Penguins of Anarchy

Ten

Early in the morning, Drake woke with a start.  He could hear the faint sound of a helicopter thumping in the distance.

Dreemo was in the bed next to him, so Drake shook him awake.  "Dreemo!  Dreemo, get up!"

Dreemo moaned.  "What time is it?"

"Doesn't matter!  I hear a heli nearby!"  Drake grabbed the neckline of Dreemo's shirt and yanked him out of the bed so that he fell to the cold concrete floor.  His yell of pain and surprise woke the other three.

"What's the idea?" Bledsoe demanded crankily.

"Heard a helicopter," Drake replied.

"C'mon boys, let's wake the other kids up," Fragnile ordered.

After waking the other six refugees, the eleven of them hiked up a hill just outside the military compound.  With the red sunrise nearly blinding them, they searched the air for the helicopter.

Omniscion, Supreme Commander of the Martial Alliance, leaned back in his chair in a dimly lit room, his feet on a table, watching the big screen that hung in the center of the wall, with dozens of smaller screens on either side of it and along two of the other walls.

The room was part of the Martial Alliance base that had been set up on a remote island 130 miles off the coast of the main landmass.  It was quite a large island and was where the Martial Alliance had stationed its military personnel and vehicles.  All of the helicopters, jets, and soldiers that attacked other parts of Antarctica were launched from this island.  Omniscion had named it "Island of the Conquerors," but his enemies called it "Vile Atoll."

On the big screen was the camera feed from the high-powered sniper rifle attached to the side of a reconnaissance drone shaped like a helicopter, which transmitted a view through the scope of the rifle, so that the penguins controlling the drone from the base could operate the weapons system as if they were there.  The drone was also armed with a minigun on its undercarriage and a rocket launcher on its adjacent flank.

The recon drone was gathering intel on the firepower strength of Clearwater Isle, to analyze how much artillery they would be up against when they invaded or destroyed the island.

"Looks like they're unprepared."  Omniscion noted that their anti-air artillery guns were few in number, and that their military base was relatively small compared to other bases the Martial Alliance had already conquered.

"Sir, we appear to have a squad of soldiers observing the drone from the top of a hill," the soldier who was remotely operating the drone's sniper rifle said.

Eleven small dots could be seen standing outside the military base, identified as soldier-class by the drone's automatic recognition system.  "Zoom in on their ranks and affiliations," Omniscion ordered.

"Yes sir."  The operator pushed his analog stick forward, zooming in on the squad.  "Beginning to focus rifle camera on soldiers' insignias," the controller said.

Omniscion raised an eyebrow as he saw that the squad featured a corporal, five privates, a sergeant, and a PFC.  But what surprised him most was the sight of a lieutenant, a colonel, and a four-star general also among them.  "A four-star general?!" Omniscion exclaimed.  Everyone in the room gasped.  "Boys, either I'm seeing things, or we hit the jackpot!"

But as the scope-camera rose to the general's head, Omniscion's heart stopped.  For a moment he was silent, thinking he was seeing things, since he hadn't gotten much sleep lately.  No way that's who it looks like, Omniscion thought.  He's been dead for twenty-five years.  I killed him!