf flattened himself against the wall and peeked around the corner. He saw nothing but swirling white. The small canine’s eyes scanned the clouds of fog that rolled along the ground around him. There was a small break in the white mist, revealing five figures dressed in Japanese Special Forces black tactical attire that were advancing on his last position about eighty meters in front of him. The approaching soldiers had weapons raised, but they weren't trained on the cubs hiding spot, instead they were scanning back and forth, moving towards his previous position. His new hiding spot hadn't been found yet, that was good. \nOrion watched as the figured approached, disappearing in and out of view as the fog rolled on in its never-ending swirling journey. One of the soldiers fired another round at the building they were approaching, another break in the fog, they were all carrying M4's. The cub swallowed hard, he knew he had one chance to even the odds, he'd have to fire at them in quick succession, each round would need to hit. It would take only a second for them to see his muzzle flash and return fire with pin point accuracy to where he was now hiding.\nThe young wolf breathed slowly, memorising the positions of each approaching enemy. Sixty Meters now, they were almost at the other building. Orion gripped the USP hard, then stepping half out from the safety of his wall to face his foes, he fired. Time seemed to almost stop as he fired his first round. The rubber bullet hit the first silhouette squarely in the back as he peered into the other building's entry way searching for the wolf. The second round missed its mark clipping the second soldier only in the shoulder as he began to turn. The third round was a direct hit into the second soldier’s chest. The third special forces member now started to bring his gun around to bear on Orion's position but the cub pulled the trigger first. The rubber round hit the solder squarely in the chest before he could get his finger on the M4's trigger.\nBy now the fourth and fifth soldiers had turned their weapons to face Orion, opening fire at the small cub’s position. The young canine fired off four more rounds in quick succession as he ducked back around the corner as an onslaught of bullets began to pummel the wall he now stood behind. The cub had lucked out. Two of his four rounds had hit the fifth soldier in the chest and stomach. It was just one opponent now, pounding the thick wall with those very real .22 calibre rounds.\nThe wolf stood with his back against the wall as bullets tore huge chunks of concrete out on the opposite side, just inches from where he hid. [I]Just a few more seconds. [/I]Suddenly the rain of bullets stopped. The faint sound of a firing pit hitting nothing reached the canid's ears. This was his chance. The soldier had made his first mistake, in his haste to suppress the target he'd expended his magazine and now had no allies to cover him while he reloaded. \nStepping out from behind the wall confidently, in the short three seconds it took the soldier to eject and reload his M4's with a new magazine, the young white wolf had extended his arm and fired two rubber rounds into the soldiers chest with only one paw. Satisfied with the result, the cub let his pistol drop to his side with a deep sigh of relief as the last soldier dropped to his knees and then fell face first into the snow that covered the ground. \nThe wolf payed the soldiers no attention though, instead he ejected and checked his USP's magazine angrily. As he thought, one round left, and one in the chamber makes two. The cub cursed under his breath. [I]I've used way too much ammunition on just five guys. [/I]Orion considered relieving the soldier of his weapon to make up the difference in fire power, but pushed the idea out of his mind as quickly as it came. He knew it's was against basic NIAMS training protocol to use an enemy’s weapon during a training exercise unless he was specifically authorized ahead of time. The cub bit his lip. These guys were using live ammo too, if he picked up one of the soldiers guns he's be firing lethal rounds at innocent Japanese soldiers just following orders. [I]Damn that Russian for putting me in the middle of this. [/I]\nThe wolf turned away from the 'dead' soldiers lying in the snow before him. He lifted himself up onto the empty windowless window ledge of the main complex he had taken cover against and peered inside. Nothing but an empty hall, just like the last building. He dropped to the ground inside the hall with a thud, and listened intently. No breathing, no footsteps, it was clear for now. The canines training had taught him to keep moving after a fire fight. The conflict would draw more enemy combatants to his last position, he needed to get far away from that area as possible and maintain the element of surprise over his foes. He hoped the fire fight had drawn the enemy away from his target, too, as he didn't have the ammo to confront a large force right now.\nOrion carefully advanced down the hallway of the main building, stepping around loose rocks and bits of broken furniture, moving as quietly but as quickly as possible. To his left, a broken stairway appeared inside a small alcove. [I]The target is on the top floor of this building. [/I] He began to make his way up the stairs, his gun trained above him, his eyes searching for any sign of movement above. The cub hit the first floor landing. [I]Looks clear, but there no point in exploring this floor to make sure, the target is still up one more fight, and I don't have the rounds to spare. [/I]\nThe white canine advanced up the final flight of stairs now nearing the top floor, but he hesitated again. There had been minimal resistance, why was no one fighting him off inside this building, were they all spread out too far throughout the complex? Why didn't they just concentrate their efforts on the target room? Just how many enemy personnel where there? None of this made sense to him. He shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. It wasn't something that he could do anything about right now, he would just have to improvise as things happened.\nThe cub’s boots crunched on the rocks at the top of the stairs as he stepped onto the third floor landing. Another empty hall, with nothing in either direction, just empty doorways and broken wood littering the floor. He sniffed the air. There was a faint scent coming from his right. Soldiers, two of them nearby. The wolf crouched as he entered the landing of the third floor, keeping low and gripping his pistol tight with two paws he crept slowly down the hall towards the source of the men's scent. \nThe canine lingered at a set of closed double doors, some of the only intact doors he'd seen in the whole complex. Straining his hearing and sniffing the air, the wolf concluded that there were definitely people inside the room. He weighted his choices hastily. It appeared there was only one way in and out of the room. It was likely whoever it was in there was on their guard after hearing that fire fight between him and those soldiers earlier and would expect him to attempt to enter it soon.\nWhoever was in there would also likely be expecting him to play it safe, to open the door slowly and peek in. Time to change it up thought the cub, with newfound confidence. [I]They expect me to come in quiet, so let's do what they won't expect. [/I]\nThe canine softly stood up, facing the middle of the door. With a hard kick, his boot broke both doors open with a loud crack. As the doors splintered open, the wolf brought his USP up to bear.\nThe room was quite large, empty accept for a desk that was positioned in the middle with a human dummy behind it. Immediately in the cub's line of sight was one soldier who was busy looking out of the broken window some several meters away from the door the wolf had just kicked in. In the instant that the door had been broken, the man had no time to react as the canid fired a rubber round into the soldier's back before he could turn around. The man immediately slumped over the window ledge feigning death.\nNo sooner than he'd fired his first round did the wolf hear movement to his side. He brought his aim around to face it, a blind spot to his left. Orion felt the gun ripped away from his paws as a second soldier stepped out from behind a broken wardrobe to his left and smacked the cubs USP out of his grip with a fast attack. Responding immediately the cub dodged the next two punch attacks the man threw in quick succession, following through by grabbing the soldiers arm on his second punch and delivering a sharp blow to the man's elbow with his other paw. As the soldier stumbled back the small canine delivered a blow to the man's solar plexus with a closed fist. The soldier bent forward trying to recover from the blow, but the wolf had already started his finishing move without a second wavering, bringing his leg around to roundhouse kick the man's head. \nThe soldier slumped to the ground, knocked unconscious by the cubs kick, but the canine didn't chance it. Grabbing his USP off the ground, he pointed it at the now unconscious man. The soldier didn't move, he was out cold. The wolf carefully surveyed the room. Checking for anyone else who could have been hiding, but there were few other places you could conceal a full grown man in such an open space. The soldier who had attacked him had picked out the only real spot, behind a dresser just to the side of the doorway, the perfect blind spot. Satisfied that the room was secure, the cub placed his gun against the head of the dummy that sat behind the desk in the middle of the room. He'd finally arrived as his assassination target. \nOrion's last gunshot echoed out inside the large empty space. The young wolf heard his bullet casing ping against the dusty floor and roll away as the dummy's temple took the rubber round through and through at such a close range. [I]Primary objective complete [/I]thought the wolf to himself satisfied as he looked down at the pistol in his hand, the slide was locked back indicating the last round in the magazine had been fired. \nThe cub released the slide and holstered his USP. An empty wasn't much use to him now. The canid looked around to room again, he needed to get out of here quickly, gun fire from the target room was bound to draw attention of any remaining forces and bring them running. Orion checked the entryway and sprinted out of the room back into the hall, his eyes scanning for anyone as he ran. He practically slid down the stairs as he raced to clear the building before anyone could enter to investigate. He halted as he hit the ground floor, sniffing the air before entering the lowest hallway. His nose told him that there was a faint hint of someone, but no one was particularly close by. He bolted to the right, heading to the far end of the passage, away from his original window entry point. The cub didn't want to risk the possibility of a guard having been placed at the window he had entered by. \nThe white canine reached the end of the empty corridor, stopping short. The outside world loomed beyond the doorway he stood before, the last building in the row was directly in front of him. The fog was still heavy enough outside to cut visibility to about a hundred meters, but that suited him well, it provided good exit cover.\nThe cub gazed at the vacant doorway, he wrinkled up his muzzle. This had all been too easy. There had been too little resistance in the main building. Leaving by such an obvious route like this could be a trap, but it was also the fastest way out, he'd have to chance it if he wanted to avoid being cut off from behind and every second he waited was another chance for the enemy to close in further.\nKeeping low, the wolf ducked out the door and ran to the cover of the wall of the next building. So far so good, but he couldn't make out much on either side of him, the fog rolled around in thick plumes. The landing zone was four hundred meters south east of his position, that was a long way to run out in the open with no cover even in the fog, and he couldn't see the LZ from here, he could get turned around and run straight into an enemy soldier.\nOrion poked his head around the side of the building, his eyes searching for adversaries hiding in the fog like before. There was nothing out there but endless white rolling mist. He could make out the two chimneys that towered into the sky, a marker for the end of the compound. Squinting harder, he could discern something distinct and dark on the maintenance catwalk mounted just above the top of the far chimney. [I]What was it? A bag? Something that had caught on the platform? No it was bigger than that... [/I]The cub's blood ran cold, a shiver travelled through him as he realised what he was looking at. He placed his back hard against the buildings wall. It was a sniper. The perfect position for one too, it could see the whole approach to and from the LZ. It was the ultimate high ground. The wolf was being hunted.\nThe canine was still safe enough, he hadn't been spotted yet. If he could make it to the tree line just before the landing area he'd be ok, but how was he going to get to that with a sniper looking right at the approach to it. The cub didn't have a radio so he couldn't redesignate the landing zone, and even if he could, there was no way that Alec would authorize landing the V-22 closer to him, that near to a sniper position. Past the tree line was still the best place to land the tilt rotor, that's why they must have chosen it. He just had to make it to the tree line. It'll take too long to go the long way around the compound, and there was also the risk of soldiers searching those boundaries. More ground to cover meant a greater chance of discovery.\nThe cubs mind raced, there was no cover for a direct approach, and no flank he could take that wouldn't bring him into the sight of the sniper before he hit the tree line. \"This is stupid\" announced the cub with a hiss to himself shifting his weight \"How the hell am I suppose to beat a special ops sniper when I'm running around in deep snow with tactical gear like some big black....\" his voice trailed off, a grin fell across his face as he felt familiar confidence fill him once again. The cub pulled the green smoke canister off his belt and lobbed it with all his might in the opposite direction of the tree line. The signal for mission complete. [I]Screw it. This stupid idea's worth a shot. [/I]\n[center][B]* * *[/B][/center]\n\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
プロジェクト：「オリオン」
PROJECT  :「ORION」

'A boy who wanted a brother. A nation that wanted a weapon.'



Foreword

Project:Orion is a story that I've wanted to write for a very long time. After a ten year hiatus from fiction writing, I finally decided to just sit down and get this long awaited story down on paper.

At this juncture I feel it's important that I give my readers fair warning about the nature of this story going in. Primarily; not only is this first writing project of this scale that I've ever undertaken, it is also my first real fictional work in a very long time, and therefore I'm sure I have become quite rusty with my good writing habits. Additionally, this work will at times touch on sensitive subjects throughout its development. These subject maters include 'coming of age' experiences between underage characters. While these are intended only to be innocent encounters to assist with character and plot development, more conservative readers may find these scenes and subject matters discomforting. If you are opposed to reading fictional works that touch on the age old topics of 'boys will be boys' or 'coming of age' type themes, then this story might not be relevant to your interests. I should also forewarn you all that this story resides in a universe that consists almost exclusively of human characters. If you're looking to read something that takes place in a wholly furry universe then this particular tale may not be to your liking.

As this story takes place in Japan, I have chosen to employ some simple Japanese expressions in some minor parts of my writing in order to complement certain character development and provide some cultural continuity within the narrative. I've specifically kept all Japanese phrasing very simple and easy to understand so you shouldn't need to run to Google translate to figure out this dialogue.

Finally, I'd like to thank my friends and my amazing editor for all of their support, encouragement and kind words that they have so generously offered throughout this project. I couldn't have done this without you guys.

For best formatting, please download the submission .doc file to view this story.


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Chapter One

David checked his watch under his white lab coat sleeve. 5:47. "It's ok, I still have plenty of time, I don't need to rush this". He placed his hand back on the black leather steering wheel of the SUV. It was early enough in the morning that there was next to no other traffic around on this small twisting island road, but the corners were sharp, and came up quick. Combinations that with a little too much speed, a misjudged corner could cost you dearly. David knew this better than anyone. He resisted the urge to speed up as he rounded the next bend.
Dr David Ashford Aldrich had lived on Okushiri going on seven years now. The island is quite a small one, about twenty three kilometres long and about ten wide. It sits around eighteen and a half kilometres off the west coast of Japan. It has very few roads and even fewer vehicles. There is only one major town on the island, and despite having schools and a hospital, there are only three major roads in and out of it. The majority of the traffic on inland roads this early in the morning was purely military, traffic David was used to passing on his way to and from his home on the North East side of the island. It was all mostly soldiers or intelligence offices on these roads, returning to work up the mountain at Japanese Defence-Force Army base on Mt. Kamui. He often noted that the soldiers on Okushiri were always well presented, clean shaven and obviously well looked after at home. David admired these people for being able to go home and sleep so soundly. He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept well, at least not since this project begun seven long years ago.
The doctor rubbed his eyes under his glasses and pushed his spectacles back up his nose. All these late nights... he was going to need stronger glasses soon. The clouds and fog hung low in the early morning sky, the roads wet from earlier rains, everything around him smelt damp. He flicked his cigarette ash out of the SUV's window, looking off into the clouds as he did. David couldn't help but feel a deep sadness wash over him. He'd known this day had been a long time coming, he had just hoped it would have arrived a little slower. He definitely wasn't ready for it. Maybe he never would be.
As he rounded the next bend, the gates to the military base appeared ahead. David leaned over to rustle through in his bag on the passenger seat for his ID. He pulled the SUV to a halt at a second set of gates slightly off to the right of the main gate, bringing the vehicle to a swift stop next to an armed military policeman already stepping out of a gatehouse. A bare chain link gate stood in front of his car, serving as the last line of defence before a large facility that loomed behind it, its bland concrete walls blending in with the grey of the morning sky. The gate was still dripping wet, it hadn't been heavy rain, but there had been enough that everything in sight was still soaked through. A large white sign attached the middle of one of the gates read 'National Institute for Advanced Medical Sciences - Okushiri', beneath it an embossed 'Restricted Area' spelled out in a threatening red. Each line of text on the sign had been translated into Japanese, just smaller kanji symbols beneath each word, useful for the local fisherman and their families on the island that didn't read or write English fluently. David guessed that every now and then a local might wander up this way, but he couldn't imagine why. There was nothing up here on this mountain but death.
"Your ID please sir" the guard leaned into the open window on the driver's side with an open hand extended, his expression emotionless and serious looking. Having located what he was searching for in his bag, David handed the guard a small red badge with his photo on it, attempting a weak smile while he did. The guard didn't seem impressed by David's attempt to be polite. Looking at the ID card in his hand, the guard read aloud, in almost an almost accusing tone; "Dr David Ashford Aldrich, Lead Researcher, CL Five". The guard looked at the photo on the card, then back at the doctor, then back at the card again, as if he doubted that the man before him was actually the person in the photo. David had never seen this guard before, he was probably new. The base seemed to constantly rotate its personnel with those based on the mainland with increasing frequency as of late. Without another word, the nameless guard placed the ID card on a small PDA he held in his other hand, and after a moment of studying the display intensely the gate in front of the David's SUV squeaked to the side, sliding slowly out of the way of his vehicle. "Have a nice day sir" the guard said without even so much as a change in expression, handing the ID card back with just a nod. David tried to offer another friendly smile but was met only with the guards turned back as he spun swiftly around and disappeared back into the warmth of the gate house. "Today is off to a great start" the doctor mused to himself. He rolled up his window driving past the gate and up the drive, parking in his preferred place close to the main building’s front door
Jeeze, seven years. This place never really changes, does it, David thought as he locked his car and headed for the lobby doors. He'd been coming to this lonely place for so long now, the only real changes he'd seen in its layout was the beginnings of a new construction site towards the far end of the campus grounds. The steel frame of a warehouse was now beginning to take a recognisable shape, although most of its form was still obscured, buried amongst cranes, piles of sand and the various construction machinery that littered the building site around it. He looked at his watch again. It was still in the young hours of Sunday morning, it seemed logical that no one was working on the site this early on a weekend.
Flicking his extinguished cigarette into the nearby garden, David pushed his way through the heavy revolving door into the monstrous lobby of the main NIAMS research building. His wet business shoes squeaked loudly on the polished green granite floor as he made his way inside. David never understood why the NIAMS had at some point decided to waste so much of this buildings lower space on such a huge lobby. The building was only fifteen stories tall, with an additional three sub levels residing below ground, essentially what you saw was what you got. In his mind, the lobby was just a huge waste of space that could have been better allocated for more much needed laboratories that were urgently required for the countless research projects the facility currently played host to. Besides, the building had already sacrificed its top two levels to office space. David felt the reasoning had always been strange, being attached to the military base meant that only those with clearance would ever see this building. He fancied that the person who designed the place was possibly aiming for a design that would impress visiting government officials. But other than General Munroe, the doctor couldn't remember ever having seen anyone from the government ever visit this place, at least not since he'd been here.
David turned his head slightly as he walked, adamant to stare out of the nearby floor to ceiling windows that lined the lobby’s walls. His scuffed black shoes continued to squeak loudly against the floor as he made his way slowly towards one of the elevators. The doctor’s pace was now intentionally slower than usual, he wasn't in a hurry, not now that he was actually here. He knew he was on the cusp of having to deliver undesirable news, the kind he knew that came with a hidden meaning underneath and beheld nothing short of a heavy price to pay. Worst of all, he knew others wouldn't see it that way. This was all just progress to them.
David pulled a hand out of the pocket of his lab coat and ran it through his short brown hair. Recently he'd had to try harder and harder to keep his overgrown fringe out of his eyes while he worked. 'Who had time for a hair cut these days?’ Wisps of grey had started to show recently on the thirty eight year old’s hairline, the cost of being a lead researcher, he supposed. David even fancied that the grey hair made him look more like a professor now. His six year old son liked to compare him to cartoon shows of mad scientists. David couldn't help but smile at that thought. 'Dr David Ashford Aldrich, Mad Scientist of the NIAMS.'
Outside the glass walls of the lobby, clouds still hung heavy in the sky, riding close to the tree line almost like a thick fog. It was impossible to see the ocean on a day like this. The sky was still dark, the sun extinguished by the impenetrable mass of opaque grey clouds, each threatening rain again before the day was through. The view of the rest of the campus grounds from this window was also somewhat obstructed by a large ten story building called The Residency. Another plain grey building that adjoined the main research centre by a single undercover walkway. David had slept at The Residency on many occasions in the early days of the project, when he was still working 20 hour days. The beds were very comfortable at least. Many staff said it was like a mini private four star hotel, although owned and operated by the NIAMS exclusively for its research staff.
When he had first started researching here, David had been quick to pick up on the fact that the majority of the research staff all lived in The Residency. They were not permitted to leave the campus because of the highly secretive nature of their research. Research was their now effectively these peoples entire lives. David huffed to himself as he starred at the building on the other side of the glass, 'Turns out the government doesn't much care for the idea of their top secret projects being leaked at the local bar when researchers go out drinking. They like to keep everyone on-site, nice and cosy, where they can monitor them'. The thought bothered him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He'd been the lucky one, with his leverage on the project David had been able to convince the key people at the Ministry of Defence to let him come and go from the campus as he pleased. It was a priceless benefit that allowed him to spend his nights at home with his son. Not that the Ministry had much choice in the matter, Dr David Aldrich was critical to the project's success, and containing an information leak on an island as small as Okushiri, where the military already had control over the only two cellular towers on the island, was not a difficult task for a project as important as his. David also knew that it was not beyond the Ministry of Defence’s power to make certain island locals disappear if one of them happened to learn too much about what goes on at the NIAMS.
The sharp sound of the elevator chime broke though David's daydreaming. It took him only a moment to realise that he'd pressed the elevator call button while his mind was elsewhere. "Yep, it’s decided...” he muttered to himself as he stepped inside the elevator cabin "... I'm definitely working myself too hard". The doctor pulled his ID badge from his lab coat pocket and touched it to a small black plate above the numbered floor buttons. There was a quiet beep, an audible confirmation that his card had been accepted. Unable to prevent a small sigh escaping as he did, David pressed the 'SL1' floor selection button and with a dull clunk, the doors closed and the elevator slowly descended below ground.
The elevator ride was short, there wasn't that much distance between the lobby floor and the first subterranean level. Certainly no time to daydream. The elevator came swiftly to a halt, and a soft female voice came from hidden speaker in the cabin. "Sub Level One... Subu reberu ichi desu." The doctor smiled again, he had become quickly accustomed to just about everything on campus being in both Japanese and English, from signs to PA announcements, everything was bilingual, but then again so was he. A necessity, he supposed, the NIAMS commonly played host to expert researchers who came from not only Japan but just about anywhere around the world. This place really was just a huge think tank after all, a pressure cooker for the some of the world's greatest minds to come together and create. Or destroy.
Stepping out of the lift, David was greeted by the familiar long hallway of Sub Level 1, spanning well over fifty meters in each direction before disappearing around sharp corners. Everything down here was brightly lit by fluorescent light. It didn't matter what time of the day it was on the surface, it was always daytime down here and impossible to tell the actual time without a watch. The doctor shivered, the air was its usual icy cold on this level, kept that way by a massive air-conditioning plant that ensured it was always colder than Greenland, all the time. He knew it had to be frigid though, there were labs all though this level working on god knows what, and the cold was a great first line of defence against germs in the labs, so the colder it was the better.
David's footsteps echoed though the wide empty hallway, he was all alone. He knew subconsciously it was too early for most of the other researchers to be on site, and even if they were it would be likely they would keep to their own labs. It was rare to see someone in the halls, even in the middle of the day.
The sound of each one of the doctor’s footsteps bounced off the pristine walls of the hallway, completely unmarked white nothingness, except for the occasional gouge missing from some sections where equipment or a trolley or some type had clearly hit the wall and the resulting mark and had been quickly painted over to hide the damage.
The floor below his feet was a dull textured grey, David imagined who it was at the NIAMS that decided on such a horrible floor pattern for down here. Probably the same person who decided on having a ridiculously large and unnecessary lobby. His research assistant had once joked to him that if you stared at the floor for too long it would give you a migraine. The joke stopped being funny when David realised it was partly true if you worked over twenty hours straight.
 The floor’s bland headache-inducing pattern was only broken up by the three coloured lines that stretched the length of the corridor, disappearing around the sharp bend as the hallway turned right. These lines were the easiest system for highlighting the optimal routes to certain research areas, a type he'd seen in many facilities he had visited. David remembered when he first started working here, how it was easy as hell to get lost on the lower levels. Those silly colour-coded paths had been a lifesaver for him. To ask people passing in the hallway for directions was futile, and there were so few people down here you could go for hours on end without seeing a soul, and the ones you did see didn't always know the way.
A thought made him shudder, just as it had seven years ago. 'You could die down here', all alone in the cold and its likely no one would find you for days, unless of course your absence was noticed by someone you worked with. David never envied the researchers around here that worked solo. This place was as cold as a tomb, and could easily become one.
The doctor shook his head, he was over thinking things, and his mind was seeking out distractions. He tired to clear his thoughts, there was more important things for him to consider today, more important than his personal distastes for the lower levels. Arriving now in front of a reinforced metal door more than halfway down the hallway he had just walked, David turned his body to face it. What strength he had promptly left his body.
He must have gone through this door a million times, but today the doctor couldn't seem to bring his gaze off the floor as he hung his head in despair. He imagined for a moment this was, at least in part, how Kenneth Bainbridge must had felt in 1945, when created the most destructive technology on the planet. It was said that after the atom bomb detonated successfully on the test site, Bainbridge, realising what he had unleashed on the world, turned his colleague and said "Now we are all sons of bitches"
So, now I to finally know how it feels to create something bigger than you, something the military will only use as a weapon of war. David's head buzzed with the voice of his own distorted reasoning, a voice brought on by his severe lack of sleep that he fought to suppress as stress momentarily got the better of him Bainbridge always knew that his bomb would be used as a tool of war and yet he kept going to see if he could do it... I suppose it's no different then what we're doing down here now... we were always going to turn this corner eventually... and now we're here, making the final preparations before we release a brand new weapon upon the world...
Shaking his head clear again, David brought his hand up and gripped the cold metal of the door handle, in an instant he felt a shiver travel though him, his stomach sank, he felt ill. Completely involuntarily, and only through the simple muscle memory that he had instilled from years working in this place, his other hand moved automatically, leaving the pocket of his lab coat and scanning the ID badge he held past a reader next to the doorway. Straight away the doctor felt the mechanical click of the locking mechanism move, the sound of the heavy door unlocking in his hand. David straightened up, drew in a deep breath and held it, gripping the door handle harder. Internally he was trying relentlessly to focus through his accumulation of grogginess and exhaustion. His mind was foggy, brought on from too many hours spent lying awake, staring at the ceiling worrying about this very moment in the months prior. Desperately, David tried to push all feelings he was experiencing, all the dread he was fighting within this one moment, to the back of his mind, if only just for a few moments.
He let out a short puff of air, unable to hold his breath any longer. "I just have to do this one thing, I have to just get this over with, and..." David spoke only to himself, alone in the hallway. His eyes flicked up and inadvertently met with the sign on the door 'Project:Orion'. For a moment he felt himself falter again, his heart thumped hard in his chest, dread clawed its way back his throat, his legs wanted to give out from under him. He fought back the monstrous urge to just let go of the door handle and run away.
Swallowing hard, he tried to calm himself "This isn't about me now...", the doctor pressed his forehead against the cold metal of the door, it's handle only marginally stronger than the death grip he now had on it "...There is nothing I can do to stop this...." He felt a tear start to blur his vision in one of his eyes but he blinked it away with anger. David took another deep breath and let it out again, his anger quickly fading now as he pulled his forehead away from the door "... the least I can do is make this moment a special one..."
His mind worked harder now, pushing all his negative emotions back deep down inside. With nothing more than sheer will power, the doctor suppressed his fear, his anger, and his sadness all at once. With great effort, David then drew back his facial muscles into a broad, yet forced smile, with a twist of the handle he pushed the door open and stepped inside. Now we're all sons of bitches.

* * *


"Boring" he huffed. Using a single claw he turned to the next page and read aloud "The Heckler and Koch USP is a semi-automatic pistol developed in Germany as a replacement for the P7 series of handguns...” The cub let out a loud yawn, lowering the book onto the white fur of his stomach as he laid there on his back in his small bed. With a short grunt, he let the book drop onto the white tiled clean room floor, swinging his legs and foot paws around and sitting upright on his bed. All around him were mirrors, or rather one way mirror glass, used for observing the contents of the clean room. The cub sat on his bed and stared intently at his reflection across the room. Before him stared back a reflection of a small shirtless wolf cub, who also sat upright on a small bed inside a room full of mirrors. His fur was as white as pure, untouched snow, which did a good job of hiding the cub’s thin but athletic build. His fur was short enough on his stomach and chest to make out the beginnings of well toned stomach muscles. Those push ups and sit ups each morning weren't for nothing. Two crystal blue eyes stared back at him, studying him. They shone like sapphires, and held a piercing intensity to them as they scanned over his body.
His legs were half covered by red cotton gym shorts. Lately the cub had been wearing just shorts during leisure hours, favouring going shitless more and more. He always found it a pain to have to constantly change in and out of disposable shirts and pants, which he fancied were made from some kind of special paper, which were ridged and didn't flex easily with his body. The few research staff he ever saw always insisted that he change after ever experiment to avoid what they called 'cross contamination', however the young wolf had no idea what they were on about, the word meant nothing to him and no one had ever bothered to explain its meaning. He'd never thought to ask.
To the young wolf, his shorts were one of the few things we was allowed to wear that made of real fabric, and above all they were comfortable. He couldn't really explain the feeling to anyone if they asked, but inside he felt as if these red shorts were one of the few real things here in his fake mirror world, the world he'd been stuck in for the last 6 years.
Jumping up onto his bare feet, the wolf padded around the clean room's perimeter, trailing a paw behind him along the mirrored glass. His paw pads left no mark on the mirrors, not even so much as a smudge. A few months ago, while bored, the wolf cub had used a claw, and marked the glass in a jagged line all around the room. Shortly after he'd done that though, people he had never seen before came into his room, and he was quickly injected with something that made him feel very sleepy. When he woke up, he was incredibly groggy, he knew he was in the same room, but the marks were all gone, and there was a faint scent of glue in the air. He quickly realised the researchers had made him go to sleep by force, and then had come and changed the glass panels for new ones while he was unconscious. The young cub didn't like being forced into a dreamless sleep like that. He didn't like how groggy and sick he felt afterwards either. As a result of the incident, without ever being specifically asked, he never made a mark on the mirror glass again.
The wandering cub finally reached the far side of the clean room, where there was just a plain metal toilet and a basin. The three hundred and sixty degrees of mirror glass in this room offered no real privacy to use these facilities, but the cub had never been taught to care about such things. A small orange handled toothbrush rested aside a meal basin, along with an unmarked tube of toothpaste. The cub's muzzle scrunched up in thought, he couldn't remember if he'd brushed his teeth today. With a single digit from his paw he tested the toothbrush bristles. Dry. He must have forgotten when he woke up. He'd been unusually excited today, it was his 6th birthday after all.
Birthdays didn't mean the same thing to the cub as they would to a normal little boy. While birthdays meant presents and surprises for most kids, to this little wolf birthdays meant the start of a new challenge, or some kind of change to routine, it was one of the few things he looked forward to. The cub quickly decided against the idea of brushing his teeth, he hated the taste of the toothpaste, and he was far too awake now to ignore how bad it smelled. Instead, he decided to continue his lap around the room, the short wolf padding slowly on, his paw pad still trailing along the glass until he reached a small book case. The book case was full of many books, mostly ones to teach reading and spelling, books about math, about science. Some books were much more complicated though, books he didn't really understand, these were about Japanese culture, the history of war, and weapons, like the one about guns he was reading before.
The young cub studied the book case for a moment as if weighing his options, then removing his paw from the mirrored surface, he suddenly sprinted over to the book he'd dropped next to his bed, and with a lighting quick change in direction, he darted back to the bookcase. Crouching down on one knee, he carefully replaced the book back into the empty gap in the bookcase where it had come from.
It was a habit the young wolf had picked up in his time in this room. He'd been taught to keep the clean room, well, clean. He knew that if it got too dirty, or messed up, they would put him to sleep, and then clean the room themselves. Just like the time when he had scratched the glass. The young cub had developed an appreciation for cleanliness, and constantly made a conscious effort not to even leave a book out of its place for too long.
With a nod, satisfied with his job of cleaning up, the young wolf padded back over to his bed, then sitting up on the edge he looked around his empty clean room of mirrors then down at his paws. He used one claw to pick at the other on his other paw in frustration, letting out a little sigh. "...He's late."
* * *

"Good Moring Orion!" Dr David Aldrich beamed a smile as he pushed open the door, practically marching inside. At the far side of the room, a small white wolf cub looked up from fiddling with his claws. The door had opened so suddenly it took a moment for the cub to process what was happening. Immediately the wolf's face lit up "Dr Aldrich!!” The cub jumped to his feet and ran up to the figure, grinning wide. The doctor immediately put his hands on his hips and looked down at the cub, but didn't stop smiling for a second "Come on Orion, what do we say now when we greet people?” The cub’s muzzle wrinkled up in frustration as he struggled to remember the correct pronunciation when put on the spot "O...Ohayo gozaimu...su... Aldrich Sensei!" he struggled, but still kept on grinning up at the doctor. "Correct!" David praised him, putting a hand on the cubs head and ruffling his headfur. Raising a finger he announced "And your pronunciation was almost perfect this time". Orion continued to show his toothy grin up at the doctor, his white canines practically shining under the fluorescent light of the clean room. Without a moment's hesitation the cub then quickly spun on the spot and took off at lightning speed back to his bed. With a little spring of his powerful legs he jumped up on the edge of the bed to sit again, now waiting eagerly for the doctor to join him. The young wolf was used to David coming into his room, it happened frequently each week, in fact he saw him more often than any other of the research staff. He usually decided to sit on the bed next to Orion due to the lack of furniture in the clean room, so it was not unusual for the little wolf to pre-empt the doctor and get there first.
The cub’s instincts were undoubtedly correct this time too, David quickly sat himself down next to the cub with a thud. "So" the doctor began without missing a beat "I hear your turning 6 today Orion" The cub nodded, kicking his legs back and forward nervously, he knew that this would be the part where he'd get told about some change to his schedule or routine. Orion was well aware that something that always happened on his birthday, but this one... they had been making a big deal out of this one for months.
"This year, as you know, is a special year..." David continued "...This year...” he hesitated for a moment, "...you're going to get to leave the clean room." The wolf immediately stopped kicking his legs. All the neurons in the cub’s brain began to fire at once as he struggled to process this impossible information he had just been given. Slowly, Orion looked up at the doctor, his eyes practically shining with excitement. The cub's jaw trembled and he could only stutter out his next sentence "R-r-really Dr Aldrich? Do ya m-mean it? I get to leave the c-clean room?" David nodded back at him "You're old enough now, we think you're ready".
The young cub was an explosion of excitement, his heart pounding in his chest as he struggled to now keep still on the bed. "But..." David added "It means there will be some big changes to your routine, you'll be starting a new training program with a new instructor... his name is Yosuke-sensei, and his training schedule is a difficult one, even for people twice or three times your age." The cub nodded, but was still grinning from ear to ear, eyes still shining. There could have been fire and brimstone in the doctor’s explanation of the training regiment and the young wolf wouldn't have cared amidst the prospect of seeing somewhere new, somewhere outside the room of mirrors. From birth, Orion had never been allowed to leave the confines of his clean room, and there was so much he wanted to know about the world that lay beyond the four mirror walls of his tiny space. "You're also going to be training in a special new building" David added "I hear, it's on the surface, so you'll have to go outside in order to get to it."
The cub’s heart almost exploded out of his chest "OUTSIDE? YOU REALLY MEAN IT?!?" the cub blurted out, immediately resizing the volume of his outburst he covered his muzzle with his paws. The sudden unexpected exclamation from the young wolf made David chuckle "Yeah, I really mean it." After a moment of consideration, Orion launched himself backward to fall onto his back now laying on the bed with a dull thud, his arms out to the side in excitement "This is soooo coooool.... going outside...”
"Now Orion," David let his smile harden a little as he looked down at the cub laying on the bed beside him, "There are two things I need you to do for me, one is easy, the other is quite hard." The young wolf flicked his eyes away from the ceiling above his bed to meet the doctor’s steady gaze again. The cub's heart started beating relentlessly, his mind raced. Was this a test? What if I mess it up, will I still get to go outside? David, seeing the look of concern forming on the cubs face, continued quickly "First, I want you to promise me, that you'll be careful outside the lab. There are a lot of dangerous things you'll be exposed to now, and in the coming years, so I want you to be extra careful, ok?" The cub nodded solemnly "And the second thing?" the young wolf asked. David's expression became more serious "This is the hard part ok? ...I won't approve your new training if you can't do this..." The cub’s mouth went dry in an instant, fidgeting against the bed nervously.  David let the silence drag out some more, longer then he needed to, both him and Orion could practically hear each second as it ticked away on the doctor’s wristwatch.
"...I need you to count up to your age in Japanese" David concluded grinned extra wide. The cub groaned loudly “Dr Aldriiich..." David folded his arms and stood up "Come on, let's hear it, I know you can". The young wolf now sat upright, his face serious as he concentrated on the task at hand, he crossed his legs, gripping his knees with his hand paws, he rocked back and forward slightly as he began counting up, trying to contain his obvious excitement from the news he'd been given today, but not wanting to mess up a test. "Ichi...ni...san...shi" The cub began, but couldn't keep a serious face let a smile escape "...go...” the cub then grinned toothily up at David as he announced "roku!!"
 "Correct!" exclaimed the doctor with a warm smile and a small clap "Yoku yatta... well done." Orion beamed up at the doctor with another big grin. David turned and started to walk towards the door, adding "I can't stay long today, Orion. I have a lot to plan for with these new changes. You can take it easy for the rest of today ok? No more tests. Tomorrow, your training starts, and you're going to need all your strength..." David hesitated, then added "Yosuke-sensei is a tough teacher."
Without a moment's warning, the cub leapt to his feet and sprinted over to where David was now standing as he started to leave the room. The young cub tugged on the doctor’s lab coat “Dr Aldrich, I need to tell you something super important." David kneeled down to the cubs height, and before he could ask what the small wolf wanted, Orion wrapped his arms around the doctors chest pushing his muzzle into his shirt "Thank you Dr Aldrich..." the cubs muffled thanks came as he buried his muzzle deeper into the doctors shirt in embarrassment. For a moment, David couldn't process the situation. While Orion had a great deal of respect for the doctor, it was rare the cub exhibited truly loving behaviour towards him. To the wolf, David was just a teacher, and a friend, not really a parent figure, so the cub hadn't hugged the doctor at least not since he was very young, and just doing it out of reflex. As time caught up with them, the doctor placed a hand on the cubs head and ruffled his white headfur, clearing his throat, "You're very welcome, Orion." Quickly though, David rose to his feet as the cub’s grip slowly released him from his embrace. The young wolf's blue sapphire eyes studied the doctor as he turned quickly to leave. David offered a quick wave and a parting "jaa ne" as the door closed behind him.
Orion stood by the room's closed door. His mind replaying the whole encounter again and again, subconsciously checking for any mistakes he may have made. He could tell the doctor was bothered by something, he could feel it the moment the doctor had walked in, but he couldn't place the meaning behind it, and he wouldn't dare ask. The wolf cub, although young in years, was very sharp. He could easily identify the authenticity of someone's emotions, and he could instantly tell that the doctor was hiding something.
The young cub dismissed these bad thoughts, swatting them away with a paw, determined not to spoil his good mood after the great news he’d been told. But as he turned away from the door to pad slowly back towards his bed, he paused, his mind replayed the scene where David stood up and left the room moments ago. The cub suddenly realised, he could have sworn he had seen tears in the doctor’s eyes.

* * *
Chapter Two

Orion had stretched himself on top of his queen-size bed. He was lying on his back with his head propped up against the headboard, a thick novel entitled 'Last in Command' clenched in paw. The slim twelve-year-old was clothed head to paw in what could only be described as black tactical attire. These cloths resembled something similar to what a Special Forces officer might wear, but it was nothing like those currently worn by soldiers or police in this country. The cub's unusual attire was made from a wearing cargo type fabric, almost form-fitting in shape, but it still moved easily with him. Knee and elbow pads sat atop of his shirt and pants, a tactical vest littered with numerous pockets and pouches hugged his chest snugly.
Without looking away from his book, the small cub loosened the Velcro strap of an empty gun holster that was strapped firmly to his right thigh. He'd been using this type of holster for only a few months now. The institute had been favouring issuing just the one particular type of pistol to him lately, this holster had obviously been designed to fit only that particular make of weapon. It wasn't as comfortable as his last one.
The holster wasn't the only thing bothering him. Since waking up Orion had felt distracted and somewhat off beat. The cub knew he had awoken too early, and being unable to get back to sleep, he'd just gotten up, had a shower and dressed into his tac-gear. He quickly realised that getting dressed that early was also a miscalculation on his part. In hindsight, he'd have much rather have just sat around in his boxer shorts all morning. 'Tsk...' Orion clicked his tongue in irritation. He'd been reading the same sentence about six times now; clearly he couldn't focus on the story anymore. The young wolf had been excited by the concept of a new 'off-base' mission since he'd heard about it at yesterday’s briefing. It seemed like a suitable gift in his eyes, and just in time for his twelfth birthday.
There was a loud knock on the door, a familiar Russian voice called out loudly through the heavy wood. "Ten minutes to wheels up. Put on boots. Get things. Time to go." The cub grinned, he should have known if he left things to the last minute, the Russian would come get him. He shrugged to himself. The way he figured it, it was worth pissing him off a little in order to get a little extra reading in, and it certainly beat standing around outside in the cold waiting for him.  
The cub swung his legs over the bed and pulled on his new boots. These had been a present from his instructor. Well, probably. Orion wasn't completely certain if the Russian had actually had these boots made at his own request, or if the institute had just asked him to give them to the cub. The unusual foreigner had only offered a very vague explanation consisting simply of, "Here, birthday present for you" before dropping these boots at the cub's feet and wandering off to light yet another cigarette. Heh, thought Orion. That was his instructor to a tee, never big on the details.
Despite who was ultimately responsible for having them come into being, Orion loved his new boots, and they were practically a work of art. They were completely custom-made, designed to fit only him. Made of tough black leather and some kind of light weight composite that reinforced some areas, they didn't look like they would break or scuff up easily. Each boot was even ventilated in parts of the padding on the sides and on the front. This probably also served as added protection from strike damage on those areas during combat.
The boots came most the way up the cub's calf and were held in place by large Velcro straps. Orion especially liked the bottom part of these boots; they weren't like normal human shoes, and they were custom moulded to fit the shape of each of his foot paws. They had even stylized the black moulding to look like the wolf's foot paws themselves. Where each of the wolf's claws would be, the boots mimicked this with an exaggerated two inch knife-like non retractable blade that extruded from each toe to form makeshift 'metal claws'. These 'claws' looked incredibly sharp to the cub, part of the reason he didn't want wear his boots on the bed. He wasn't even game to touch them with an ungloved paw.
The cub jumped up onto his feet, the boots felt good. With a grin, he strode over to the room's door, an evacuation diagram screwed into the wood. It was just simple map with the words 'Evacuation Route - The Residence' printed above it. The cub must have read this map a thousand times. Always know your exits, that's what was drilled into him by his instructor. Orion supposed this was good advice. You never knew when you'd have to get out fast, and it helped to memorize these things. He'd made a habit of committing things like this to memory.
The cub yanked the door open. Before him stood the familiar towering solute of his Russian weapons and tactics trainer Alec Mikal, an unlit cigarette hanging from his mouth as he wore his usual unimpressed grimace.
With just one look at Alec you could tell he came from a somewhat dark military background. He was an ex-Russian spetsnaz officer and someone who'd obviously seen a lot of action during that time. The now sixty one year old Russian still hid his age well though. Alec stood easily over six foot tall, his hairline was well receded and met only a patch of short spiky black hair on the top of his head. His arms were like tree trunks, even hidden under his dark t-shirt you could tell that he was incredibly well built. Spend enough time with him and you would soon come to realise that Alec's body had also paid the toll for his years of service to the Russians. The most prominent damage, a gunshot wound he sustained to his left leg, had secured his discharge from Russian special forces at age thirty nine. It left him with a slight limp when he walked, and a sour attitude that lingered.
After leaving Russia, Alec had quickly transitioned into a life of instructing at special force academies around the world. He was well in demand too, it was understood throughout the international community that all of the students this old Russian instructed turned into some of the best in the business.
Given his unique background in specialist training, it was easy for people involved to understand why the Ministry of Defence in Japan had moved mountains to get Alec onto Okushiri and make him a part of the Orion Project shortly before Orion had turned ten. When the wolf and Alec were first introduced, the Russian had been surprised at first, as anyone would be, but by only the second day, thought no different of the small cub than any other student he'd taught. Unlimited untapped potential. That's how he'd described Orion in his report on the first day. Alec was as interested to see if the wolf could out-perform a human out in the field.
"You're late" slurred Alec in his usual broken English, his accent was still as strong as the day he left Russia "You were suppose to be on landing pad BEFORE aircraft landed, not still be in bed like tired little girl." The wolf just shrugged up at the large figure, unfazed by the Russian's words "I'm ready now aren't I? ...And there is still six minutes before dust off." The young wolf retorted, folded his arms "Besides, it only takes four and a half minutes to reach the landing pad from my room via elevator if we walk, three if I sprint the stairs". The old Russian grinned down and replied "You're twelve....but somehow you are bigger pain in ass then before... Come, aircraft is waiting." Alec paused for a second, looked the cub up and down before turning away to lead the way towards the elevator adding "You look good in new boots."
Orion grinned to himself, it took a lot to impress his instructor, and he rarely made any comment about the wolf's appearance unless he was not up to his grooming standard. The wolf figured even if these special boots weren't from Alec, this Russian must have at least had some input about the design to make a comment like that out of the blue.
Orion and Alec boarded the hotel elevator at the end of the hall, the doors closing quickly behind them. As the lift descended downward to the ground level the Russian stopped chewing on his unlit cigarette for a moment, as if deeply contemplating something. "Malen'kiy volk, I have question." began Alec suddenly without once looking away from the closed elevator doors in front of him. "Do you ever get urge to just howl at moon?” The cub's ears twitched, he knew his too instructor well. Alec liked to ask questions he didn't really care about the answer to. He'd always start such a line of questioning with the condescending address of 'Malen'kiy volk', which roughly translated to 'Little Wolf' in Russian. Alec greatly enjoyed belittling the cub's size openly, which is why he translated the Russian phrase to English when the small wolf had first asked him what it meant two years ago.
Orion flicked an ear again, but maintained his composure. He refused to look up at the Russian. With a sneer, the cub replied "Hey Alec, do you ever get the urge to not be an asshole?"Alec let out a hefty laugh and replied "Da, however only on day off". The cub went to retort at him again, but the elevator doors opened. They were on ground floor, it was time to move.
Without another word between them, the Russian stepped out of the lift and began to cross the miniature lobby towards The Residence's front doors. Orion followed close behind, the new rubber soles of the cub’s boots squeaked loudly as they both crossed the white tiled floor. In the distance Orion's sensitive ears could just barely make out the faint thumping of aircraft rotors. Their ride was here.
The Russian looked at his watch as he strode along the lobby floor. 05:27. They were still within the set timeframe. The old Russian grinned to himself, this cub really had memorised the time it took to get downstairs. He was learning quickly. Effortlessly, Orion's instructor pushed open the two glass lobby doors that lead into the still dark outside world.
No longer protected by the sound proof doors and walls of The Residence, right away Orion was immersed in the deafening sound of large aircraft turbine engines running at idle speed. It sounded like a machine gun firing into the air. The temperature around the wolf had also rapidly dropped, easily now 30 degrees colder than before, the cub felt a shiver run though him. Even with all his fur and all his clothes, it was still damn cold outside. It had even been snowing for a short while before, but it just wasn't quite cold enough for it to take hold on this island.
Orion stepped out into the dark courtyard, Alec walking close behind him, furiously attempting to get a light on his cigarette. There was a faint glow of sunlight on the horizon, but not enough to provide any really useable light. Only the lights on either side of the path towards the helipad illuminated anything around them. The wolf yawned, it was still so early and he'd stayed up far too late.
Even though it was still dark out, Orion could tell the sky all around was crystal clear, there wasn't a cloud anywhere in sight. Probably explains why it was so cold. The cub squinted at the sky as he walked along the concrete path. The stars had already faded from view, abandoning the sky to make way for the fast approaching dawn. The wolf shivered again. It was really damn cold.
Ahead of them, at the end of the small path loomed the dark grey silhouette of the institute's V-22 tilt rotor. It was illuminated only by the dim red landing lights that surrounded the helipad and the intermittent flashes of the tilt rotor's white navigation strobes that lit up the aircraft like lightening every few seconds. The two massive engines pointed straight up at the dark sky, both rotors pummelling the air relentlessly, even at idle speed. The short dark grass that surrounded the helipad thrashed back and forth as the air currents punished everything that got too close to the enormous rotor’s downwash.
The cub squinted his eyes closed as he neared the aircraft at the end of the path. The turbulent air now thrashed around him, his exposed face fur whipped against his eyes making him squint harder. He wished he'd brought his shooting goggles. The heavy hand of his instructor touched the wolf's shoulder from behind, which prompted a jerk from the cub, not expecting the contact. Alec leaned close to the young cubs ear " You are arctic wolf right? You can't be cold. Hurry up, you have one hundred twenty seconds to board aircraft" The Russian had to yell to be heard over the immense rotor noise. The wolf nodded in reply, but didn't look back at his instructor.
Leaving Alec behind, Orion broke into a slow jog towards the noisy aircraft, less than fifty feet away now he felt heavy vibrations surround him. The monstrous engine noise thumped through the young wolfs chest. The sound of the rotors now at its most deafening as the tiny cub jogged past one the aircrafts engines that towered over him. Orion, eager to get away from the wind and noise, ran up the small set of fold down steps on the side of the aircraft and entered the fuselage of the tilt rotor.
Even with the door still open, the inside of aircrafts fuselage was much quieter. The cub glanced quickly around the unfamiliar aircraft in an attempt to get a layout of his new surroundings. It was fairly dark inside the V-22, with the whole interior of the tilt rotor cabin was only illuminated by a small number of faint red LED lights. Having just come from darkness of outside, the young wolfs eyes rapidly adjusted to the red ambiance, but it was still quite hard to make everything out clearly.
Empty jump seats lined both walls of the aircraft, with light green aircraft headsets that hung loosely above each seat on straps. A closed ramp at the back of the aircraft made up the back wall of the tilt rotor, yellow and black warning markings and the words KEEP CLEAR scrolled all around it. Against the forward bulkhead, a massive flat screen TV and a single jump seat mounted next to it. There was also a closed door that leads further forward, which Orion fancied probably accessed the cockpit.
Having surveyed his surroundings, the young cub picked out a jump seat halfway down the line of the seats on the left hand side of the aircraft. The seat was positioned next to a small window that offered a somewhat limited view of outside. With the sky still dark, there wasn't much of anything to see beyond the flash of navigation strobes lighting up the wing over and over, but it was better than just staring at the inside of the tilt rotor the whole flight.
Sitting down with a thud inside the dark cabin, the wolf let out a deep breath and folded his arms close to his chest trying to warm himself. Orion had anticipated he was going to feel nervous, it was to be expected before an operation, but he still found it difficult to manage the feeling of fear and anticipation that bounced around in his stomach relentlessly. While it wasn't unusual for the cub to not be told about the location and purpose of his training in advance, this was the first time he was going officially off-base, and in the institutes' expensive tilt rotor of all things.
The idea of leaving the base both excited and scared the cub. Wherever they were headed, he knew it probably wasn't on the island or they would have just driven him down there. It seemed logical to the small wolf that is was a fairly substantial operation being undertaken by the institute. This aircraft must have been expensive to utilise, and if they have chosen to use it, they must be sending him further than just the island or the very edge of the mainland. The fact they were taking the young wolf off base at all was a giant step forward in his mind, he must have been performing well so far to deserve this.
A loud slam and a sudden drop in the ambient noise inside the fuselage caused the cub to snap out of his wandering thoughts and sit upright. Alec had stepped inside the aircraft, pulling the door closed behind him. The cub imagined the Russian had likely stayed outside a little longer trying to light his cigarette, but the rotor wash had made that impossible. The young wolf grimaced at that thought. His instructor was going to be in a strange mood for the whole fight now.
No sooner had the Russian slumped down in the lone jump seat at the front of the aircraft, the cub suddenly felt the roar of the engines. The vibration inside the fuselage was intensified. It felt like the aircraft was trying to vibrate itself to pieces at its huge engines screamed. The goliath like rotor blades assaulted the air outside in an onslaught to gain lift for the heavy aircraft.
The tilt rotor lifted off into the still dark and cold morning sky. The cub’s stomach sank as he felt the aircraft leave the ground. It wasn't that he was afraid of flying; in fact he'd had to do several parachute jumps out of one of the helicopters they kept on the neighbouring army base some months ago. He'd found jumping out scary the first time, but he'd starting having fun quickly as he got the hang of it.
The young cub still hesitated; the V-22 was so much bigger and louder than a small helicopter. It vibrated like nothing the young wolf had ever experienced. He also knew this beast of an aircraft could fly a hell of a lot higher and faster than the helicopter could too, so he'd be lying if he said that it didn't scare him just a little.
A bright flash from the front of the aircraft caught the cub's eye and made him squint. Orion looked away from the small window towards the source of the uncomfortably bright light. Alec was blinking a small but very powerful flashlight at the wolf in an attempt to get his attention in the impossibly noisy environment. The Russian put down the light and tapped the headset he was wearing over his ears, and then pointed at the cub indicating the wolf to put his on as well. Orion looked up, a headset swung above his head. He'd completely forgotten about it. He reached up and pulled on the headset down with sharp tug, it released easily from the strap that held it up above him and fell into his paws. The wolf pulled the awkwardly shaped headset down over his pointy ears the best he could. Unlike his boots, this headset certainly hadn't been designed with his anatomy in mind. Surprisingly, even though it fit quite poorly the headset still halved the noise inside the aircraft for the cub. It was a relief
No sooner had the cub finished donning the headset than he heard a loud mechanical whine begin to screech though the aircraft cabin. The little cub flicked his eyes to look out the window again, trying to locate the source of the sound in the low light. He immediately found a grin begin to creep onto his muzzle. This was this aircrafts most impressive feature by far. Even in the darkness, he could see the two massive rotors were now beginning to tilt forward to face the front of the aircraft to create massive props in order to increase forward airspeed. Orion had decided to read about the V-22 when he learned the institute had acquired one some months ago. The cub recalled a book he'd read about it which said that this aircraft could cruise at up to five hundred kilometres an hour with ease; it had a range of over one thousand six hundred kilometres, too. It could hover like a helicopter and land anywhere, but it could also cruise as fast as a plane and get you places quickly. When the wolf learned that all this was all possible due to tilting of the rotors, he had really wanted to see it in action first hand. Sure, the book had pictures and diagrams of the way everything worked, but seeing them move up close and in action was nonetheless impressive to the still young cub.
As the rotors finally locked into their forward facing position, a click from the speakers in his headset made the cub look away from the window again. "Ok, we start briefing now" The Russians voice came though the headsets tinny speakers almost comically. Alec was now standing up the front of the tilt rotor beside the flat screen, one hand holding onto a roof strap above him to steady himself in the rough air. The TV next to him suddenly glowed to life, displaying a map of the whole of Japan and a few highlighted areas.
The Russian now grinned towards the cub sitting only a few meters away from him, he was clearly excited about the exercise. In his hand Alec held what looked like a telescopic antenna, some kind of improvised pointer and then traced against the TV screen as he started talking. "We are here" he pointed to a small arrow which was slowly moving away from an island mass on the digital map that said 'Okushiri'. Orion concluded quickly that this arrow must illustrate their aircraft's current position and heading. So we are leaving the island, I knew it, the cub thought to himself with a little satisfaction of having guessed correctly.
"Approximately forty minutes flight time we will reach training target site here" the Russian continued, now pointing to a small red dot south east of their position deep in the mainland. The red dot flashed inside an area labelled Iwate Prefecture on the map. The TV then suddenly changed to display an enlarged satellite image the area Alec had indicated to, and began to zoom in. "Target insertion point 150 meters from primary kill box. You will perform low altitude aerial insertion and land here." Alec tapped his pointer on the screen then traced it upwards to a set of buildings shown just above the landing area. "You proceed east north east, engage hostile targets and reach here, office building of designation Tango One" The Russian then pointed to building in the middle of the cluster then retracted his telescopic pointer looking back at the cub while placing it in one of his vests many breast pockets. "You eliminate Tango One. He'll be on top floor. Shoot in head, he is just dummy, it will make you feel better." The Russian grinned wider, but the young wolf just listening intently with a serious expression. "On completion of objective, egress from building, proceed to LZ, pop green smoke and rendezvous with this aircraft, designation Overseer One for extraction, Understood?" Alec concluded.
Orion just nodded once in reply. The Russian seemed satisfied with the simple response and turned to grab some equipment that was strapped against the wall. Orion was well use to these types of briefings. It was the usual 'get in, go kill something, get out' explanation, but this time with an aircraft in play and a much larger training area to work in. There wasn't really a lot more he could ask about. If the Russian wasn't saying something, it probably meant he didn't want the cub to know.
Alec pulled off his headset and walked over to where the cub was sitting. He handed the wolf what looked like a large backpack. "Put on parachute." the instructor yelled, fighting to be heard over the deafening rotor noise without his headset.
The wolf dropped the headset off, and the loud drone of the engines attacked his ears once more as he did. Getting up, the young cub awkwardly pulled the heavy parachute bag over his shoulders as Alec watched on. "Don't mess up parachute or you'll die." The Russian yelled with a familiar idiotic grin. The cub shot him a death stare. He knew Alec liked to mess with him anytime he could, but he wished he wouldn't say things like that before he had to jump out of an aircraft.
The cub adjusted the last parachute strap across his chest, and Alec nodded at him in approval. The Russian wasn't so reckless as to just let some kid, wolf or not, put on a critical lifesaving device all by himself without at least a bit of adult supervision.
Looking the cub up and down, his instructor then pulled a handgun out from his waistband under the back of his shirt and offered it to the wolf. H&K USP .45 "12 rounds in mag, all rubber type so you don't kill my guys." said Alec with a smirk. As Orion took the weapon from him, the Russian added "Confirm weapon clear, safety on".
He didn't need to be reminded. As if by instinct, as soon as he took the gun from Alec's hand, the cub immediately ejected the magazine and checked it, quickly inserting it back into the pistol. 12 Rounds. In one fluid motion he pulled the slide back slightly, eyed the breach, decocked the hammer and set the safety again. Nothing in the chamber. "Clear and safe" announced the cub only just loud enough to be heard over the whirr of the engine noise. Alex nodded again in agreement with the cub’s findings, but said nothing back. The Russian just turned and wandered back to his lone seat at the front of the V-22.
Orion holstered his newly issued weapon in his leg holster as his instructor left. The cub dropped back down into his own seat with a thud, the bulky parachute bag he now wore prevented him from being able to lean back in his seat. Attempting to find a comfortable way to sit now, the wolf lent forward and folded his arms again. He was still uncomfortable.
He stared off at the empty jump seats across the way from him. The young cub's mind began to wander as he considered what he'd been told in the briefing, mulling it over. This was clearly the usual 'assassination with significant resistance' type of training operation, nothing new except for the aircraft and the outside setting. That aside, Orion could sense that Alec wasn't giving him the whole story either, he never did, the Russian liked to test the young cub to see how well he could improvise when things changed during a mission. There is definitely a catch with this one.
A heavy hand on the wolf's shoulder startled him. The wolf snapped his head to find that Alec had stealthily moved up the cabin again and was now sitting next to Orion with wearing his usual stupid grin. "You're daydreaming. I could have killed you seven times since take off Malen'kiy volk" sneered the Russian. "That would have helped, too." He pointed towards something at the rear of the aircraft. Orion followed his finger with his gaze, his eyes searching the fuselage for what Alec was pointing at. The exit ramp? But it’s closed. The fire extinguisher on the wall? Something he wasn't seeing? A sudden pressure on the back of the wolfs neck made him jump up forward out of his seat and immediately take up a defensive stance now six feet opposite the Russian. "Eight" shouted the Russian triumphantly with a laugh "You drop your guard too easily among friends, malen'kiy volk. I could have killed you now eight times".
The young wolf lowered his fists slightly, his blue eyes burning holes in his instructor "You're an asshole Alec". The Russian simply raised a hand to his ear as if to signify he couldn't hear the small cubs retaught. After a moment, Alec looked down at his watch .He got up out of his newly acquired seat, walking past the wolf towards the back of the aircraft. The wolf instinctively took a step back from him as Alec walked past. The cub kept his eyes trained sharply on his instructor, anticipating another surprise attack.
But his instructor had no further ambition to test the wolf's defences. Once Orion was on his guard, he knew that it would be impossible to trick him again in the same way. Instead the Russian pressed his thumb into a flush mounted button on a switch box at the back of the aircraft. "Time to go" he yelled as the high pitched whine of hydraulic motors were now added to the cabin noise.
Gradually, the rear ramp of the V-22 began to open, the icy cold wind flooded into the fuselage. The cub dropped his defensive stance as if defeated by the cold air that now whipped at his body. The wolf's paws fell to his side as he watched on anxiously while the ramp opened to reveal the outside world. A new world beyond their little island.  
The sky outside had gotten lighter, and it had quickly become dawn during their short flight. The morning light now stretched its way over the untouched white snow covered hills. Fog still hung low over the ground like thick clouds. As quickly as something came into sight from the back of the slowing aircraft, it fell away into the white mist as if it was being erased from the earth. The small cub watched on in awe, he'd never seen a view such as this.
Orion's appreciation for the scenery was short lived, his Instructor suddenly yelling at him. "Jump in twenty seconds! Try not to die, you'll make me look like bad instructor!" The cub nodded at the Russian, Orion closed his eyes and counted down.
19. The young wolf draw in a deep breath, the icy air filled his lungs, it felt cold but it was invigorating, like splashing ice water on your face in the morning. 14. He felt his neck stiffen up. It was a low altitude drop, he would need to account for the very short free fall and then pull his 'chute, he couldn't miss the timing by a second. 10. The insertion point was a small target to hit, he'll need to nail the approach or it'd be over before it stated. 7. It'd be a quick one hundred meter run from the LZ to the first building, and he'd be in the open for that time, so he'd need to be ready to take off as soon has his boots hit the snow.  4. The cub closed his paws into tight fists. One chance to nail it, don't mess it up. 2. The cub opened his eyes, and the light from the outside blinded him momentarily as he struggled to adjust the increasing brightness. He was focused on the exit ramp now, with everything else just background noise to him. 1.
The V-22's jump alarm buzzed loudly, the green signal light mounted to the roof above the ramp suddenly glowed to life. The cub sprinted forward towards to the exit without a moment's hesitation. He'd run only a few steps before he felt the metal ramp fall away from under his boots as he leapt into the cold air. The V-22 disappeared above him. The fog bellow looked like a soft pillow just waiting to catch him. He was flying.

* * *

Chapter Three

The small wolf panted hard, attempting to catch his breath. He felt the cold air that chilled him as it threatened to freeze his lungs each time he breathed it in. Several tall decaying buildings surrounded him, concealed only by heavy wisps of the low lying fog. To his left was the main structure, his target. A series of eight or so desolate buildings linked to each other by enclosed tunnel like walkways. At the furthest edge of the complex, two enormous spires pierced the foggy sky. They dipped in and out of sight as the mist rolled on, unused chimneys whose purpose had long since been forgotten.
The cub leaned his back up against the decaying bleach white wall, the first building in a row of three off to one side of the main complex. Light snow-covered shrubbery growing close to the structure gave little concealment, offering the cub no safe refuge to fully recover his strength. It'd been harder to run in the snow than Orion had first thought. It was deeper than it looked, it took twice the effort to cover the same amount of ground, and it was far slower than moving through grass.
The wolf had been in the open now for longer than he wanted, just trying to make it to the first building for cover had taken far too long in this snow. He knew his position wasn't safe, being open to attack from several different approaches to his position. From the second he'd hit the ground, the young wolf could sense there were people all around him, concealed by the fog, but all watching. While they remained hidden from sight, he could still sense the enemy, feel their fear, their anticipation, he could tell they all wanted to pounce on him, and end this mission before it started.
 Damn the wolf thought. They had been expecting him. While that wasn't unreasonable to imagine this fact considering the training nature of the mission, they also appeared to know exactly where he was going to land and where he would likely run to for cover in the moments that followed. Tsk... that damn Russian had told them way too much the cub thought to himself angrily. This whole thing is set up like one big trap.
Surprisingly, not a single shot had been exchanged between the wolf and his foes hiding in the fog. Orion imagined that his adversary had been told to stay hidden and to give the cub a count in, a period of time before they would be allowed to attack him. This was a critical moment for the wolf, he knew had to re-establish the enemies position quickly and formulate a plan where he would only have to confront a few of them at a time. If he got pinned down by too many enemies at once, it would be incredibly difficult to escape unharmed, it could even cost him the whole mission. The cubs blue eyes burned with determination, this situation wouldn't get the better of him.
The wolf drew his firearm from his leg holster and chambered the first round with a click. His thumb claw flipped off the safety as he grasped the USP with both paws, carful to keep his finger off the trigger. 12 rounds. No spare magazine He chanted to himself. There was no margin for error here. I need to get out of sight. There is no use in finding good cover out here if I just get pinned down in the end. The wolf's eyes flicked around, studding the building behind him. There was a broken window just to his right, not too far off the ground, large enough from him to fit though. It's not the building with the target in, but it's better than being out in the open the cub thought confidently.
The white canine peered around the edge of the window frame. Just an empty room, he couldn't see anyone else inside. Good. He hoisted himself up onto the window frame and dropped inside the rotting room with a dull thud. Broken wooden furniture littered the dirty floor. He sniffed the air, it smelt musty, wet, like wood rotting, but he couldn't smell anyone else close by. So far, so good he thought. One door in and out of this room though, it's a bottle neck, I need to keep moving.
Orion moved his way out of the room and into a wide empty hallway. Just like the room, it was littered with broken furniture and rocks. The canid's gun was aimed at the floor in front of him as he moved. Rubber bullets or otherwise, if he shot someone in the head at close range in here he would likely kill them. He needed to be careful, these were only soldiers that were here to assist with his training mission, and he didn't want to kill them. That would cause trouble for his instructor.
He carefully advanced along the hallway, the young cub placing one boot quietly in front of the other attempting to make as little noise as possible as he moved down the corridor. Every few steps he would pause, checking behind him to ensure he wasn't being shadowed by an enemy. The hallway was empty behind him, but it did little to assure him he wasn't being monitored at a distance.
The wolf froze in his tracks, he'd moved maybe fifty meters down the hall from his entry point. He could sense someone was ahead, waiting. He concentrated, focusing on the very edge of his hearing range. He could just make out shallow breathing. It's slow and controlled, whoever it is, is trying to conceal their presence... twelve meters ahead. The young canine considered his options, ahead was a trap, but it was also likely that the enemy had closed off his escape behind him with forces still outside the building. How much time before they finish the count and start shooting? No choice, I have to move.
The cub holstered his weapon and without another moment’s consideration, he sprinted in the direction of the breathing. No sooner than the wolf started running, a tall figure appeared in the hallway blocking his path; the silhouette of a soldier carrying a machine pistol. Orion recognised the shape at once; he dropped to the ground in the last two meters using his momentum to slide towards the silhouette as it raised its weapon at the young canine. In only the split second that passed between the start of his slide and meeting his target, the cub kicked out the soldier’s leg with his heavy boot, knocking the man off balance and causing him to fall forward. Time slowed down for Orion. The cub used the soldier's fall to his advantage, reaching up and grabbing the soldier's weapon which he held tight in both hands. The wolf halted his horizontal slide along the ground and heaved himself upwards towards the man using the soldier’s weapon as a pivot point. He used the momentum as the soldier fell to hoist his much lighter body up from the ground, up and behind the man to follow the soldiers fall downward from behind him.
The soldier hit the ground and an instant later the confident white wolf had planted a knee on the man's back drawing his weapon in one fluid motion and placing it to the back of the soldiers head. "Bang" the canine announced with a grin, "You guys are going to have to be faster than this if you want to stop me." The downed soldier remained motionless and said nothing. Just like all the training at the NIAMS, soldiers that assisted with these types of exercises had been taught to 'play dead' during a training mission if 'shot', even if no real round were fired at them. This signified a clean kill, and prevented accidents with rubber rounds.
Orion, still kneeling on the soldiers back reached down beside the man and picked up the machine pistol that soldier had let go of. "An MP7, huh?  Wow they give you guys some good guns" The cub spoke aloud to himself but directed the comment at the 'dead' soldier on the ground. Holstering his USP, the cub stood up and ejected the MP7's magazine and cleared the chamber.
"You won't need this anymore" the wolf quipped as he tossed the soldiers gun out of one of the many high windows that lined the hall. Then, for some reason, one he didn't even really understand, the canine just happened to look at the ejected magazine in his paw before tossing it. Orion stopped mid throw, there something was odd about what he'd seen. He looked closer at the magazine, his blood turned ice cold in his veins and his paw began to tremble a little as he carefully ejected a strange looking round from the magazine he'd obtained. He'd seen these bullets million times before on the gun range at the NIAMS. This was a live round, it wasn't rubber, or some kind of blank; it was a real bullet. He pushed a few more rounds out of the magazine, all the same deadly type, they clattered the onto the dirty, rock covered floor
The cub's horrified gaze now fell on at the soldier still laying face down on the ground. The man was breathing shallow to appear dead. He'd been trained well, whoever he was. The wolf threw the mostly empty MP7's magazine on the ground next to the dead soldier, who didn't so much as flinch as it clattered next to him. The cub squeezed a single round he still held in his paw, it dug into his pads as his eyes burned with a deep blue fury. Why am I being shot at with live ammunition?
The cub screwed up his muzzle in frustration. There wasn't time to interrogate this man, he was for all intents and purposes, a just corpse. Orion knew the soldier wouldn't respond even if he asked him to explain himself. I bet this was Alec's stupid idea thought the wolf as he squeezed the round even tighter in his paw. The canid shoved the live round into his pants pocket. He was going to ask that damn Russian to explain this to him later.
The wolf redrew his USP and stepped over the soldier continuing down the hall at a quicker pace. A realisation suddenly hit him as he ran that made him stumble. If he hadn't stopped that soldier just a few minutes ago, he probably would have fired on the cub. Fired on him with live rounds. Rounds that were intended to kill. Orion felt his mouth go dry as he considered this possibility, his pace wavering as he felt his whole body tremble. His vision went a little fuzzy. The wolf shook his head trying to clear a growing feeling of dread that now began to overtake him. He knew he had to focus harder now, this wasn't just a training mission anymore, he was fighting people that could kill him, he couldn't afford to make even one mistake, one miscalculation. He was fighting for his life.
The young wolf emerged from the end of the buildings hallway, pausing at the exit to look around. The familiar chilling breeze from the outside world assaulted his face as he did. He wasn't protected by the building's walls anymore and the wind was picking up. Outside, the fog was being blown around, the cloud like substance swirling about the surrounding buildings, lapping at them like waves. The cub studied the swirling fog, it was impossible to see further than a hundred meters at best. Visibility dipped and then returned with each swirling cloud.
He knew his objective was ahead, picturing the building across the compound. He went to dash in its direction, but his legs refused to move. There was no way for him to know if he was being targeted in someone's crosshairs in the distance. Could they see him even if he couldn't see them? It was possible, if they had a thermal scope. But was he up really up against that kind of technology?
A loud snap close by instinctively forced the cub to instantly flatten himself against the building; a close ricochet of a live round. Half a second later, he heard the shot. A high power rifle? He half panicked, his head trying to catch up with the events unfolding around him. No, that didn't sound right for a high power sniper, it sounded like a rifle, close by. That narrowed it down to an M4, a SCAR, or another MP7. Those were all Japanese special forces weapons, all firearms that could be scoped, and all capable of accommodating thermal technology.
Another loud snap, closer this time. The young canine considered everything he'd read, everything he'd seen on the range on the base. Facts whirled around in his head as he scanned for an answer. If they were sniping him with it, it was more likely to be an M4 that he was up against. They favoured that weapon for this kind of operation. Ok, eighty percent chance it's an M4, and maybe it’s thermal. Work the problem. The wolf continued to analyse his situation. 5.56mm live rounds are being fired at me. If he made a run for it, it will likely create a clearer shot for the shooter. But something didn't add up. These are special forces soldiers, they don't miss. They don't take shots unless they are going to connect, unless they are trying to trick me...
The cub concluded he was obviously in a place where they couldn't hit him cleanly, so soldiers were putting rounds into the wall to try and scare him out into the open or to get him to dig in until another force could flank him from behind. The young wolf gripped the USP tighter in his paws. It was also possible that they didn't have thermals at all and they could be blind firing at the glimpse they got of him through the fog when he first exited the building. The young canid decided it was time to test the theories. Either way, he couldn't remain pinned down in the building with a closing enemy. Another thick cloud of fog rolled by, lowering visibility even further. Without another moment's hesitation, he seized his chance, pushing off from the wall and sprinting into the open towards the main complex, keeping as low as he could.
Sixty meters later the wolf hit the closest wall of the main complex and slid around the corner of the buildings entryway into cover. Nothing, no rounds fired. The cub sighed with relief. The enemy couldn't be using thermals, or they would have taken a shot when he was in the open. It must have been fire aimed at the wall, a tactic to force him to dig in under fire until they could out flank him from behind. Clever.
The wolf flattened himself against the wall and peeked around the corner. He saw nothing but swirling white. The small canine’s eyes scanned the clouds of fog that rolled along the ground around him. There was a small break in the white mist, revealing five figures dressed in Japanese Special Forces black tactical attire that were advancing on his last position about eighty meters in front of him. The approaching soldiers had weapons raised, but they weren't trained on the cubs hiding spot, instead they were scanning back and forth, moving towards his previous position. His new hiding spot hadn't been found yet, that was good.
Orion watched as the figured approached, disappearing in and out of view as the fog rolled on in its never-ending swirling journey. One of the soldiers fired another round at the building they were approaching, another break in the fog, they were all carrying M4's. The cub swallowed hard, he knew he had one chance to even the odds, he'd have to fire at them in quick succession, each round would need to hit. It would take only a second for them to see his muzzle flash and return fire with pin point accuracy to where he was now hiding.
The young wolf breathed slowly, memorising the positions of each approaching enemy. Sixty Meters now, they were almost at the other building. Orion gripped the USP hard, then stepping half out from the safety of his wall to face his foes, he fired. Time seemed to almost stop as he fired his first round. The rubber bullet hit the first silhouette squarely in the back as he peered into the other building's entry way searching for the wolf. The second round missed its mark clipping the second soldier only in the shoulder as he began to turn. The third round was a direct hit into the second soldier’s chest. The third special forces member now started to bring his gun around to bear on Orion's position but the cub pulled the trigger first. The rubber round hit the solder squarely in the chest before he could get his finger on the M4's trigger.
By now the fourth and fifth soldiers had turned their weapons to face Orion, opening fire at the small cub’s position. The young canine fired off four more rounds in quick succession as he ducked back around the corner as an onslaught of bullets began to pummel the wall he now stood behind. The cub had lucked out. Two of his four rounds had hit the fifth soldier in the chest and stomach. It was just one opponent now, pounding the thick wall with those very real .22 calibre rounds.
The wolf stood with his back against the wall as bullets tore huge chunks of concrete out on the opposite side, just inches from where he hid. Just a few more seconds. Suddenly the rain of bullets stopped. The faint sound of a firing pit hitting nothing reached the canid's ears. This was his chance. The soldier had made his first mistake, in his haste to suppress the target he'd expended his magazine and now had no allies to cover him while he reloaded.
Stepping out from behind the wall confidently, in the short three seconds it took the soldier to eject and reload his M4's with a new magazine, the young white wolf had extended his arm and fired two rubber rounds into the soldiers chest with only one paw. Satisfied with the result, the cub let his pistol drop to his side with a deep sigh of relief as the last soldier dropped to his knees and then fell face first into the snow that covered the ground.
The wolf payed the soldiers no attention though, instead he ejected and checked his USP's magazine angrily. As he thought, one round left, and one in the chamber makes two. The cub cursed under his breath. I've used way too much ammunition on just five guys. Orion considered relieving the soldier of his weapon to make up the difference in fire power, but pushed the idea out of his mind as quickly as it came.  He knew it's was against basic NIAMS training protocol to use an enemy’s weapon during a training exercise unless he was specifically authorized ahead of time. The cub bit his lip. These guys were using live ammo too, if he picked up one of the soldiers guns he's be firing lethal rounds at innocent Japanese soldiers just following orders. Damn that Russian for putting me in the middle of this.
The wolf turned away from the 'dead' soldiers lying in the snow before him. He lifted himself up onto the empty windowless window ledge of the main complex he had taken cover against and peered inside. Nothing but an empty hall, just like the last building. He dropped to the ground inside the hall with a thud, and listened intently. No breathing, no footsteps, it was clear for now. The canines training had taught him to keep moving after a fire fight. The conflict would draw more enemy combatants to his last position, he needed to get far away from that area as possible and maintain the element of surprise over his foes. He hoped the fire fight had drawn the enemy away from his target, too, as he didn't have the ammo to confront a large force right now.
Orion carefully advanced down the hallway of the main building, stepping around loose rocks and bits of broken furniture, moving as quietly but as quickly as possible. To his left, a broken stairway appeared inside a small alcove. The target is on the top floor of this building. He began to make his way up the stairs, his gun trained above him, his eyes searching for any sign of movement above. The cub hit the first floor landing. Looks clear, but there no point in exploring this floor to make sure, the target is still up one more fight, and I don't have the rounds to spare.
The white canine advanced up the final flight of stairs now nearing the top floor, but he hesitated again. There had been minimal resistance, why was no one fighting him off inside this building, were they all spread out too far throughout the complex? Why didn't they just concentrate their efforts on the target room? Just how many enemy personnel where there? None of this made sense to him. He shook his head to clear the thoughts from his mind. It wasn't something that he could do anything about right now, he would just have to improvise as things happened.
The cub’s boots crunched on the rocks at the top of the stairs as he stepped onto the third floor landing. Another empty hall, with nothing in either direction, just empty doorways and broken wood littering the floor. He sniffed the air. There was a faint scent coming from his right. Soldiers, two of them nearby. The wolf crouched as he entered the landing of the third floor, keeping low and gripping his pistol tight with two paws he crept slowly down the hall towards the source of the men's scent.
The canine lingered at a set of closed double doors, some of the only intact doors he'd seen in the whole complex. Straining his hearing and sniffing the air, the wolf concluded that there were definitely people inside the room. He weighted his choices hastily. It appeared there was only one way in and out of the room. It was likely whoever it was in there was on their guard after hearing that fire fight between him and those soldiers earlier and would expect him to attempt to enter it soon.
Whoever was in there would also likely be expecting him to play it safe, to open the door slowly and peek in. Time to change it up thought the cub, with newfound confidence. They expect me to come in quiet, so let's do what they won't expect.
The canine softly stood up, facing the middle of the door. With a hard kick, his boot broke both doors open with a loud crack. As the doors splintered open, the wolf brought his USP up to bear.
The room was quite large, empty accept for a desk that was positioned in the middle with a human dummy behind it. Immediately in the cub's line of sight was one soldier who was busy looking out of the broken window some several meters away from the door the wolf had just kicked in. In the instant that the door had been broken, the man had no time to react as the canid fired a rubber round into the soldier's back before he could turn around. The man immediately slumped over the window ledge feigning death.
No sooner than he'd fired his first round did the wolf hear movement to his side. He brought his aim around to face it, a blind spot to his left. Orion felt the gun ripped away from his paws as a second soldier stepped out from behind a broken wardrobe to his left and smacked the cubs USP out of his grip with a fast attack. Responding immediately the cub dodged the next two punch attacks the man threw in quick succession, following through by grabbing the soldiers arm on his second punch and delivering a sharp blow to the man's elbow with his other paw. As the soldier stumbled back the small canine delivered a blow to the man's solar plexus with a closed fist. The soldier bent forward trying to recover from the blow, but the wolf had already started his finishing move without a second wavering, bringing his leg around to roundhouse kick the man's head.
The soldier slumped to the ground, knocked unconscious by the cubs kick, but the canine didn't chance it. Grabbing his USP off the ground, he pointed it at the now unconscious man. The soldier didn't move, he was out cold. The wolf carefully surveyed the room. Checking for anyone else who could have been hiding, but there were few other places you could conceal a full grown man in such an open space. The soldier who had attacked him had picked out the only real spot, behind a dresser just to the side of the doorway, the perfect blind spot. Satisfied that the room was secure, the cub placed his gun against the head of the dummy that sat behind the desk in the middle of the room. He'd finally arrived as his assassination target.
Orion's last gunshot echoed out inside the large empty space. The young wolf heard his bullet casing ping against the dusty floor and roll away as the dummy's temple took the rubber round through and through at such a close range. Primary objective complete thought the wolf to himself satisfied as he looked down at the pistol in his hand, the slide was locked back indicating the last round in the magazine had been fired.
The cub released the slide and holstered his USP. An empty wasn't much use to him now. The canid looked around to room again, he needed to get out of here quickly, gun fire from the target room was bound to draw attention of any remaining forces and bring them running. Orion checked the entryway and sprinted out of the room back into the hall, his eyes scanning for anyone as he ran. He practically slid down the stairs as he raced to clear the building before anyone could enter to investigate. He halted as he hit the ground floor, sniffing the air before entering the lowest hallway. His nose told him that there was a faint hint of someone, but no one was particularly close by. He bolted to the right, heading to the far end of the passage, away from his original window entry point. The cub didn't want to risk the possibility of a guard having been placed at the window he had entered by.
The white canine reached the end of the empty corridor, stopping short. The outside world loomed beyond the doorway he stood before, the last building in the row was directly in front of him. The fog was still heavy enough outside to cut visibility to about a hundred meters, but that suited him well, it provided good exit cover.
The cub gazed at the vacant doorway, he wrinkled up his muzzle. This had all been too easy. There had been too little resistance in the main building. Leaving by such an obvious route like this could be a trap, but it was also the fastest way out, he'd have to chance it if he wanted to avoid being cut off from behind and every second he waited was another chance for the enemy to close in further.
Keeping low, the wolf ducked out the door and ran to the cover of the wall of the next building. So far so good, but he couldn't make out much on either side of him, the fog rolled around in thick plumes. The landing zone was four hundred meters south east of his position, that was a long way to run out in the open with no cover even in the fog, and he couldn't see the LZ from here, he could get turned around and run straight into an enemy soldier.
Orion poked his head around the side of the building, his eyes searching for adversaries hiding in the fog like before. There was nothing out there but endless white rolling mist. He could make out the two chimneys that towered into the sky, a marker for the end of the compound. Squinting harder, he could discern something distinct and dark on the maintenance catwalk mounted just above the top of the far chimney. What was it? A bag? Something that had caught on the platform? No it was bigger than that... The cub's blood ran cold, a shiver travelled through him as he realised what he was looking at. He placed his back hard against the buildings wall. It was a sniper. The perfect position for one too, it could see the whole approach to and from the LZ. It was the ultimate high ground. The wolf was being hunted.
The canine was still safe enough, he hadn't been spotted yet. If he could make it to the tree line just before the landing area he'd be ok, but how was he going to get to that with a sniper looking right at the approach to it. The cub didn't have a radio so he couldn't redesignate the landing zone, and even if he could, there was no way that Alec would authorize landing the V-22 closer to him, that near to a sniper position. Past the tree line was still the best place to land the tilt rotor, that's why they must have chosen it. He just had to make it to the tree line. It'll take too long to go the long way around the compound, and there was also the risk of soldiers searching those boundaries. More ground to cover meant a greater chance of discovery.
The cubs mind raced, there was no cover for a direct approach, and no flank he could take that wouldn't bring him into the sight of the sniper before he hit the tree line. "This is stupid" announced the cub with a hiss to himself shifting his weight "How the hell am I suppose to beat a special ops sniper when I'm running around in deep snow with tactical gear like some big black...." his voice trailed off, a grin fell across his face as he felt familiar confidence fill him once again. The cub pulled the green smoke canister off his belt and lobbed it with all his might in the opposite direction of the tree line. The signal for mission complete.  Screw it. This stupid idea's worth a shot.
* * *


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