Good Morning...2043?!

Chapter 11 - The Test / Part 1 [EDITED]

Jonathan POV

I had been staring out of the window for the longest time, watching the endless forest go by, tree after tree. It made me wish living in Washington, not having to worry about the VN, or more presently, any Anthros who may not enjoy the fact of the human working with the UFN. At least a select few members of this squad that I've temporarily been assigned to seems to enjoy my company, or at least the music I play. I glanced back to see that about half of them still seemed to be enjoying it, the squad leader, Ash, was still giving me a death glare. I rolled my eyes and turned back to the window. I saw that we were beginning to descend into what appeared to be an abandoned amusement park. I gripped my rifle and stopped my R2R, before quickly unplugging the cord from it.

The Anthros picked up their own respective firearms and stood up, which was a bit difficult to do in the cramped confines of the chopper. "This is your pilot speaking, we are currently landing at the crash site, check your weapons and gear. Stay frosty." I slid open the door and hopped out, aiming my M16 and scanning for any threats. Seeing none, I lowered my rifle slightly and turned to see the rest of the squad hopping off. I took a chance to observe my surroundings. A run-down house with a large sign out front quickly caught my attention.

'Nuke Town? What a weird name to put on a town, but whatever.' I turned to Ash. "So, where's this chopper crash?" She pulled out a much larger rectangular device than the General had used and seemed to play with it for a moment, before pointing roughly towards a large ferris wheel. "Scanners say the ELT is giving off its signal in that direction. Let's move people." I simply nodded respectively, and we slowly started making our way in the suspected direction.

-Time Skip-

We had been walking for a while, occasionally clearing houses, calling out for the crew, but so far, there was zero activity. The only remote sign of life was the occasional human skeleton lying forlorn around the place. We had long ago found the chopper, but it was most completely twisted and charred, its tail rotor just peeking out of an abandoned brick building. While the main cabin was relatively intact, strings and chunks of battered steel, wads of wires and hydraulic lines, all destroyed. No bodies had been found luckily, which signified that the crew was likely still alive, just in hiding. "I don't know guys, maybe that militia unit picked them up and gave them a ride back." I heard Ash scoff behind me. "Negative human, that's highly irrelevant, the unit is known to have executed UF personnel also, and even if that is true, we would've been informed." I chuckled at her matter-of-fact way she stated it. "That's probably the most decent thing I've heard you say for the entire duration since we met." She growled and whipped around to face me. "At least I don't look like some furless ape!" I chuckled and scanned the rooftops. "Give me a reason to, and you will be one." I suddenly spotted a slight glint on top of the church steeple.

"POI, about half a klick out, church steeple." There was a ping and a small cloud of dust was suddenly kicked up about an inch in front of me. "SNIPER! Get to cover!" I dove behind a concrete barrier and peered out. I could see Ash, Marcus, and Tammy behind an old military truck, while Adley and Fisher were with me. Todd had gotten separated and was pinned down behind a jeep. "Todd!" He turned to face me, and I could see the fear in his eyes, as he knew he was pinned down. "When I saw, get over to me, alright?!" He nodded, and I quickly switched my rifle to semiauto, before peeking out of cover and firing a few shots at the steeple.

Todd dashed out of cover; He was about to reach us when-"AUGH!" The sniper managed to hit him in the leg, and he went down. "THROWING SMOKE!" I grabbed one of my M35 smoke grenades and threw it just past Todd's injured self, deploying a thick screen of cover. I ran over and hoisted him over my shoulder, managing to get him over to the combat medic. I reached into my pack and pulled out my scope.

I quickly took off the attachment pin and attached it to the carry handle. Peering out of cover, I lined up the sniper glint between the crosshairs. BANG! BANG BANG! Squeezing off three shots, I watched as the glint disappeared, and could just barely see the faint silhouette of an Anthro tumble forward and off the steeple. "Tango down, one injured friendly." I put my 'brick' back onto my belt and looked back at Todd. His pant leg had been rolled up, and I could see there was ballistic armor inside the Anthro's pants, ensuring the only injury he had sustained from the sniper shot was a bruise. I saw him looking at me, an appreciative smile on his face. "Thank human, I thought I was done for sure!" I smiled back and took the scope off my rifle. "No biggie, just doing the right thing."

Her scowl turned into a grim smile. "Alright human, maybe you're not just some deadbeat fuck after all." She put her hand on her headset. "This is Ash, the human has possible confirmation on the missing chopper crew in the Church, on our way over now." We started walking over, when I felt a furry paw on my shoulder. I turned to see Todd, closely followed by Tammy. "Why'd you save me though? You weren't under any obligation or force." I simply clapped him on the back. "Buddy, I'm trying to establish that I have no ill-intentions toward any of you all. However, should any ah, let's say bad news were to arise on how you treat human refugees, that would prove to be an issue." I could see a look of understanding slowly dawn on the two, and I faced forward again, looking towards the church steeple.

??? POV

I was sitting down in my makeshift office, casually playing with the radio. "This is Charlie-Lead to Charlie-07, how copy over?" I didn't hear anything on the other end, simply the static from the background. "This is Charlie-03, we just heard several shots in the East Sector near Charlie-07's location, do you want us to send a squad over?" I smirked and pressed the radio to my muzzle. "A-firm, if you see any of the UF, kill them on-site, but if you see a human, capture them alive, and we will torture it." I set the radio back on my desk and looked towards a male human in a cage; trembling with fear. "Speaking of which..." I picked up a bayonet and started towards the cage.