BRAVO ZULU

(7 days ago)

“Captain, I have eyes on the target”, the soldier whispered, he was wearing a thick black bullet proof jacket and black helm -holding a long silver pulse cannon around his arms and shoulder.

“Mark, do you also have eyes?”

The second soldier beside Zepherine shuffled, “Yes captain, pulse cannon is loaded and ready”.

The rest of the soldiers held their rifles tightly in their hand waiting for the next command.

“Very well- . . . pulse cannons- final check . . . fire!”

There were two soft booms- as the soldiers pressed the trigger.

“Target info?”

“Captain”, the first soldier said, taking off his helm, “it is a clean hit”.

“Mark?”, Zepherine asked, looking at the second soldier.

“Target missed captain”.

“Shit, visionary- what do you see? Is it out there?”

The soldier with the binoculars shuffled, “Yes captain! Target changing direction- wounded possibly fatal- heading towards the extraction point”.

Zepherine’s hand went on her radio, “Team Alpha be warned- Razellair heading to your whiskey. Wounded- possibly fatal but do not take any chances- complete the extraction and get out of there- over”.

“Copy that captain”, said the voice from the other side, “setting up temporary defensive formation- out”.

“Evac bird- what’s your status?-over”, Zepherine said impatiently into the radio.

“One minute out captain- requesting permission and exact ground coordinates to conduct air strike- over”.

Zepherine tapped one of her soldiers on the shoulder, who nodded at her and got tapping on his tablet. “Permission to use full force granted- sending exact ground coordinates- over”.

“Coordinates received- Hail Atlantis, captain, -out”

“What do we do now captain?”, the soldier beside her asked.

Zepherine felt the eyes of all soldiers peeling down her face, “Now”, she said softly, “we wait”.

*******

Bracer felt the presence of an out of the world creature- one like no other he had seen, ever before. He did not know how to describe it- it was terrifying. A huge monstrous creature, serpent- black all down till its tail- with golden scales. It was the closest possible definition of fear. It’s face had long shreds of loose black skin that dropped from its face like a chinese beard. It’s eyes were long oval- violet. The creature radiated a foul-poisonous smell, enough to make Bracer dizzy.

It’s fangs though, were probably much smaller than one would expect of such a huge creature. Then again, it did not seem to need fangs. The long black spikes that came out of its head- were coated with a light reddish gel that glinted in the light- poison. Without a slight doubt- the creature was very strong, for it had broken the wall of the washroom like a toothpick.

However that wasn’t the worst part, two things- were even worse- the creature had not one, not two, but four pointed tails that separated half-way down its waist- and that wasn’t the worst part either. The worst part- it was staring- right at Bracer.

“Run Bracer”, the boy yelled- who had fallen on the floor.

Bracer, who had forgotten the boy was also there- also forgot, or probably left out the fact that the boy was about to kidnap him. He helped the boy up to his feet, with lightning pace and bolted out of the already open door. The creature was on a rampage, It half slithered and the other half slipped down the tiles- smashing into pillars, statues and food counters dropping spoons, pans and almost everything else on the floor. Under normal circumstances- Bracer would have not minded, stopping to pick them up- but circumstances presently were not exactly ideal. Nothing seemed to be stopping the creature- other than the little pink doll that said, ‘Hi- you look really beautiful”.

However their relief lasted barely a few seconds, after the creature specially dug its spike into the doll- filling it with red poison that burnt through the cloth and left ashes on the ground- the creature went back to slipping after them.

“What is that thing?”, Bracer hollered as they raced down the staircase.

“That-”, the boy said, “is a Razellair”.

“What do you mean- by- a rare bear?”, Bracer shouted impatiently.

“Razellair- R-A-Z-E-L-L-A-I-R”, the boy spelled out.

“Why isn’t it in a zoo?”

“What is a zoo?”, the boy yelled back.

“Forget it”.

They managed to put some distance between themselves and the Razellair by turning into corridors and going up and down different staircases.

“Now what do we do?”, the boy said as they reached the end of the corridor.

“We break the window, there is a street outside- we could try to lose the bear over there”.

“-Razellair, you mean?”

“What Razellair?”, Bracer coughed.

“Nothing lets go”, the boy said pointing at the window.

Soon enough, they were racing down the hillside. Bracer was more or less accustomed to running down such slopes, but the other boy was certainly having a hard time. With every jump his breath grew more and more ragged- Bracer was convinced if this went on- the boy would most certainly die even before the creature even caught up with them.

The creature! It was slithering down slope merrily with an evil sneer on its face. Clearly- it liked the rocks and grass more than the tiles.

“What now?”, the boy asked between deep breaths.

Bracer could feel the presence of the creature- as it came closer to them. Covering distance thrice as fast as them.

“There is cliff ahead and a river below”

“So?”, the boy prompted.

“So”, Bracer said, sparing a second to look at the boy during his run, “Just follow me”.

*******

“Team Alpha- this is pilot, requesting ground conformation for position of package, over”

“May-day pilot, package not within defensive circle- boy and hostile Razzelair missing, over”.

The pilot took off his headset, it was a risk- he knew it. But he had no other option, he pressed a few buttons and pulled up a lever on the control panel- a few seconds later the automated voice followed.

“Micro Force Field Detection And Ranging- set up to full power”

There was a soft whir as the camouflage generator went off. The plasma screen beeped in front of the pilot- yes he had found the boy. He silently hoped no- human organization or worse- had pinged them. Little did he know- someone out there was watching them- even before he turned on the MFFDAR and that person had already decided his next move.

He put the thought out of his head and turned down the lever- safely back to hidden mode.

The pilot turned his joy-stick and sent the boost lever on full throttle, a soft click inside the cockpit- brought satisfaction to the pilot. He put on his head-set, “Teams on ground- position of target and package acquired- all systems go- missiles ready to fire once visual confirmation attained- out”

The pilot tiled the throttle, the navy-shuttle slanted and dived. ‘The river?’ the pilot wondered- why were the boys heading towards the river. Terror erupted inside him as he realised what the boys were planning- he had been taught- Razzelair’s were almost five times faster in water than on land. It would have no problem in catching up to the boys in the river- didn’t the boys know?

He had to do something- fast. The shuttle steepened its dive- the pilot saw the faint figures of the boys running down the hillside- the cliff was not very far from him. The Razellair was slithering at full pace behind them- almost onto them. It took barely a second for the automated voice to respond but it seemed like hours, ‘Weapon system- ready and on standby’.

The lever popped out of the socket- the pilot placed his hand on it- aimed it on the Razellair and pressed on one of the buttons.

A ribbon of a dozen- half foot Skim-Bashers missiles whooshed out of the launcher and found their mark on the target. How could it not be enough? The Razellair should have been roasted by now- then the pilot noticed it was not ordinary Razellair- it was a four tailed beast.

He rolled a few knobs- with a click the missiles changed.

“Pilot- what is happening- we heard sounds of missile firing- over”.

“Duo, Striker-Greyhounds loaded captain and now- away”

“Threat neutralized pilot?-over”

The pilot watched in horror as the wounded Razellair continued to follow the boys- who had almost reached the cliff.

He put his hand on the weapon controller again- another pair of Striker-Greyhounds fired from either side of the shuttle.

It was a sloppy try- the pilot knew it. He watched helplessly as the boys jumped and the Razellair tumbled down after them.

“Pilot- do you read me? What is happening?- over”

“Target escaped captain- changing position to attain front view of the cliff”.

The navy-shuttle turned to get a front view of the cliff, through the corner of his eye. The pilot saw the Razellair’s scales shimmering in the clear river below- leaving a trail of blood. What he saw on the cliff left him shocked and immensely surprised.

“Bravo zulu! Package secure captain- hanging from the cliff. One of them seems injured but not fatal, hostile creature has been driven away- mission accomplished captain, I repeat mission accomplished-out”.