Soldiers And Beasts

8. John And Ruth's Reconnaissance Mission

(Minor Gore Warning)

John Pov.

I couldn't exactly believe what was happening - what was happening right now, I mean. I don't think I've ever been put on a Reconnaissance-sort-of mission before, even when I have spent most of my youth in the Kingsmen. They never did put me in any missions that involved reconnaissance. They would only send me into battle once the fight was on. Those were the only times I was sent anywhere - just to fight Anthros.

Ruth, Sable, Hogan, Dario, and I walked over the bridge. Sable, Hogan, and Dario were already on the other side of the bridge. However, when Ruth and I were halfway over the bridge, Lt. General Hoffman called out for her. Ruth turned around and walked back to her, they were talking for a brief moment and I saw Lt. General Hoffman give something to Ruth. Ruth took it and looked at the object in her hand which I didn't know what it was, and it wasn't until Ruth came to me and handed the object to me - it was just a typical black balaclava.

I stared at the mask for a moment with some confusion, and then I turned to Ruth who was waiting for me to ask her a specific question. "What the hell is this for?" I ask her as I turn to look at Lt. General Hoffman, who waved at me as she stood on the other end of the bridge. "She said it's to protect your identity," Ruth said, glancing at Lt. General Hoffman over her shoulder.

"Lt. General Hoffman is being all 'mommy-paranoid' about the supposition that some of these guys will identify you the moment they see your face if they are to discover you by accident. And, well, I don't think I can blame her. She has a point, you know when you think about it. We don't know if some of these guys know you, and that's a risk we can't take." As I finished listening to Ruth, I came to understand her worry - better yet, I agreed with it.

It was possible that some of these people - should they see me - would report me to not only the main man of Dr.Attwell's army but the Kingsmen as well if they found out who I was. That is if these guys are allied with the Kingsmen, then again, all human armies are allied, but I never heard of any Kingsmen having any allies in the past.

"Thanks," I said, taking my beret off, putting the balaclava on, and then putting my beret back on, fixing it onto my head. "Come on, let's get going. I'm sure that we're going to need to gather a whole lot more, surely Lt. General Hoffman won't be happy if we return to the settlement empty-handed." The others all laughed as we walked further into the rest of Castle Evenings.

As we made it over the bridge, I knew that we were going to be encountering trouble along the way the more we descend into the rest of Castle Evenings. "Alright, we made it over the bridge," Hogan said nonchalantly. Every one of us give him a "Wow, nice observation, captain obvious" look to the back of his head as he stood in front of us, glancing left and right at all of the houses in Castle Evenings. "Where should we start, do you think?" Sable asks, stepping forward beside Hogan. "I don't know, there's plenty of houses, but I don't think it'll take long to find some of these assholes lingering about. I don't think we'll even need to go any further from where we are. How they haven't heard us approaching, I don't know, but what I do know is that all we need to do is just go for a little walk around the neighborhood and we'll be seeing enemy troops very soon." Hogan started walking further into Castle Evenings, with the rest of us following behind him.

We - Ruth, Dario, and I - shared a glance at each other, not knowing what to make of Hogan's words. "I mean, I'm not going to lie, I think he has a point. Castle Evenings should be overrun with a lot of enemy troops at this point. Hell, they've been having Castle Evenings since ever, so we'll probably run into maybe a house full of these bastards. Oh yeah, that reminds me, now that we're here, there's a possibility we'll finally find out who these guys are." I hate to say it, but admittedly, I did forget that the first guys we fought back in Ironfield Cantonment were not soldiers of Dr.Attwell's private army, but rather a militia that they paid. Then again, all of that money should not have been worth the expenses because they got overpowered easily. Well, these guys probably don't even care about the militia they hired so it's safe to say that regardless of the expenses, they could just buy another one.