General Udocki

Brushing leaves and branches from his face as he ran, Doc sprinted through the undergrowth of the Russian forest. Various cuts and scrapes had run along his face even before he had started running, but they were quickly added to as the lean lupine ran. The loud and recognizable tat-tat of an AK-47 ripped through the forest behind the fleeing mutt, tearing saplings and shrubs to pieces mere feet behind him. Knowing full well that any pause or hesitation in his escape would spell death, he continued on through the lashing out trees and leaves. Another AK joined the spraying gun, tearing pieces out of the forest around Doc.

The cliff which the dog had been charging towards came into view suddenly as the woods broke to jagged rocks. Three quick hops later, and the small frame of a dog went over the edge of the cliff, followed by the puffs of dust caused by stray rounds hitting the stones above. The deep, guttural howl of Doc boomed out as he began to plummet to the gagged ledge hundreds of feet below, signaling he had not only escaped, but relishing in that fact. Small ‘wings’ sprouted from the bag on the back of the falling mutt, which unfolded into much larger instruments of flight. A fabric-composite strung along the aluminum-alloy wing support rods which spread more than ten feet wide behind the falling beast. The fabrics rippled and twitched till they filled with air, bring the rapid descent to a much slower coast.

As he coast over the dead forest beneath him, black glider keeping him suspended in the air for far longer than normal, he marveled at the view beneath him. If not for the dire circumstances which had forced him to leap, he would have had a camera and immortalized the view beneath him on film. He steered the wings around so that he would return to the cliff; a cave at the base of the cliff where he was headed. He was more than halfway done with his descent at this point, and had begun to question the integrity of the wings on his back as he was falling a tad too fast. Spotting the cave he needed to be in, he turned a little more to line up for it and prepared to land on the rocky surface in front of the cave.

When his descent neared its conclusion, around fifty feet from the ground, he pulled back on the wings sharply and hoped the drag created would stop his falling. This worked to a degree, but failed to stop his descent altogether as he still hit the compacted dirt and rocks at the cave entrance with considerable force. Upon the thud of landing, he fell forward and landed on his face with the metal-and-fabric contraption tumbling in a heap behind him. It ended up on top of him and rather broken at that, aluminum rods bent and twisted with the fabric ripped and wound around it.

“Damn, that one hurt… “ Doc muttered as he stood up and dusted himself off, shaking the bag off of him after he unclipped it. A light sigh came from him as he stretched, back bending into a curve as he did so and his arms stretched far above his head. He turned to face the broken bag-flying-mess, gave himself a shake as only canines can, and turned back to face the cave. The heap was a total loss again, and that was the third one of them he had broken to boot. Sighing again, he began slowly walking towards the mouth of the cave, which was mere feet from where he had landed so clumsily seconds earlier. A light limp was in his step as he had landed feet-first, and the jolt had been rather damaging to the integrity of his legs. The limp wasn’t Doc’s only concern either, as blood leaked from his nose too, that face plant right after the landing having done its share of damage too.

Peering into the darkness that was the cave he needed to enter, a certain chill ran down his spine which he knew was not a good one. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and his ears perked up intently while he waited apprehensively at the mouth of the cavern. Getting down on all fours, he took a few sniffs at the dirt in front of him with his wet, bleeding nose. The scent from days past wafted up into his nostrils, and a low growl came from deep in his chest, causing him to slightly vibrate; one of those smells had not been to his liking. In a flash, one so quick that a blink would have blocked the scene from view, the lupine un-holstered two Berettas at his thighs and spun around 180 degrees, pointing them both at the cheetah which had appeared behind him.

“Name and rank?” The dog snarled, slowly rising the rest of the way to his feet with both pistols aimed at the yellow-and-white feline crouched in front of him. The cheetah’s shocked expression had been replaced by a smirk at this point, as he too stood to face Doc. The canine’s unwavering expression showed no change whatsoever as he saw this. “I won’t ask again,” Doc snarled again, his fingers on the triggers and ready to kill the intruding beast with a couple of quick squeezes.

“Lieutenant Colonel Jason Uhei of U.T.A.E in Migrand City, sir.” The dog’s stone face and the fact that the two nine-millimeter pistols were still aimed at Jason’s head indicated he had forgotten to divulge a key piece of information. The cheetah stared back at Doc for a quick second before snapping his fingers and reacting. “Zero Two Epsilon Delta Delta Fifteen Charlie Epsilon. My I.D. number sir, my apology for not saying so sooner.” The annoyed lupine nodded and holstered both guns, eyeing the cheetah for a second before extending a paw.

“General Udocki Mohoo of Migrand City’s C.D.B., I.D. One One Three Charlie Tango Five Seven Epsilon One. Welcome aboard, Lieutenant Colonel, do you know the current situation?”

“Yes sir, I do. A rebel detachment of A.F.s have seized a twenty-seven kiloton fission warhead and plant to not only mount it to a New Kaokin rocket, but launch it at Migrand City. Our mission is to disa-“

“Spoken like a true A.F., let’s just get this over with, shall we?” The cheetah began to apologize again, but the general waved him off and gestured to the mouth of the cave. “Defenses, please?” Jason nodded and closed his eyes, reopening them a moment later with not eyes, but binocular-looking scopes sticking out where they had once been. The lenses of these extended scopes were red and constantly flickering, appearing to be zooming in and peering around the cave as they took picture after picture.

“Laser defenses, a turret, fourteen armed guards, two civilians, an autoturret, and a tank all waiting sir.”

“Paint my eyes and tell me when the guards aren’t looking.”

“Roger.”

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.