The Gauntlet Crucible Ch. 15

Korlon and his two human companions made their way across the forest floor.  It wasn't too bright because the tree canopy blocked the sun, but bright enough so the way was illuminated.  Holt was worried about Korlon's white scales.  They stand out completely in this green forest.  Looking over at Smoke, he could see that his friend wasn't dressed for stealth either, with his gray uniform and glowing, orange goggles.  The only option if they were discovered would be to fight and hope to survive.  

Both Smoke and Holt hated fighting against opponents they had no information about or usuable tactics to counteract.  In their line of work, they fought many opponents with the same predictable patterns: the platoon cooridination of fighting the US, UK and German military, the unusually large amount of soldiers, but little regard for cover types when dealing the Chinese military, and a little bit of both when dealing with the Russians.  When they fought other mercs or minor nations, they were often fighting people with very little training or training that rivaled special forces.  Even with those odds, they had methods of dealing with it.  Now, however, they were against the unknown and Holt was unsure what bullets would do to the tough scales of a dragon.  He did wound Korlon in the tail, but he figured the tail was lightly armored and the torso and limb regions were better protected.

Korlon kept glancing at the humans.  Despite carrying many items in their backpacks, they were unusually quiet in their footsteps.  He could see they turned their heads in every direction to watch for sudden movements or traps.  Korlon, despite being a scholar, once served his time in the Royal military, but never fought against actual opponents.  Well, except for those drunken fools in the city at night or when competing in fighting tournaments.  He often did well in them, but now he knew he was up against opponents that received considerable training.  Sighing, he took his mind off of feeling hopeless and focused and getting out of there.  

Smoke himself really didn't think to much.  Thinking during evasion or combat distracts and distractions can be fatal.  He looked around.  The leaves rustled gently, the grass was waving a little yet there was something wrong with the surroundings.  There was a loud snap and they all stopped in their tracks.  The group looked around to try and find the source.  Without warning, five large dragons, rougly the same size as Korlon landed from the tree canopy and around them.  Holt and Smoke alternated pointing their guns at each one.  Korlon bared his teeth and crouched in a defensive posture.  The dragons growled back and slowly surrounded them.  They were all of different colors.

"Well boys, look what we have here!" A red one growled.  He came closer to Korlon.  "We've got ourselves a wanderer in our lands..."  Holt noticed there was large, black star on his side.  "You've got anything valuable? Last catch was disappointing."

"Rebel scum...get out of my way." Korlon demanded, tail whipping around in agitation.  

"Or what?" The red dragon scoffed.  "You'll call the Royals on us? Those weaklings can't match us, we'll slaughter them if they do come, not that you'll be around to tell them..." He and his companions moved closer, but stopped when Holt and Smoke cocked the levers on their guns.  

"What's that?" A green dragon asked, looking at the two humans.  

"Some sort of pet of yours?" The red one asked Korlon, not really caring if he was answer or not.  He glared at Holt, who was about thirty feet away from him.  "Doesn't matter.  We'll kill them too."

"Wait...I think they're humans!" said a blue one in surprise.  This caused some murmur amongst them.

"Don't be stupid Cern, humans can't come here.  Even if they could, everyone knows all humans wear metal armor and wave those swords of theirs." the red leader scoffed.  

"We're way past that motherfuckers! I bring you greetings from the twenty first century!" Smoke growled and opened fire.  The bullet hit the red dragon in the left eye and he fell back hissing and screaming, clutching the wound.  Smoke then bullrushed to another one and tossed a grenade into the mouth.  The dragon looked confused and his head exploded from the grenade after five seconds passed.  

Korlon quickly rushed the blue dragon and sank his teeth into the throat.  Before long, the blue dragon was on the ground, clutching at his now absent throat.  He convulsed twice, then died.  

Holt took careful aim at two more of the dragons and shot them square in the heads.  Holt watched with satisfaction as the bullet managed to penetrate the scales and skull.  

"Headshots...headshots only..." he reminded himself.  The last Rebel, the red dragon, tried to fly away, but Korlon bit his tail and brought him down.  The red dragon tried to crawl but Korlon placed his paw on the the snout and crushed.  The red dragon screamed loudly and was silenced when Smoke fired his rifle into the other eye of the dragon.

"We've got to go.  There will be more Rebels later and I want to be long gone when that happens." Korlon urged.  "Might as well fly now, hop onto my back."  Holt and Smoke nodded while hopping on and holding.  Korlon then beat his powerful wings and flew through the tree canopy.  He then flew into a direction that was unknown to his two companions.

--

*The Kremlin.  Moscow, Russian Federation*

*April 8th, 2044 11:25 PM Moscow time*

Grimm, dressed in his grey suit, looked at St. Basil's Cathedral from the window of the presidential complex.  He was quite impressed with it and wished he had time to go sight see, but that would have to wait.  

He heard chattering and turned around to see Russian President Mikhail Donskoy surrounded by his staff and generals approach.  

The President spoke to him and his translator said, "Welcome to Russia, Mr. Grimm."

"A translator won't be necessary.  Thank you for the welcome." Grimm replied in perfect Russian.  Everyone, including the president was wide-eyed in surprise, but seemed pleased by the fact that Grimm was fluent.

"Please, come with us." said one of the staff members, a short, fat man with combed back hair.  Grimm followed them across the hallways and finally to a large conference room.  The table was long and the chairs were lined up neatly.  President Donskoy took a seat at one end of the table while his generals, staff and executives took seats along the sides.  Grimm took the other end of the table and observed everyones' anxious faces.

"First, on behalf of the GSS, I would like to express gratitude for Mother Russia's generous contributions to the Glacadian Wars.  We hope to keep relations warm and look forward doing business in the future."  This earned him a few nods from the executives and the generals.  

"We've received reports that our facility in America has been attacked by mercenaries.  Your GSS forwarded the information, but it largely incomplete.  We were hoping you could fill in the blanks."  said one of the generals, eyeing Grimm sternly.

"Of course general.  We couldn't send you everything over official channels for that would be too exposing."  Grimm began, he sat back and folded his hands in his lap.  "Those mercenaries came from the PMC known as Green Sky.  From what we could tell, they were contracted by the Chinese to retrieve the specimen you had for study.  Before we continue, I have to ask, why did you send the specimen to America?"  

Another general spoke up.  "We wouldn't have.  The creature was found in Siberia, our lands, but the Americans somehow found out about it and insisted they be invovled in the studies of this creature.  Since the Dead Zone was already in place, we decided to send it there.  We had hoped this would've remained secret, but the Chinese have discovered it and now we've lost all traces of the creature."

Grimm listened intently.  Of course, the GSS were the ones who alerted America to the dragon and wanted it brought to America for easy retrieval, but the Russians didn't know that and Grimm intended it be kept that way.  Also, the Chinese had no knowledge of the dragon, but they did have knowledge of the Dead Zone and its destruction.  They also knew that they were implicated in the attack, but Grimm didn't say it was the GSS who told the Russians.  

"What of the Chinese?" President Donskoy asked Grimm.  "We know the GSS seeks to have good relations with the Chinese.  Have they come to you for help?"  

"They're trying to.  Paramount Leader Yuan Qinglin has requested our prescence in Beijing to help deal with the issue.  I will see him in a little while."  Grimm eyed the President.

"Do you intend to help him?"  one executive asked.

"I plan to listen.  Most likely I will offer advise, but in general, the GSS will refrain from involving themselves."  Grimm suggested.  While not exactly the answer the Russians were looking for, they seem to be slightly satsified by it.  

"Mr. President, Generals.  Farewell, and thank you for your hospitality." Grimm got up with the rest of them and walked out the doors.