Setting Up Shop

Concrete pulverized into dust and steel reduced to bits of scrap. You know the look. Destroyed multi-story buildings that have seen too much fighting again and again. And again. Like Stalingrad in 1941 or Berlin in ‘45. This part of Pyongyang used to be really nice. The Kim family generously allowed foreigners to travel in this part of the city to show off how prosperous and proper their nation was. See? This is our nation and it is a great country for the people. No! you must stay in this section of the city. No, we are not hiding anything from you.

Back when the fighting lulled for a moment, Tyler asked himself if these clowns honestly thought the rest of the world bought their bullshit Not that it mattered. Everything in Pyongyang that could burn was and the rest was crumbling into ruin. He was thankful for the first. Electricity was one of the first casualties and night had fallen. His team was trying to hold out in the remains of some two story shop that is somehow still standing. Corporal- check, First Lieutenant Emond was starting to get worried. The fighting had been going on for over a day.

The only reason his packs are fighting here is because they are a diversion for the main strike force targeting the military buildup around the rift. Go in, seek retribution for the atrocities committed on the Mist Continent and be the center of Kim Jong Un’s attention for a few hours. Tyler scoffed to himself. No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Shots rang out and rounds smashed into the wall behind them. Everyone ducked down. Nope those weren’t friendlies. The good guys and girls were using enchanted rifles that suppressed the sound by as much as fifty percent, magic suppressors could take off another eighty. Mamono with enhanced hearing were always grateful for quiet rifles. A Salamander raised her claw cannon up over the window frame and let off a short burst back at the Koreans.

No, Tyler thought. Fuck political correctness. What actually happened was the Salamander let off a short burst at the goddamned commie gooks. Another round of shots came from the North Koreans. One of those rounds went through the wall and ricocheted off of his helmet. That did it for him. He vowed then and their that if he survived this battle that he would retire from every form of military service.

After he left the U.S. Army at the age of twenty-four, he made a career of being an adventurer and private security contractor. Then he was fighting once again in forty-four. The situation had gotten too hairy for Mamono kind and the Order when Anon, the sixth monster to hold the title of Demon Lord tried to take his title back from the Great Succubutt. Now Tyler was fifty-seven years old. No Incubus wants to spend his whole life being a soldier. No, not even if it puts food on the table for two wives and four children.

“Anybody got any forty mils left?” He called out before letting out a burst from his RMG27. The ammo drum was running dry too fast. He didn’t really expect anyone to have a good answer to his question.

“I still got two, sir.” A Werewolf by the name of Tassi responded when everyone else said negative. Tyler got up to a crouching position. He was going to do something really stupid that his wives and daughters would never be hearing about for his own sake.

“Give one to Gertrude and both fire when I give the signal.” The Werewolf and the Ogre both had underslung 40mm grenade launchers on their AKs. The idea was to fire both at the same time for suppressing fire. Then Emond would fly out of the building and kill the rest of the Korean infantry from above. He spread his wings out and got ready for his grand, crazy plan. With both launchers loaded, Tassi and Gertrude both nodded at him.

“Fire!”

They did. Tyler frowned as both bounced away from their targets without exploding.

The Koreans didn’t even try to get away from the duds. Instead, they threw them away and continued to fire shots at a constant rate to keep the soldiers in the store pinned down. Someone remarked that the enemy was just showing off now. An Amazoness with nothing else at hand chucked a piece of brick and knocked out one of Kim’s boys. She wasn’t the only one that ran out of ammo. A few of Tyler’s soldiers didn’t have mags loaded into their guns. Tyler cursed his luck. It seemed Ares wasn’t making things easy for them today.

“Sergeant check the communication lines.” He called over to a blue haired lass. She did her very best to stimulate herself under the current circumstances with one hand and sent the generated charge through a metal nub on her satchel.

“Line’s good.” She acknowledged after hearing the tone from her ear buds.

“Thanks for keeping your baby safe in this mess.” Emond said after crawling over debris and less pleasant things to get over to the Raiju. He plugged into the radio and checked his throat mike to see if it was still working. The Raiju nodded again when his voice came clear enough in her buds. The Koreans chose that moment to give off a thunderous war cry. Tyler flipped a channel switch and began shouting for artillery or air support. A faint voice came over the other line. No not a voice. Tyler couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It sounded like moaning.

Tyler punched through the looted glass display. “For the love of Jesus H. Christ and Aros, of all times why now?” Any moment the warriors of the hermit kingdom were going to charge across the street and over run their little patch of Pandemonium and the artillery bitches chose now to get screwed? The Lieutenant needed a new plan.

“Okay ladies, new exit strategy. Gertrude, Tassi, and Nejub, Break down that back wall. I don’t care how, get it done.” As the Werewolf, Amazoness, and the Ogre started beating on the back wall with the butts of their rifles.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUURRRAAAAAAAHHHHH…

To Tyler, it sounded like a Soviet cry to charge forward. The lieutenant began screaming his identification into the radio and demanding artillery support. Meanwhile the three ladies seemed to have hit a layer of metal while trying to break through. If nothing happened soon, their position would become a bloodbath. A Kobald started whimpering and Tyler felt a knot forming in his chest. They were all going to die and he was the one responsible. He looked back in time to see Tassi get hit by a dozen rounds of gunfire. Thank God and Unlimited Defense Industries for body armor. The Werewolf lay their dazed and confused before getting back up and continuing to beat at the metal wall with her gun. Not that it would make much difference.

The Koreans charged forward from their position across the street. Tyler and the remaining soldiers with ammo shot back. If only we had magic, he thought as the machine gun ran dry. A dozen Koreans fell and a hundred continued charging. Tyler froze, unwilling to believe this was happening. One in the front of the charge was saved when his rifle bit the bullet for him. He continued charging as fast a he could and slammed into Tyler.

Fiona, Nyu Nyu, Pew Pew, Athena…

With a fanatical gleam in his eye, the North Korean put all of his strength into wrapping his hands around Tyler’s throat.

“Yallah, Minister Emond sir, wake up. Wake up. You are disturbing the others.”

The choking hands of the communist soldier, so forceful with the intent to kill, lessened until they were nothing but a pair of black, canine paws gently shaking against his shoulders. Tyler looked up at the Anubis that had been pulling him from the same haunting nightmare for a month now. The Incubus was confused and his hart was racing just like it had forty years ago in Pyongyang.

“Tassi, did you break through?”

“No sir. I’m Saffron. And If I broke through anything here, we would only be alive for as long as we could hold our breath.”

Tyler rolled over and fell out of the bed, almost tripping the Anubis.

“Careful sir. It is only a cot, not a full size bed.” She said while helping him to his feet. Tyler rubbed the crust from his eyes. The room wasn’t illuminated by burning trash, the light came from the electric glow of a projected monitor and lights built into the wall. He remembered now. This wasn’t North Korea or anywhere else on Earth. They were on one of the moons orbiting Terra.

Tyler apologized and asked her for a drink of water. The Incubus and the Anubis went through this ritual every time he suffered a night terror. At first the Anubis was awed by the man that bridged two worlds and saved his packs from destruction in the Pyongyang Raid. But she had lost most respect after tending to him  like this for a month. It’s not like it happened every night, only when he wasn’t sleeping beside Fiona or Nyu Nyu. Someone fucked up the schedules so the three hardly ever had time together. The problem was only compounded when Nyu Nyu had to be taken back down to Terra before she could go into labor.

Space exploration was supposed to be a wonderful adventure but Tyler couldn’t wait until this assignment was over.