“Nick, get off the damn computer! You’re to report to Admiral Schuler at 0600 hours. I know you’re writing that story, but I need a place to put my cock…to put it bluntly, and you need your rest.” Josef commands. I shut off the computer after saving my document.

“Yes sir, Korvettenkapitän, sir.” I jest. Josef chuckles at that. I love hearing any form of mirth from him. He’s the perfect mate for me, and he knows it.

“Captain DarkClaw, you know that you don’t have to take orders from me. Right?” He says with eyebrow raised.

“You know that cock of yours? I don’t care how badly you want it up my ass. It’s too damn late Josef. I have a scrimmage tomorrow. You know tha…” I trail off as Josef comes up from behind and starts petting me on the head. I murr deeply. Ni Gozi! It feels amazing when he pets my head; I don’t even care how demeaning it is. I start panting as he scratches behind my ears.

Suddenly he stops. I doggy whine in disappointment, before yipping in surprise as Josef lifts me off the chair and carries me bridal style to the tiny bedroom in our quarters. He stops at the foot of the bed and plops me down onto the bed. He starts unbuttoning his collar with one hand, and unzipping the wing-holes on his shirt with the other. I look into his lust filled eyes and just stare for a few seconds.

Then I regain my composure and I get up off the bed and put my hands on either side of Josef’s cheeks. I kiss him, “Morgen, bitte. Ich muss schlafen.” Tomorrow, please. I must sleep. I whisper in his ear—a feet on its own, I guess. “Gye lunai, Josef-lun.” Good Night, Josef, my love. I turn around and unbuckle the belt on my sky blue Volantis coveralls. I unceremoniously remove my coveralls and put them on a hangar, making sure to keep it nice and unwrinkled. I then dawn a “USN Volantis Corps” T-Shirt and get under the covers of the full-sized bed.

Josef sighs seeing that I’m not in any mood tonight. He tells me good night and climbs into bed behind me. He comes up and drapes his arm over me and cuddles me protectively. I love knowing he’s there, and almost as soon as he drapes his arm over my body I’m asleep.

***

I lift my head to the sound of my alarm. I look behind me and Josef has already left. I look at the alarm clock. 0530, good, I have time to take a quick shower. Then, it is dress whites for me. Yippee! I think sarcastically. Now don’t get me wrong, I love dressing up. I just can’t stand how uncomfortable my particular uniform is. I don’t know if it was incorrectly tailored for me or what, but it is literally the most uncomfortable outfit in my wardrobe. Hell, maybe that’s the point. I don’t know.

I walk to the shower and brush the sleep from my eyes. In the bathroom, I look in the mirror before I get into the shower. I think I’m beginning to see some greying around my muzzle. I start to feel old. I think I might retire at my twenty year point, but I’d have to see. It’s only been twelve years. Twelve years since I decided I’d join the Navy. My father, now 74, is extremely proud to see his son carry on the tradition of military men in the family. I know my kids were already planning on going into the military. Jamie, my oldest, last I heard is already planning out which classes he’d need to take to get a military science major at Colorado State. He is our oldest at fifteen.  We have six pups, four different litters: Jamie, our oldest, Rob and Will, our first set of twins, both thirteen, Wolfgang, 12 and Tristan and Rafe, our second set, 10. I know what you’re thinking and no we don’t adopt. They came from my loins and a female from Josef’s pack.

I turn on the water knowing that this is going to be my shower for the week. I get in and quickly douse my hair with water and then start shampooing. I rinse and quickly move on to my pelt. Using fur shampoo I scrub every last centimeter of my fur before I rinse again. I turn off the shower and sigh. I miss the days when Josef would actually shower together. That doesn’t happen anymore, though. He and I have grown distant in the last couple of years, through no fault of our own. It’s just our lives are extremely busy and have been for a while.

I guess I should probably let you at least know a little bit about where we are. We are on the USS MacGyver—an Aircraft carrier which is actually smaller than the Nimmitz class carriers which came before it, but not by much. The Ship was staffed by the Volantis Corps’ Third Flight and thirty drone pilots to pilot the UACVs that were slowly making fliers and pilots of real aircraft obsolete. There was also the deck crew who was there as a backup to automated systems on the Flight deck, and then there was the maintenance crew. Josef is my wingman. He actually has dual citizenship thanks to a recent change in the laws of both countries regarding married couples with citizenship belonging to different countries. So he actually is a member of both militaries, in a way. He keeps his German rank and uniform, but he’s given a US pay grade and US dog tags. It was a strange negotiation between my extremely understanding CO and Josef’s less-understanding one. However, he’s on this boat with me and I’m happy.

I get out of the shower and put on my uniform. Afterwards, I head for the bridge. By heading that way, I get to the island (the control center for the carrier) and then through another narrow corridor not meant for Josef’s or my size. I have to keep my head bent low throughout the entirety of the trip to Admiral Schuler’s office. I knock. He asks me to come in. I look at him, and I immediately get the feeling I’m about to be disciplined.

“Captain! Good to see you! Please, take a seat.” The admiral says. He’s a sandshrew and by the wear on the scales on his shell, as well as the four shining, metal, five pointed stars sitting atop a gold, fabric strip on his shoulder I can tell that he is an old, old Pokémon. I obey him. I sit in one of the chairs in his office. “So, you and Josef are getting on well, then?”

“Fine, sir. He and I are just really distant with each other right now. We’re both too tired to even talk when we get back to our quarters and the end of the day. So is there something you wanted to see me for, sir?”

He nods his head, “I actually called you in here, Captain, because I got a message from your mother, she said, that you need to come home on your next American shore leave.”

“Admiral, sir, did she say anything else?” I ask. My ears droop and my tail does the same. Tears start to form in my eyes as I thought of the worst. My father’s health declining, my brother getting shot in an unknown country, or some kind of turmoil inside the pack is the stuff that passes through my head when the Admiral is the one telling me these things.

“All she said is it involves your brother. So I did some research, there was a terrorist bombing of a Peace Corps camp in Afghanistan, where your brother was stationed. I don’t know his condition, DarkClaw. It’s a good idea to go home as soon as we return to port, which is happening in two weeks. Now, I’ve also got a Top Secret Mission for you and Kraut.” He explains. He winked at me when he said that last part and handed me a folder. “You’re to find out what happened to the Peace Corps camp. First You will fly to Norfolk, board a C130 inside a supply drop crate, and be dropped in the mountains 50 klicks north of the camp. You cannot fly once inside the enemy territory, understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“You will be given permission to kill only if fired upon. Your kit for this mission is as follows: a Heckler and Koch MP5K with a hundred fifty rounds of ammunition, your katana and M1911A1. Josef’s kit is relatively the same except exchange Katana with a bolo knife and your 1911 with his Glock. This mission is labeled above Top Secret, understood?”

“Yes sir. I understand, sir. When are we to leave, sir?”

“Immediately, DarkClaw. Find your brother, bring him home. That man has done so much for humanity. He deserves either a proper burial or to be home in the presence of his family.” The admiral finishes and dismisses me. I get out of the chair and did a quick salute. He returned the salute and shooed me away.

***

“This mission is to recover your brother, Nikki?” Josef asked, head cocked at an angle, “That’s an odd mission to be labeled above top secret.”

“To the brass, this mission is an assassination mission to take out the leader of the local band of Taliban,” I reply, “We’re to do that as well. However, the main goal of this mission is to either recover my brother’s body or bring him home. Pack medical supplies. We have no idea what condition my brother may be in.”

Josef’s ears drooped, “Nikki, if you want to cry, go ahead and cry. I’m here for you and I know how difficult this must be for you. Komm her!” he says, trying to comfort me.

“Es gibt keine Zeit zu weinen. Wir müssen meinen Bruder sparen.” There’s no time to cry. We must save my brother. I reply packing my flier’s bag. The last thing I need to do right now is let my emotions take hold. I might compromise the mission. So I bury them.

“Well, we need to leave ASAP. You done packing?”

“Yup.” I give as a curt reply.

“By your order, Captain.”

“Let’s fly.” I order. We leave our quarters and head up to the flight deck. The MacGyver is specially equipped to handle fliers as well as UACVs. So it has a small platform which fliers use to dive off of to make taking off easier.

As we approach the takeoff platform my direct CO, an eagle named RDML Adler, stops me and Josef. “Just where do you think you’re going, DarkClaw and Kraut?”

“That’s literally above your pay grade, sir. All we can tell you is we’ve been given a mission by BigBoss, sir. We’ve been given permission to take out anyone who gets in the way of our mission, sir.” Josef’s eyes widen when I say this.

“And you, Korvettenkapitän? Are you so bold as to threaten a superior officer?” The eagle asks.

“Sir, we have an important mission to do. Please get out of our way, or we will be forced to remove you, sir.” Josef says, giving me a sideways glance.

The Eagle stares at the both of us for a long while. Then he does an about face and over his shoulder calls, “Good luck boys. Oh and keep the fucking to a minimum, will ya!” He disappears back into the island of the ship. We’re alone on the deck, excluding the UACVs. The flights planned for today were all canceled by Admiral Schuler. So we can proceed with our mission with haste.

We climb the ladder to the takeoff platform. I look at Josef and he gives me a nod. I nod in return and I leap. I spread my wings wide, wait until the last second to flap and pull out of the dive. Josef isn’t far behind. We flap hard to gain altitude. Soon we’re on our way to the east coast. It’s a big distance, but not the biggest distance I’ve covered in my life.

***

As the C130 flies over the mountains of Afghanistan, Josef and I are inside a supply drop crate. It is uncomfortable, but it works. The ride was relatively uneventful. I’m glad, because we managed step one of this mission without a hitch. This needs to go as smoothly as possible. I want to get in and out of the Afghan mountains as fast as possible.

The mission is simple enough, Sneak through the mountains on foot and ‘ask around’ to find the leader of this band of Taliban. Once we have that information we sneak into his facility and kill him. After that was complete, we find what is left of the bombed Peace Corps camp. We search for signs of my brother or his body. I really hope it’s the former. I’ve seen to many die in this conflict to have my brother’s corpse be added to the body count.

I check my watch, 15 seconds until drop. I tap Josef before slowing my breathing and relaxing as much as possible. 5…4…3…2…1…Drop. I feel the crate we’re inside begin sliding backwards and then a second later I feel pure weightlessness. The ‘chute opens a second later and now we’re slowly falling down into the Afghan mountains.

Then, suddenly all hell breaks loose. I hear distant sounds of gunfire, and then Josef and I are in free-fall again. We touch down harshly, in fact the hard plastic shell of the crate we’re riding in cracks from the crazy amount of force from the impact. I kick open the crate and Josef and I tumble out with our MP5s ready.

I check from 12 to 9 to 6 o’clock while Josef scans our right flank. *Thunk* I hear off to my right as a sniper round impacts and destroys a rock. “Sniper!” I scream. I don’t know how, but apparently the Taliban were expecting us. We find some cover quickly and I curse to myself. Neither Josef or I brought a sniper rifle with us on this mission. The sniper is on the opposite side of a wide valley which we managed to land in.

I know for a fact that the MP5K’s range isn’t enough to even cause the Taliban sniper to worry. Josef crawls with his body prone over to the crate. In there is what looks to be a rifle case. I hadn’t even noticed that that was in there with us. He drags it back to where I am, still army crawling in order to use the rocks around us as cover. “Of course, I brought a rifle, babe. I’m not going to have a sniper take us out.” Josef whispers to me. He takes out the M40 and slams a magazine home. He pulls the bolt back to load one of the 7.62x51mm rounds into the chamber. He looks into the scope and scans the opposite mountainside, looking for the telltale glint of an enemy’s scope’s objective lens. He stops, slows his breathing and steadies the rifle by extending the bipod and sets the legs on the ground. He exhales, holds his breath and fires. “Tango eliminated.”

“Good. Let’s head get across the valley.” I say. I start moving down the mountain side as carefully as I can. Josef takes off, and flies across the valley. I grumble and take off as well.