GANG of HOPPERS
My brothers and I in the ZooKzin War
by Dori Hopps

Written by Dan Rush

(c) Zootopia 2016 Walt Disney Cooperation 

Chapter 15

Roya Island, part 3

November 17, 2041
“L" Day
Roya Island, Landing Zone Albany North
Rattleback Company inland 500 yards
1800 hours 6pm

      No matter where you were on the island at this moment, the whole venture turned into a creeping slog of attacks and counter attacks, the violence of which was measured by the ebb and flow of the wounded and more than you wanted? The dying and the dead.

     I waved my paw to have our latest loss bagged...a cougar who wasn’t killed by enemy fire. He simply waited too long holding onto a grenade after he’d “popped” the spoon off. The “grape” detonated just as he tried to throw it...

    I took a moment to check on Ori....everything good, vitals good, foot mending nicely. Still didn’t want him trying to get out so while he was sleeping...I flex cuffed his ankles. He was obviously a little “miffed”

    “Dori?! Oh for Frith’s snit in a basket...” Ori snorted as he started pulling on the cuffs...

    “Slap!” “Quit!” I snapped at him. 

    “Ouch! Dick!” Ori replied huffing. “Have you heard anything from the others?”

     “You’re the only one here right now which is sort of a positive note.” I said as I sat on the dirt floor of the hooch to take a break amidst my fellows who were busy.

      “Sheesh....” Ori said as he looked around at all the bandaged up wounded who didn’t need to be “evac’d” immediately and still had the ability to handle weapons. You couldn’t help noticing a few were shaking like trees in a high wind....I mean visibly shaking. “Are we winning or what?” Ori asked.

      “The Southern advance is bound up.” I replied. “Our line’s “tit for tat” going back and forth. These tigers must be dug deep into the promontory and escaped the brunt of the naval gunfire because they keep flaring up and hitting us in the ass.”

       Ori snorted....”Didn’t think cats could tunnel deeper than a litter box. Now old Fox Grey? Foxes can tunnel for sure.” Ori pointed at his flex cuffs....”Cut these stupid things off me Dori? I promise I won’t go running out...”

      Suddenly....Captain Oakley came bolting through the hooch opening! “If you’re wounded but can still shoot! Get on the line! Get on the line! If you can shoot at all?! Get on the line now!”

      “Captain?!” I screamed!

      “We’re getting swarmed up above! Everyone’s retreating back to the trench line! Everyone grab a weapon and get on the damn line now!” The Captain pushed the able bodied out as I whipped out a scalpel and cut the flex cuffs off Ori’s legs!

        “Give me my snit!” Ori yelped as I pushed a bag into his paws and he started throwing all his belts and amo packs on....”I’ll be right behind you Dori! Fricken move your butt!”

        I came slipping and flopping out of the opening just as Owen, Powen and Nori spilled over the lip of the trench in front of me cussing up a storm and re-gaining their footing to aim their weapons towards the promontory...I had an excuse to shoot at anything now since I was protecting the medical hooch and those who couldn’t get into this fast building fight ahead of us....

      “DAMN SON OF A HUTCH BITCH FLUCKERS!” Nori screamed as he scrambled to his feet, threw a magazine out of his rifle and slapped in “a fresh” “GAWD DAMN WE JUST GOT OUR TAILS SPANKED...SNIT!” Nori was raging as he flipped the by-pod legs at the end of his rifle barrel down and jammed them into the lip of the trench rim. “They’re really coming for our asses!”

      “What happened?!” I asked as I cocked the bolt on my snell rifle. Nori looked at my weapon, then his weapon, then he looked around...picked up an M-1 Magnum rifle and shoved it into my chest....

       “Frick that little pea shooter. You won’t drop snit with it.” He said as he rubbed my head tuft. “Stay right next to me “Door, Door” and aim for the chest, blow the fricken heart out!” 

       “What the frick happened Nori?!” I asked.

      “What didn’t happen?!” Nori snapped back. “Doesn’t everyone flopping tail holes and fat asses to get down here tell you enough?! Sheesh in Snit it looks like an illegal meat market up there right now...we just got our asses kicked!”

       Sure looked that way, I thought, as I scanned down the trench to see our Company a little light in the bulk items section...a lot of missing faces....a lot.....of missing.....mammals.

       “How many can they possibly have on this Island?” I asked. “Didn’t the pre-brief say only around a thousand?!”

       Powen snickered back...”Even we rabbits make multiplication mistakes from time to time. I’d say just on the hill side above us? They have an easy three thousand....Owen?!”

       Owen was busy on his phone....”No...that exaggeration is about to undergo a recalculation..."gun bunnies” plus a gazillion tigers equals goulosh! “Nuckles, Nuckles, Nuckles this is Plotch! Emergency fire mission! Grid 200 ex 267, direction triple nuts, distance eighty two, reduce to distance seventy! Rolling fire, HE and “Shrap” Danger close, danger close... Prepare for correction, fire on my command over?!”

      The artillery coordinator replied...."Plotch! Emergency fire mission! Grid 200 ex 267, direction triple nuts, distance eighty two, reduce to distance seventy! Rolling fire, HE and “Shrap” Danger close, danger close... Prepare for correction, fire on your command copy confirmed! Guard your balls!”

     I looked upwards towards the promontory in time to see something flying our through the smoke and haze....it bounced off my helmet and landed with a sick mushy sounding thud on the trench floor...

     A rabbit’s severed head......”Oh.....fluck?” I thought and “Oh fluck!” we got....oh fluck all right! A big bum rush of ten foot tall saber toothed tigers with foam pouring from their mouths like rabid zombies! Hundreds of them? Thousands of them? dressed in butternut colored uniforms with big bolt action rifles with even bigger “pig sticker” bayonets affixed to the ends of the barrels! Screaming and roaring like maddened demons, their maws bearing those killer saber teeth and their faces hard fixed, their eyes hell bent on killing all of us! 

     “Nuckles! Open fire!” Owen screamed into his phone as our whole trench line opened up on the incoming mass with rifles, BAR’s, machine guns, mortars parked behind us with the 105 artillery guns back behind them on the surf line lobbing shells close over our heads to explode among the charging throngs coming down the promontory!

     Nori slapped me off the head....”Why the fluck are you looking at me?! Aim and shoot “Door, Door! Damn!”

“BLAM,BLAM,BLAM,BLAM,BLAM....KABLOW!” Nori unloaded his BAR and punched Powen in the shoulder to cover him while he quickly slapped in a new fresh....

     “There’s too many of them!” I think I screamed. I’m not sure what I said as I pulled my trigger and my rifle didn’t fire...

     “Good! Then we can’t fricken miss!” Nori snapped back as he flipped his selector to single fire and started popping off shots as artillery shells began to blast the dirt dangerously close to our faces!

     “Safety Door, Door! Check your safety!” Nori yelped!

     “Click!”....”Oh? That’s what that’s for?!” I yelped.

     “Stupid ass!” Nori growled as he switched his selector back to full auto. “Oh you want the full course meal you ass holes!”

     First rule? Don’t panic. Second rule? Breath. Third rule...aw fluck it!” Popped off a shot....stupid ass....stop closing your eyes expecting the recoil. Three quick breaths....hold it.....”BLAM!” A Kzinti spins like a top as my magnum round blows his shoulder apart! Look for another target, something pings off my helmet....oh fluck! Grenade! Run, run, run rabbit! I grab Nori and throw him in front of me and feel a few splinters nail me in my tush...well good that I took em in the most safe and meaty parts of my body. I have just enough time to pull wads of cotton gauze from my pack and shove em down the back of my pants before I have to grab my rifle and unload a clip into a flying Kznti that just brushes my head before he crashes against the trench wall and flops down into a bullet absorbing heap as everyone close turns to destroy him!

    Everything looks like an artist drunk on booze and high on cat nip painted an absolutely gnarly landscape of death... explosions going off all over the place, bodies and parts of bodies flying through the air, Big mammals crashing into the charging hordes with face shots, knife stabs, bayonet slashings and all out efforts of brutality being waged between couples and groups. I watch a rhino Marine grab a Kzinti and just tear his mouth apart with his huge morphed hands before an enemy machine gun rips him apart...

     “CAPTAIN!” I scream as I see a Kzinti in feral form snatch Oakley off his feet seeking to rip him apart! No time to carefully aim, I unload my clip in haste and peg Oakly through his left leg as the Kzinti shakes him then drops him into the trench as his head explodes!

     “SIR!” I snatch the Captain and drag him behind me! “CAPTAIN! I’M SORRY!” I apologize for his wounding...

     “WHO CARES!” Oakley replies as he pulls out his magnum side arm and blows a Kzinti away that had just landed in the trench upon us! Ori comes up and helps me drag the Captain into the aid station!

     “FLUCK!” Ori screams as a Kzinti snatches him up by his shirt then gets dropped when Owen shots that bastard down while still on his phone!

     “WAY TO MULTI-TASK!” I think I screamed as Ori scrambles for his grenade rifle on the trench floor and cuts a round loose on a charging Kzinti! At such close quarters there’s no way he could miss. The “grape” punches into the stomach of the angry tiger and the look on his face was a mix of brutal realization and stunned curiosity....

      Before I watch him blown all over the place! Now we’re backed into the medical hooch...myself, Ori and a paw full of immobile wounded. It’s simple math at this point...how many bullets can you save to prolong your life against a swarm of hungry demon cats who want to rip you to shreds?

     That’s our world....all else outside is unimportant. We’re down to a few rifles, a few pistols, bayonets and knives, surgical blades, amputation saws and if it comes to it.....grenades and suicide. Not here! I’m not dying in a dug out! I take careful aim...I think I tried to tell everyone to take turns with what they had? I dunno...A Kzinti comes through the opening and I nail him in the face. Another pops through and we tear him up with bullets. Ori’s throwing grenades “short fuse”, let the spoon fly, count a dangerously slow five count and chuck em so they blow just beyond the doorway. Everything becomes hazy and detached as your body goes into automatic. Everything slows down, even the enemy muzzle flashes are as slow as flowers blooming on a nice spring morning.

November 17, 2041
“L" Day
Roya Island, Landing Zone Albany North
Rattleback Company inland 500 yards
2118 hours 9:18pm

       “Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ori? Not so fast!” I yelp as I cringe and bite hard into my medical pack as Ori pulls metal splinters out of my fluffy behind.
       “Believe me, I am having no pleasure looking at your butt, bro.” Ori snickers as he pulls another one...”That’s number thirteen. Want me to kiss it and make it better?”

       I look towards the opening as some Marines drag away the last of the Kzinti bodies. I counted ten stacked up inside the hooch...didn’t know just how many were outside and at the moment....”OUCH! DAMN!”....I didn’t.....really care I guess?

     I reach out to grab Captain Oakley’s paw....”Sir? Really? I’m sorry I nailed you.” I said for shooting Oakley in the leg.

     “I won’t put it on your service record.” Oakley replied as he rubbed the bandage...”You saved my ass, that’s what’s important.”

      Owen, Powen and Nori come walking through the opening...”Enjoying yourself Ori?” Owen asks as he thumps Ori off the head.

     “Not my type.” Ori replied as he patted and antiseptic patch on my last wound and noogied my head...”You do anything for attention you whore.”

      Captain Oakley looked up at Owen. “Expert artillery calls Sargent.”

       “Still didn’t stop them Sir.” Owen replied. “We got chewed up good. They’re still up there screaming snit down at us. We have a lot of wounded, I can’t find a Marine that’s not scratched up yet.”

       “Hopefully that was their maximum effort.” Powen said as he leaned against the Hooch wall. “They threw away a lot of tails and teeth in that splurge. If I were them? I wouldn’t do “that” again but I’m not a tiger so? They might try it again on some other part of the invasion ring. They almost broke this line though.”

        Oakley sighed....”We may have a little difficulty. I got word that the fleet has to pull away from here. We may be “tits” on supplies for a bit, intel says the Kzinti Mobile strike fleet might try to mount a big attack on Zootopia to sucker our support from here. We’re going to have to learn a little conservation.”

      Nori growled...”Please tell me we’re not going to stay locked up in this fricken trench line with no big support?”

      “We deal with it Nori...hush.” Owen replied pointing a paw finger. 

     Nori knelt down and rubbed my back as I lay on the mend for a moment...”You all right?”

     “Nice thing to ask when I got “shrap butt”. I replied. “How many did you kill?”

     “I lost count.” Nori replied. “Looking at what was pulled away from here? You were kept a little busy.”

      “Busy?!” Ori yelped. “Frith damn you call that busy?! Ori snapped as he pointed to the hooch opening. He then slumped to the floor...”Busy....?....I’m so fricken tired it’s not funny.”

       Tired? Ori was shaking. At one point it came down to him and a Kzinti with a blade....Ori was just two seconds faster. He looked down at his blood covered shirt and stood up...”Excuse me? I have to go and puke.” Ori said as he stumbled out of the hooch and blew chunks.

      Captain Oakley tried to stand up and Powen caught him. “Sir? You need to rest...you obviously lost a lot of blood.” Powen said as he drapped an arm over his shoulders...

     “Sargent Hopps?” Oakley called my brother Owen over to his side. “We need to blunt any future charges which means we need to clamp teeth on their tails for a change and make them piss in their own holes. We have the best rifleman in our company, can you build a team around him and go snipe out some of their senior leaders? Junior officers? NCO’s?”

      Powen nodded. “Need you have to ask?”

      “After the mess they did on that hill?” Nori yelped! “Begging the Captain’s pardon Sir but? I mean....Powen’s good for comfortable long range shots, please don’t tell me you want up close and personal with those walking fruit slicers?”

     “Are you doubting me?” Powen asked Nori. “You don’t have to attend this party?”

     “The fluck I don’t.” Nori grumbled back. “Sticking with you seems to be working for us so far. I was just showing concern for my favorite brother.”

      “You filthy whore!” I yipped at Nori, which got everyone laughing.

      “Do you five always find a way to make things funny?” Oakley snorted.

      “It’s the only way we keep sane in all this mess.” Nori huffed back. “So what’s the plan Owen? Do I pre-baste myself with gravy or would they like balsamic sauce with onions? I could put an apple in my mouth and wear paper booties?”

        Owen pulled out a map of the island and skimmed his paw finger over the dirty and torn paper....”We know they have tunnels up there.... machine guns for certain, here, here and here. Mortars pits....here, here and here. Some where up there....there has be a central distribution point for Amo. And not too far off from the Amo? Headquarters.”

       “Blow the Amo?” Powen asked.

      “At least for one sector.” Owen snorted. “Perhaps we get lucky and that daisy chains into one or two more piles. Maybe a sudden massive loss of amo and supplies will change these cats minds about committing more massed charges on us?”

      “Or? Provoke them into an all or nothing splurge.” Powen replied. “Which could be worse for us.”

      “Unless?” Ori said as he poked his head in on the conversation. “Unless? We find the rocket base up there and blow those rockets sky high? Just saying brothers? That is our mission right?”

      “And you have a master plan for such an adventure I assume Ori?” Powen said smirking. “I’m pretty sure the Kzinti have taken all that into consideration. There’s probably no rockets left up there...number one... and number two? They probably expect us to try it. I’m not in a hurry to end up naked with a skewer through my tail hole just yet thank you.”

     I hobbled over to the group and put my arms around Powen and Owen....”Ummm brothers? Do you think we have some Tanuki’s in this invasion force of ours?”

November 17, 2041
“L" Day
Roya Island, Landing Zone Albany North
Rattleback Company inland 500 yards
2300 hours 11:00pm

       They come mostly from the Marshlands in Zootopia in small tribal communities. The Tanuki (Tah-New-key) are of the raccoon family though they’re nick named “Dogs” because of their size, Tanuki are about twice as large as the average raccoon and bulkier than honey badgers but their strength alone as Mustalde isn’t their chief natural skill.

      Tanuki and Otters form the Recon branch of the Fleet Marines, the mammals who thrive in water and live to be a pain in the ass to our enemy. Otters alone, from the stories we were reading on-line and in the newspapers, were making the Kzinti occupation of the Outback Islands a troublesome enterprise. The Tanuki however....sought the shadows over loud execution and fancy headlines. What separates the Tanuki from the otters? Shape shifting.

      All Tanuki are capable of changing their forms to become something or some one. I got a sample of their handy work during the first rocket attack on Zootopia when...short of a proper table to aid the injured and wounded....a big Tanuki transformed himself into a medicl table and a quite above quality medical lamp. Tanuki’s can change and hold different forms for different lengths of time depending on what they or others require. I could only guess what wild idea was working around in Owen’s head as he waited for the “Racky dogs” to show up, which didn’t take long.

      Two Taniki came through the hooch opening, a big burley and obviously older Sargent and behind him a young and more slender Corporal. Both were dressed in olive drab green combat uniforms with wide brim green floppy Jungle hats. The Tanuki preferred to operate at night because of their excellent night vision which is about fifty times more acute than we rabbits.

     Sargent Ganta walked up to Owen...His size made my brother look like a stick in comparison....”You called?” He asked with a deep and determined voice.

    “How are you and your Corporal with shape shifting?” Owen asked.

    “About as good as you can ask for.” Ganta replied as he gestured for his companion, his name was Sokuchi (Sew-Koo-Chee), to come and sit with Owen. “Sho here is pretty gifted. What’s the mission?”

    “I need you two too become Kzinti and take myself and my brothers Nori, Powen and Ori up the promontory. Two fold objective....kill some of their senior leaders if possible...find their main cash of ammunition and blow it up a definite must.”

      Sokuchi pondered....”Hmm....lots of mental energy Sarge.” Sokuchi said to Ganta. “What are we looking at for a time?”

      “About....fifteen minutes up...maybe twenty at the most to look around and about seven to haul tail back here provided we don’t stop to piss or smoke.” Owen replied.

      “Fourty five to an hour.” Ganta said as he thought. “We have some of the basic “lingo” from our briefings but we’re going to be stretching it if we end up in conversations with these cats. And if we get into tangles with them? This is going to be an interesting feat to pull off.”

      “As if you ever let doubts sway your fun meter Sarge.” Sokuchi snickered. “I’m all for it, count me in!”

      I had my reservations...”I’d ask to come along but of course I’ll get the standard answer so I won’t ask.” I said to my brothers as they gathered with the two Tanuki to decide how to best and swiftly complete their mission...

      “Dori?” Nori turned to me. “Gather up some other Marines and get us two full uniforms, some of their gear and bring a dead Kzinti in here so these two have something to go on when they change.”

       To say that Tanuki are not “anal” when they plan to transform is an understatement. We dragged a dead Kzinti into the Hooch and it took Ganta and Sokuchi almost two hours to scrutinize every line, every hair, every tooth, every whisker....nothing was over looked, even their study and prodding of the Kzinti’s “Cub makers” made it sound like I was attending a medical symposium rather than sitting in combat.

       Sokuchi was the first...taking all his clothes off, since clothing can’t be transformed with the Tanuki. I got a good look at the legendary Raccoon “Purse bag”......um......nuts...

      “What Doc?” Sokuchi asked as he stood shaking his arms...”Is? Something wrong?”

     “Oh no!” I replied. “No....no absolutely not. You know Corporal? Just wondering with all the stories and myths....

     Suddenly....I found myself sitting on a very think and very comfortable rug....then I realized I was actually sitting on Sokuchi’s....um.....his......his “hack sack”...

     “Myth’s proven Doc.” Sokuchi giggled. “And no...I’m not in pain because you’re sitting on it obviously.” Sokuchi retracted his “change purse” back to its’ normal size.

     “You’re astounded.” Sokuchi said smirking. “So was the last Kzinti I stranged to death with it.”

      Powen winced...”That? That was “Way Over”: TMI! I didn’t need that visual.”

      “Also works well like a set of nice Nunchucku.” Ganta snickered as he swayed his body to show off his “Rack-dowments”

     Ori shivered...”Please stop “kerbanging” your “Ken-knockers? Ouch! Mine are in my mouth!”

    Captain Oakley woke up from sleeping. “Sargents’ Hopps and Ganta? Are you going to move tails and butts or wait till the enemy has the advantage of daylight to kill all of you?”

      Sokuchi waisted no time. He stretched his arms over his head, took in a very deep breath, brought the paws down together over his chest and jumped into a forward airborne summersault!

     And it wasn’t a dramatic light show and smoke spectacle. One second Sokuchi was flipping in the air....the next he was a nude Kzinti stretching his huge spit dripping maw over my head....

    “Well Doc?” Sokuchi asked me. “Impressed?”

    Needless to say I was “overly so” impressed given the swiftness of how the transformation went. I watched Sokuchi collect the enemy uniform and other items and get dressed while his Sargent also quickly transformed himself...

“Kon'ya shōka suru tame ni ōku no subarashī chīsana usagi.”

“Many a splended little bunny to digest tonight.” Sargent Ganta said as he swung his tiger tail around in his paw. 

I couldn’t help it of course. This attempt Owen and the rest were going to make was extremely hazardous and I don’t mind saying now that my thoughts were swamped with “Doom and Gloom" as I hugged each of my brothers, tried a little dissuading and watched as of 1:30 in the morning as they all followed the transformed “Racky dogs” out of the hooch. I would have written their descriptions of what happened next but I’ll let Owen put that adventure in his own book...when ever mister lazy tail makes time to write it. All I can describe are the external events, like the artillery barrages that blinded me as I leaned against the trench wall praying my tail of to Frith and the sounds of our diversion attack from the southern end of the island. It was almost one hour after they had begun that my brothers, Sargent Ganta and Corporal Sokuchi were all tail and tucked ass bounding and falling down the promontory screaming everyone to get on the line!

“Boof!” “Oh yeah! They’re fricken pissed now!” Nori growled loudly as he flopped into the trench!

Powen just casually hopped in...”Not exactly....”

“KABOOM!” A huge explosion with many smaller secondary bangs happened at the top of the promontory....”Um? Now they’re pissed off.” Powen said calmly.

Nori was almost pissing himself...”I got him! I got their rat faced cock sucker colonel! Shot him right in the fricken puss! TAKE THAT YOU OVERSIZED CAT SAND BOX DUMPING MOTHER FLUCKER!”

Owen flopped into the trench and raised his Magnum carbiner up the slope...”Get ready because they’re coming our way again!” He shouted up and down the trench line...”Nori?! Get my radio! Good work brother!”

“You should have seen it “Door, Door” fricken beautiful! Sargent Ganta’s carrying me in his jaws....”

“NORI! CUT THE BULL SNIT AND BRING MY DAMN RADIO!” Owen shouted!

“I’ll tell you later Dori.....exclusive!” Nori said proud and pleased of himself as he snatched the radio pack. To see my brothers behaving as if they’d just been on a Sunday Picnic was a little disturbing for me...then again, that’s how they acted when they pulled of mischief and scams as kittens so I wasn’t “too disturbed......” Much.

  We all braced ourselves for the coming surge against the wall of the trench line. A fox who’d been “gut shot” flopped into the wall next to me grimacing as he tried to steady his rifle...

   “What do you think you’re doing?!” I yelped as I wrapped my arms around the grey and black vulpine as he weakly tried to stand....

    “Better to die on my feet than....” I lowered him down to the trench floor and yelled for Powen to help me get him back into the hooch then the world fricken exploded on us!”

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

     Artillery shells slammed over, around and in the trench line catching and massacring a new wave of arrivals as they were just coming in off the beach! We didn’t think that was all that was coming down on us but it was enemy suppression fire to keep all of us on the north end of Roya pinned down while the Kzinti threw a bulk assault against the Southern beachhead. Our side made them pay dearly only a few hours ago, now our troops in the South were the one’s on the “Dinner dish” and they caught hell.

    Owen came into the hootch and snatched Powen by his shirt...”We gotta move up now! We have to go! We have to attack!”

    Owen looked at me then waved a paw. “Get up Dori, you too.”

    I looked around at the wounded...”Some one’s gotta stay with...”

    “Relief’s coming up.” Owen huffed. “We can’t spare snit, the South’s getting their tails chopped to hell, we have to attack to relieve the pressure, get your butt in gear.”

    I snatched my medical pack and my snell gun...”Owen? I’m not supposed to....”

    “Rules fall in combat Dori, we can’t spare snit. Gear up!” Owen replied. “If you have to tend to a wounded? You got an excuse now move ass!”

    I came out of the hootch to see some of our landing vehicles and the first tanks with their 75 millimeter guns were parking at the edge of the trench line and were pouring machine gun and high explosive rounds over the side of the promontory. Some of the “Gun Bunnies” were also showing up having lugged their artillery guns off the beach.

    “Hopps!” someone screamed and a Corps-mammal I knew from my school class, “Franky Vestler” a grey and walnut rabbit, snatched me by my arm...

    “Where’s your set up?!” He asked.

    I told him where the hootch was and how many mammals were inside and he slapped me on the back. “Good luck! The South Beach looks like a “lemming fest”. Take care of yourself!”

    I waved good bye and joined with my brothers as we started slogging up the Promontory. Nori pulled himself in front of me....

    “Cut it out!” I yelped at him. “Frith damn it Nori...If we’re gonna take the risk then we take it evenly!”

    “Don’t get fussy!” Nori snapped back at me. “If you go down, we might all be screwed so keep your place!”

    “Quit the bull snit and keep your eyes sharp!” Owen snapped at us! “They have spider holes all over this damn hill, they can jump out and bite your....”

    One Kzinti tried...in his feral form. All I saw was a flying naked tiger. Then I saw a flying naked tiger with half his head gone...

    “You were saying Owen?” Powen said calmly after he bagged that cat.

    Ori caught another Kzinti trying to scramble out of a spider hole! He sprinted quickly, leaped into the air, came crashing down on the Tiger’s head with his feet, kicked him back into the hole and popped a grenade round from his M-79 Grape gun into the opening...

    And got what he deserved for being too cavalier and close...he crashed back to the ground screaming with pepper fragments in his furry butt! What was it with us and our butts becoming abused targets...I dunno and I don’t want to ask. Nori bounded the fifteen or so yards to snag Ori and drag him into a shell hole so I could treat him.

    The night progressed like a constant “photo shoot” of bright flashes from artillery rounds, tracer rounds, grenade and satchel charge detonations as our company clawed and ground up the hill side in a seesaw of attack and counter attack. We’d gain feet, loose inches, gain inches and lose yards. Finally we all had to dig in as the Kzinti realized their Southern assault was now under pressure from behind and they were forced to come swinging back at us. The battle now settled into a pattern than would repeat like a busted old vinal record for a week. How many tigers could you actually fit on a damn eight square mile island? Guess the real question was...”How deep could they possibly dig on a lousy eight square foot island?

    A sound caught my attention and I looked up to see a bright flame contrail coming off of something that was shooting from the sumit, as if the Kzinti were saying...”You may be here but we can still shoot at your homes. Are you willing to die for them on this stupid island?” Looking at the faces of my comrades and my brothers...we were more pissed off than willing. The Kzinti were rubbing all our faces in snit with every rocket they were able to still shoot over our heads.

    Then came the lulls, the long silences where nothing happens and you swear you’re sitting for hours in torturous anticipation but they only lasted for a few minutes....perhaps as long as a half an hour. The bastards on the top play “Kznti Sissy” or “Sin Zin” on loudspeakers to try and break our will...often....they mingle it in with torturing a prisoner, usually a rabbit they caught. They played that sultry music “Sin Zin” runs from her record collection while they skin a bunny alive of his pelt...after which they chucked the poor earless bastard at us just close enough to piss off a few of us...who then get shot to pieces trying to help the crying suffering rabbit. We, my brothers and I, had to gang tackle Nori to keep him from rushing up that hill to a certain death.

     Powen, if he could, would mercy kill the poor victim and my often stoic brother would sit looking perfectly composed but you couldn’t miss the trickle tears down his face...

    They called this...”Baptism of fire.”....I think most of us just called it...

    “Fluck.”

End of Chapter 15