“Alright, Lieutenant.”

  There it was again, calling her “Lieutenant” rather than “Kaz” like they had in the past. It was because Yevhen was standing behind her.

  “We’ve decided on our next course of action regarding the vampire you have at your disposal.”

  She’d been called to this briefing after her recovery.

  “Yes, sir?” she asked expectantly, standing at attention before the three senior officers in the room. The fake, painted-on, enthusiastic optimism of this officer made her feel like she was talking to a youth pastor or something. The little plaque on his desk read “Lieutenant Colonel Artem Anatoliyovych Ponomarenko”; a fittingly pretentious name for a pretentious man.

  “We will be forming a new unit around your asset. You’ll be working under Captain Wojciech Reynolds again.” That was a relief. She’d been with Captain Reynolds for months and the officer that was talking to her was probably aware of that. The guy talking to her looked like the sort of senior officer who had done a tour riding a desk before his connections put in at a fancier desk with a senior officer’s rank (and pay). She dubbed him “Arty” in her mind because she knew nicknames like that would probably piss him off. The two junior officers flanking him, standing casually to either side of him at his desk, looked like they’d had the same career trajectory.

  “Aye, sir.” She signaled to let them know she was keen on the prospect.

  “Very good, Lieutenant. I can’t say how proud of you I am! Like a true Arcadian hero, you seized the initiative in a moment of crisis. Many good men survived that battle because of your quick thinking!” Kaz wanted to blurt out to stop fingering her and get to the good part, but she bit back her acid comment. “You are going to be at the center of Operation Boneyard! You and your asset will compose the main element of a platoon, and said platoon will be tasked with the identification, interception, and elimination of enemy Hellhounds,” Arty finished.

  He said it like he was giving her a gift, but she knew how suicidal that was, even with a strix at her side. Kaz wanted to frown but her military discipline managed to hold everything back except for a small downward twist of her lips. Anyone they sent with her was signing their own death certificate, and she’d be guaranteed to be an enemy fang’s primary target once they figured out her connection to Yevhen.

  Despite this, all she ended up saying was “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.”

  “We thought you’d be excited to take on this new and exciting role! Under Captain Reynolds’s guidance your unit will be allocated only the best resources Arcadia has to offer!” She wondered if that meant she would still be stuck piloting a Mackay, but her question was answered a moment later. “You and your squad will be assigned Perth-class mechs for once they arrive, we’ve assigned an engineer to you, and you’ll be supported by a fast reaction force of mechanized infantry from the special forces command and backed up by a Mackay scout platoon.”

  Kaz blinked.

  “Well then, it seems like the Arcadian high command is actually taking this seriously.” she thought to herself. It was a janky unit composition, pulling assets from a few disparate places, but it fit the bill. Fast, deadly, and expensive. A Perth-class was some serious firepower and not something they issued lightly. Still, fighting Hellhounds even with that was like pissing on a wildfire. It was largely going to come down to Yevhen; they’d just be playing second fiddle and providing supporting fire.

  “Understood,” she replied as she processed everything.

  “It’s great to hear that your asset will be helping Arcadia in this endeavor! It will take some time to get assets in place to form your unit so until then you and Captain Reynolds will be assigned to local patrols. He has the specifics. And let me once again say just how proud we all are of you, Lieutenant!” God, Arty was laying it on thick. He sat there with that plastic customer service smile and Kaz just looked at him dumbly. He was well-manicured and wearing a freshly pressed suit. Meanwhile, she didn’t think she’d had more than a 5-minute shower in cold water since her operation, and her duty green military combat uniform still had some grime on it that she hadn’t been able to scrub out. How could he be wearing something so immaculate while the troops were eating almost-expired MREs and scrounging for soap? She pushed the thought out of her head.

  “Am I dismissed, sir?” she asked flatly.

  “Oh, yes!” Lieutenant Colonel Artem chirped in a sing-songy voice. “And, Lieutenant... go get ‘em!” he added with a little fist pump, like that was supposed to entice her to greater acts of valor. This man had never seen a battlefield through anything other than a sensor feed from miles away, and it showed. It’d be comical to her if it wasn’t so unnerving. He gave her the impression of an alien trying to blend in by wearing a human skin-suit.

  She didn’t waste time trying to piece together what was going on at the higher levels of the command structure and instead just fast-walked down the hallways of the makeshift command center. It had been some office building before the war and the facility had been retrofitted with emergency power and some data hookups for them to use. The presence of anti-aircraft and anti-drone weapons systems on the roof made it look like some kind of parody of a corporate real estate brochure. “Come check out our spacious, modern office space. We have access to downtown and we’re just five minutes from the highway! Enjoy our expansive underground parking structure and SAM systems!”

  She almost forgot Yevhen was behind her, following her like some kind of amoral fanged puppy. He had stayed blessedly silent the entire briefing and Kaz suspected that was because he was enjoying how uncomfortable he made the officers. That was probably the reason for their awkward behavior; they felt like they were talking to her at the point of a gun. With a command, she could have had Yevhen rip their throats out and drink them like juiceboxes.

  “Enjoying yourself?”

  “Immensely,” he replied, elongating the word. She didn’t turn to look at him but she knew he was smiling that smug smile.

  “You understand this assignment? Killing other fangs?” She hadn’t told anyone that Yevhen wasn’t at full strength. However, even at his current strength he was no doubt one of their best military assets. Still, she needed to get him draining other vampires before they went on a rampage in Mithris.

  “Oh, very much so...” Was that glee in his voice?

  “Are you honestly that excited to turn cannibal?” she said, finally turning to look at him.

  “Unabashedly yes,” Yevhen explained, shrugging a bit as his smile grew wider. She could see his fangs and she didn’t think that was unintentional.

  “Can you even do it? You're not rusty from your little nap?” she asked.

  “Are you asking me if I can still get it up in my old age?” Even Kaz smirked at that. “I’ve killed so many vampires in the past that I think it qualifies as a hobby at this point. It’s not something that you really forget, like riding a bike.”

  “Well, just don’t fall off that bike or it’s both our asses,” Kaz quipped back.

  Yevhen gave a deferential bow that Kaz could feel was very much not genuine. “I won’t. Vampires fight as a matter of principle, it’s part of our nature and how we get stronger. ‘Highlander’, remember? And, since we’re basically the only things that can kill each other after a certain point … it’s fun.”

  “Fun?”

  “Oh yes, my master! You humans don’t offer anything approaching a challenge, even if we want to play with our food,” he said with too much grisly enthusiasm. “Our only real challenge comes in the heat of battle against another fang. What your officers are offering is... well, I’d get goosebumps if my cold dead flesh could still get those.”

  She squinted her eyes at the smug, fiendishly smiling vampire to see if he was genuine. As far as she could tell, he did indeed find some sick pleasure in killing his own kind; what a screwed-up world he must live in. Either that or he was really into Sean Connery films.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  She shook her head and resumed walking to the hangar, which was just a small stretch across the grounds. The permanently gray sky wasn’t quite dark enough to allow vampires to walk about in midday, so Yevhen spent most of the day in a makeshift coffin the military had cobbled together. He’d made some veiled insults about the craftsmanship, but he’d suffered the indignity. Once evening approached, he could resume accompanying her.

  When she arrived Captain Reynolds was sitting on a large discarded tire that must have come from a bus or truck. He was sharing it with a pudgy redheaded woman with an eyepatch who was looking over a map with him.

  “Lieutenant Kazimiera Mazur, reporting for duty,” she crisply offered a salute along with the formal announcement of her presence. Reynolds looked taken aback - she never introduced herself to him like that and he probably thought she’d been kicked in the head by a donkey or something. They’d always had a casual relationship and she finally broke her hyper-formal posture and cracked a smile. The woman at the table looked her up and down appraisingly like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of her. Then her eyes flicked to Yevhen and her brow wrinkled in deep concern.

  “Goddamn, Kaz, scared me for a sec. I thought your pet here had you under some kind of spell. It’s a good thing you’re not because he probably doesn’t know you’re allergic to following military protocol. You could have died!” Reynolds joked as he shook her hand. He looked over her shoulder with cold eyes though; Reynolds was fixated on Yevhen and she couldn’t blame him.

  “Well, Cap, this is Yevhen. Love him, hate him, or curse him - he’ll be our unit’s fang breaker,” she said, trying to keep things casual even though she knew they weren’t. Captain Reynolds didn’t offer a hand to Yevhen, but at least gave him a curt nod.

  “Well, I’m sure as shit not gonna love him. You know how I feel about him. You fucked up, Kaz, and probably fucked us all too. However, since you fucked up, we got him for a time. We gotta use him until we can’t use him anymore. I just hope that when he inevitably turns on us, like all fangs do, it’ll be in a place and time where it causes just as much harm to the enemy.”

  “Use me until you can’t use me anymore? You sound like one of my exes,” Yevhen said dryly, with a wink, and that earned him a dark glare from the Captain.

  Reynolds wasn’t wrong, but at least he seemed to be on the road to moving past her decision. It wasn’t lost on Kaz that he was talking past Yevhen and ignoring his retort, speaking to her as if the vampire wasn’t even there. Kaz pressed her lips into a thin line as he spoke but she didn’t say anything.

  “Anyway... we’ll be getting our Perths in a month or so. They have to ship them in from the capital. Lieutenant Kory is tossing together some HOGs and a few mechanized infantry squads for us in the meantime. We’ve been allocated a few Mackays in the meantime, but eventually those will belong to our recon element so let’s try not to break their toys,” he added, a moment later.

  She was thankful that he’d moved on to logistics, sparing both of them from the awkward debate over her prior actions. Logistics were cold and “appropriate”. That’s what she liked about Captain Wojciech Reynolds - he had a way of “moving on” from the hard stuff without making anyone feel like it was unsaid. He let you know he was aware of it, that it had to be addressed, and then he moved on to business. Anything further that had to be said would be said where, when, and if he thought it was appropriate. Kaz thought it was a good way to command people.

  “Sounds good. Who’s your friend, by the way?” Kaz asked, keenly aware that this poor random woman had been subjected to their somewhat intimate moment.

  “E-Ensign Zelenko, ma’am,” the woman stammered, standing up jerkily and giving a salute. Kaz raised a quizzical eyebrow.

  “Ensign, no one needs to salute me,” she corrected.

  “She’s right. Kaz here is a bit of a toolbag,” Reynolds added helpfully, which earned a glare from Kaz. The redhead dropped her salute real quick.

  “Oh, sorry, ma’am. I was just conferring with the Captain. I’m the electronic warfare and signals intelligence officer assigned to your unit. Command also asked that I act as your aide.” She had a bit of a Malithovian accent when she spoke; it was subtle but it was there.

  Kaz’s eyebrows climbed higher on her forehead than she even thought possible, “I - I have an aide?” Yevhen couldn’t contain himself and chortled from somewhere behind her.

  The woman turned as red as her hair. “I mean, uh, well, I’m assigned as an aide to the command elements of the detachment. C-Captain Reynolds and yourself. Anything you need, just ask.” The woman was squirming with embarrassment and Reynolds finally cut her loose.

  “That largely won’t be necessary, Ensign. I suspect command just wants someone to keep eyes on our bloodthirsty friend here and report back. Do your job, Ensign, and we won’t get in your way. Just keep our mechs up and running and things will be fine.” He said like a patient father, clapping her on the shoulder gently. She still twitched a little but gave a smile.

  “Yes, sir. Can do,” was her reply.

  “What do they call you back home?” Reynolds asked, returning the smile.

  “Back home? Like my first name sir? Zora, sir.”

  “Well, drop the sir and ma’am stuff, Zora. We’re in the Arcadian military. Our HQ is an office building, our machine workshop used to be a barn, and this tire is the nicest seat for 2 kilometers.” He gave a little laugh and she seemed to relax a bit.

  “Fair enough, sir,” she said but corrected herself with a little awkward cringe and a giggle.

  Kaz liked her. Zora was about the same age as her but seemed younger, despite being taller than Kaz. In another life they could have been friends, but the eyepatch was clearly a new addition and that reminded her that the life she had was... kinda shit. She turned the conversation back to their mission objective. “Any news on our first assignment? I assume the brass isn’t sending us this fancy goodie basket filled with Perths without an equally rough target.”

  “Yeah. Once they’re in we’ll be hitting a target in East Malithovia. One ‘Bogdan the Butcher’. He - ” Reynolds began but was cut off.

  “Ol’ Boggy’s still bashing about?” It was the first time Yevhen had spoken to Reynolds, and he’d used the opportunity to cut him off. The Captain looked a bit annoyed but nodded.

  “Friend of yours?” Reynolds asked Yevhen darkly.

  “In a manner of speaking? Yes. I fought with him on two of the crusades, but against him in both of the World Wars,” Yevhen said with a smirk that he knew would piss off Reynolds. “But that bastard is hard to kill. Tough as nails even for a vampire. He used to go by the name ‘Bur-Suen’.”

  “So down the road we’re going up against a potential strix, or at least someone who could pose a real threat to you,” Reynolds clarified, and Kaz gave him a thankful half-nod for keeping things on track.

  “Oh, he’ll pose a threat to me for sure. Strix or not, old Bur-Suen is a demon. I’m not sure even your best armor will be able to protect you from him if he’s got his hands on a solid Hellhound,” Yevhen explained. “I doubt I could take him at my best if he’s been feeding regularly. And if he has a Hellhound, I’d be outclassed if he had one of his own.”

  That was a fair point. In fang-on-fang combat things could go either way, but if one had a Hellhound that was more like a soldier fighting a tank with his sidearm. A Hellhound was a massive advantage both in terms of protection and firepower. It was a testament to Yevhen’s full power that he took out that mercenary vampire in a Hellhound (or perhaps a testament to how low-class the Mithrian fang had been).

  “Don’t we have the Hellhound you brought back from the battle?” Kaz asked, but Reynolds shook his head.

  “It didn’t survive. Hellhounds are at least partly living creatures, and your pet here did a number on it when he killed its pilot.” Yevhen just shrugged at Reynolds' comment.

  “I’m not apologizing for that,” Yevhen said with a cruel smile, indicating that he’d enjoyed wrecking the massive armored bio-titan. Kaz shot him an exasperated glare but he didn’t relent. “It was bloody and raw when I took it. I’m surprised I managed to get it back to base. Ripping out the pilot is like... ripping out a parasite attached to the heart. It takes a bit of the flesh with it and the host dies soon. So, unfortunately, I’m without a hound again,” Yevhen said matter-of-factly, like he was explaining what he had for lunch.

  “Well, we’ll just have to plan around that. Besides, that’s a future problem. We’re assigned to patrols until the Perths can be shipped in and command can pull the people they’re assigning to us.” the Captain explained.

  “Pardon me, uh, sir. You said we’re going to Malithovia?” Zora asked, piping up for the first time in a while.

  “Yeah, that gonna be a problem?” Kaz asked. She couldn’t help but put the pieces together; Zora had slightly darker skin and eyes in comparison to her own lighter skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes.

  “N-no. I have family there. I know the area pretty well.” Zora continued, “Before the war, the border used to be pretty open and we visited them a lot.”

  Kaz nodded, “So you’ll be our secret weapon then. Give us a bit of local insight?”

  Zora beamed. “I’ll do my best!” However, then she simmered a bit. “It’s a strange place these days. Malithovia’s kinda playing both sides in the war.”

  Kaz nodded, “Yeah, like they always do. Ostensibly it’s a ‘neutral nation’ in wars but that’s a load of bunk.”

  “Well...” Zora said, clearly wishing to object, “they’ve managed to keep open some humanitarian corridors, which is good. But, both Arcadia and Mithris keep running military supply convoys through those same corridors. I think the Malithovian government looks the other way so long as the actual fighting never crosses their borders...”

  It was a survivalist strategy, and Kaz wasn’t confident it would keep the “neutral nation” out of the fight for much longer. “Yeah but give it a few months, or maybe a year. Mithris is already eyeing East Malithovia for “annexation”. They’ve never seen a country they didn’t wanna devour. If you give those pigs an inch they’ll take a damn mile.”

  Zora shrank back but nodded, “Y-yeah. I’m sure you’re right.”

  The Captain looked at Zora. “Don’t you worry Zora. We’ll beat Mithris back so hard even Malithovia will be free.” Zora looked encouraged but gave a weak smile,

  “I’m sure, sir. Thank you.”

  Maybe it would be like the Captain said, Kaz thought; they could win the day with the power they had now. However, she doubted it. She knew it would take more power to drive Mithris back, even with Yevhen.

  The People's Republic of Mithris was established in 2324 AD prior to the outbreak of World War III, after former Russian forces joined with the wife of the Kazakh political activist Nodar Mithris (sometimes spelled “Mitis”) after his death. Slaninkova Mithris proved to be a rallying figure for post-war Russia via a form of central-Asian unity and identity, enforced at the end of a surplus Russian rifle. The dissolution of Russia and other world governments in the wake of the disastrous famine and three subsequent plagues in the 2310s left ample chaos in its wake and had destabilized the region, so the proto-Mithrian forces quickly claimed land.

  They claimed much of the territory in central Asia, the western shore of the Caspian Sea, the northern reaches of the Mediterranean Sea, and all but encompassed the Black Sea. They extended their influence, through military action and political subterfuge, to the area around Moscow and Kazan in the 2329 bloody “Homeland Offensive” (Наступление на Родину). By the outbreak of WWIII, they had claimed land as far north as the Barents Sea and as far west as parts of land formerly held by Finland, Estonia, and Latvia. In opposition to them the Arcadian Republic and Malithovia Federation were formed by the small local governments of states and other holdings in the Caucasus region.

  In the post-WWIII era, the People's Republic of Mithris has established itself as a regional power, controlling much of central Asia and encroaching on western Europe, all the way down to the north coast of the Mediterranean. While not on par with superpowers like Neomerica, the Union, the Trans-Asian Alliance, or the NA (Nkwek?r?ta Ah?) they hold regional superiority and their ownership of atomic weapons ensures their continued existence as they harass the smaller regional powers. Since their invasion of Arcadia, public opinion has turned against Mithris and the Mithris family (who has held onto power since its inception). Military supplies and funding have come in from other countries in hopes of turning Arcadia into a bulwark against Mithrian territorial aggression.