The Owls

Chapter 4

The worst thing about travelling by shuttle is that there are no windows in the rear cab, the white Photo-plastic was designed to absorb the suns heat and transfer it to the battery and the engines, but with the sun rising the temperature in the shuttle was getting unbareable. What made things worse was the armour, it was clingy and its ventilation was poor in open spaces let alone in a confined shell. None the less the baking journey was almost over.

"Slowing down now, the others are waiting for us." Duke informed the others over the radio. "Looks like Lacy was right, all sixty Hounds are on the ground, armed and ready to go." The radio splattered then fell silent. Duke quickly navigated the shuttle to turn around and brought it to a stop behind the other shuttles, it was a tactical position allowing them to get away quickly and easily if it was needed.

Lacy unclipped herself and shouldered her gear followed by the rest of the team. She turned the lock on the door and the door dropped away revealing her father stood waiting in his full gear.

"I hope I don't live to regret this my girl." He stretched out his arm and helped her down the ramp.

"You won't." She smiled. The rest of the team fell into line and the Sgt noticed Salt all geared up and looking ready for trouble.

"Looks good on you Salt, when we get back we'll see if you can stay in the Owls, or if you join the ranks of the Hounds." He smiled then walked away.
Salt turned to Cade "What does he mean?" Her confusion was clear.

"He'll make you take a blood test, see what your S+ Count is, if its Zero then your a Pure Blood, otherwise you'll be assigned to the Hounds." He padded her shoulder. "Whatever the case, I'll still be here." She smiled at the warmth of his words then he walked off to talk with Brick, one of the Hounds heavy weapon specialists.

After a short but very direct mission brief Sgt Fields sent four teams of five into the city, they were each given a section of the city to investigate and orders to stay in regular radio contact. Remaining with his own team the Sgt turned to the Owls.

"I want you lot to stay with me, we are going to investigate the area around the hotel, to try and see what damage you have caused and what trouble you have stirred up."

It wasn't too long before they reached the hotel, the regular radio contact from the other teams were coming back clear. It was as though every single monster in the city simply vanished. A worrying notion crossed the Sgts mind, what if they are in the city's hydro-thermal network, it would explain how they move around so quickly, vanish almost instantly. He grabbed his radio mic.

"All Teams locate and secure any HT hatches we are coming up empty so they must be using the vent network under the city." His radio crackled as the teams acknowledged the order. "I want you lot to stay here, set up a spot to defend but stay out of sight as much as possible. Let us know of any trouble heading our way." He looked at each of the Owls then signalled his men to follow him. What worried him the most was not leaving the pure bloods, but going into the heart of the city, it reminded him of his last mission in Newcastle.

He wasn't a Sgt then, just a simple Soldier, a Newcastle Jackal and his team were amazingly good at what they did. Known as the Jackal Five Timothy Fields, Simon Riskover, Carl Hedges, Wayne Black and the lovely Catherine Fields, were without doubt the best Strike Team in the Jackal Unit as well as the only five member team, which was were their team name came from. But on this day things went horribly wrong and only a handful of the Jackals made it out alive.

It had began like a normal day, the twins woke for their feed about four thirty and Catherine rolled out of bed to feed them. Timothy stirred at the sound of them crying and quickly got dressed before picking the adorable little bundle of arms and legs that was Luke. Catherine returned with two bottles handing one to her husband she then picked Lacy from her blankets and placed the bottle of milk in her mouth, Timothy on the other hand was struggling to get Luke to take the bottle, when he finally did, it was gone in no time. With the twins fed and sleeping again Catherine got dressed and sat with Timothy in the kitchenette. They had both been serving in the Jackals for almost ten years, they started out hating each over but with time that changed and with two miscarriages already they had finally got the little family they had wanted. Under normal circumstances marriage was regulated to improve the odds of Pure Bloods being born, but Catherine herself was born a pure blood. Even when she had the twins her S+ blood count was less than fifteen percent which was amazing considering the blood transplants she had after the second miscarriage. As luck would have it both children were born pure, a blessing they thought that would keep them safe forever. They had both semi-retired from active service, placing them on the only under extreme situations would they be called in, it hadn't happened in months, the twins were now almost a year old and things had really started to feel great. That was until the base went dark and the red warning lights started flashing.