Ch. 8 - Back in Action

[Janxi]

Janxi feels a bat at her tail and whirls, finding Tori as the usual suspect. It takes her little prompting to pounce on the little cat's striped tail. That was the normal state of play for the two shagcats. She doesn't even suspect Takota.

[Takota]

It is all Takota can do to keep from laughing when Janxi goes after Tori thinking the smaller cat is the one attacking her tail. That is just the kind of thing he likes. Doing something and having someone else take the blame for it

"About the cannon, what if we can capture it rather than destroy it?" he asks while completely ignoring the two playing cats as if nothing is out of the ordinary. The answer seems quite obvious to Takota but he had to say something to keep himself from giving away that he was the guilty one who initiated the attack.

[dakota]

"I understand your concerns, but the decision is made and Lt. Norrin's squad shipped out at first light despite my concerns about the condition some of them were in." The Colonel replied with a bit of a scowl. "Agreed this rogue is a problem to us, but that cannon is a threat to all coalition operations in the region as long as it is mobile. That is your mission."

Shep stepped up beside Takota and said softly " I saw that," he smirked as the female cats forgot themselves and where they were. " Tak, from a male cat's perspective, if you were in our tiger's shoes,would you be going in after these two or would you bait them out to you where it was easier?"

Scope and Det looked at Sam," No offense Captain, but they don't do this in the field, do they?" Scope asked, motioning towards the playful cats.

"Indeed." Added the colonel. " If the cannon can be captured, that would be better, but we anticipate a low chance of the probability of that being possible.It will depend on Captain Fraser's judgement whether you should try of course. Main thing is it is out of enemy hands, whoever is controlling it."

" I'll bet a month's pay it ain't no rats." Det said. " From what I've heard, they're crafty, but they aren't smart enough to keep a machine like that running."

[Takota]

Takota chuckles when Shep lets him know he's been caught. "I'll try harder next time to make sure nobody sees me. After all I can't live up to the image of being a 'ghost cat' if I get caught doing things like that." he says referring to the ancient term humans used for snow leopards.

The question makes him pause for a moment to think. "If I were that tiger and just working off instinct I'd wait and try to come in when things were quiet ... like late at night." he replies though he is obviously still considering other possibilities. "Now if I were him and he is a thinking cat working more with rational thought rather than impulsive actions I'd watch and wait from a distance using optics if they were available. Perhaps track the others when they are sent out on a mission when there would be far fewer people around to hinder his actions."

Takota is not too sure how many other cats think. He's only met a handfull of them before.

[Tori]

Tori was surprised with the pounce, but quickly had things in reverse, pinning Janxi's tail as if playing with a mouse. Her own tail swished with irritation. It was too early for chase tail, and especially in front of the Colonel. Unlike Janxi, she saw the responsible paw, and promised herself some revenge with the leopard later. For now, there was work to do.

"I'd wager he's already watchin' us, like Tacky said. He can afford to stalk fer days an' strike when we're weakest. He'll know us 'bout as well as we know him."

[Janxi]

"He'll wait til one of us is wounded er in trouble..." Her gaze fell on Shep who seemed to always be in trouble. "Iffen he gets impatient, he might try pickin' yew, Sam or Tacky, likely Tacky off. Er he'll lay out some traps fer us. Low tech stuff, snares, punjis, whatever...

"He'll likely wait fer us to make a mistake, er git hurt fightin' them rats. And naw, Col. I never thought fer a minute they had yer lawst tank. It's tha Sploogies, and likely their pets, tha changos..."

Chango was a Spanish term for monkey. Lone Star cats used the term for Kittani. "Why not get it back to 'Lantis and rip it off like they rip off everything else?"

[Takota]

Though he knows their mission is the cannon talk of the rogue tiger seems to be the hot topic.

"I doubt the tiger would come after me without trying to reduce the odds against him first. He has not shown himself to be on the stupid side yet so if I were him I'd try to take out the easy targets before going after a wild card that I didn't know much about."

[Janxi]

Janxi shrugged. "He's a juicer hunter. Mah maw is too. She taught me to take out megas and titans first to knock out heavy weapons. Hyperions and phaetons next to cut their flanking angles, and everyone else last. Face it, we're tha mega juicers of this lot, Tacky.

"An' I got a month's pay Norrin's squadron has negative contact wif Tony, and we meet him bafore we meet tha tank 'er during tha battle. Norrin ain't his target. We can go all day avoidin' contact and I know Tony can too. Our best bet wif tha tank is to lay low, lase it and keep contact til the missiles splash.

"Mebbe Tori an' I take that mission. It's what we do. We let him think we're out front an' all 'lone. We lase or no, but wif prisoners, he's gon be slowed. Sides, there's one of him an two-uv-us. We kin take care of ourselves 'gainst one tom, and kin accomplish tha mission!"

[Tori]

Tori yawned and licked her nose twice. Then she lazily began licking her paws. "He may be all big an' bad, but we know this swamp. We know our enemy, and J-Cat's right. Dere's two uv us to one of 'em. We kin house this guy!"

Tori's stomach rumbled and she looked longingly at Six.

[dakota]

" I suggest you focus on the mission you are assigned." The Colonel replied sternly. " I have faith in Lt. Norrin and his team to handle our rogue. Now if nothing else, dismissed. Your bird lifts in one hour."

Shep looked at the cats," You heard the man. chow time, we're wasting daylight."

Scope stepped beside Sam, " Captain, you okay? Awful quiet."

[Tori]

Tori snapped to attention. A large part of her wanted to sass wise to the colonel, but she was learning to handle her scorn a bit better. "Sir, aye-aye, sir! Hooya!"

At that, she conducted an about face, and walked out of the briefing room, heading straight to the chow hall. She loaded her plate with scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, ham and just a bit of bacon. On the eggs went some cheddar cheese and a load of salsa. She grabbed two bottles of Gatorade to wash everything down with.

Knowing Janxi would be behind her, she looked back. "We can focus on blastin' that super tank, and he kin have all tha faith he wants in Norrin. But we know we'll be findin' Tony sooner than later. Y'all got some plans? Fer tha tank er tha tiger?"

[Janxi]

Janxi also came to attention, exulted a heart-felt, but none too loud, "Oooh-rah," about faced and followed Tori out.

She went through the chow line with Tori, taking her eggs, a half dozen of them, over easy. She loaded up on link sausages and ham, dousing both in gravy. Last, she took some buttered wheat toast, just for the yolks of her eggs, and opted instead for milk. She doused hot sauce over everything.

At that, she took a seat beside Tori. "Naw, other than plan fer bof of 'em. Colonel ain't never fought tigers er cats and don't know what we kin do. Norrin's goin' on a snipe hint, tha three uv us know that. Strength in number's our bess plan for Tony. As fer tha tank? Juss look fer it's trail, an maybe trick-fox it with some UAV's. Hopefully, it'll be in one place long 'nuff fer us to laze it an' fer tha missiles to splash."

[Takota]

Takota is less enthusiastic about coming to attention than the others. Well ok ... his is a lot less 'snap-to' than Tori or Janxi showed but is still passable. He shows much more interest in following the other cats to the mess hall for some food though. With a full plate and two drinks he joins the others at the table.

"Well unless the tiger has wings he isn't gonna be following us very far. Who knows ... maybe Snorrin' will get lucky and actually find Tony. It would be interesting to hear about that encounter."

[Tori]

"If he's still here, he'll know where we're goin. You and ah boff know a lone cat kin cover a lotta ground in a hurry. If he ain't, he's already makin' tracks for tha AO, and will be along shortly. A hundred er two miles of swamp ain't no big deal ta a shagcat."

Tori dug into her breakfast with gusto. She acted as if she hadn't eaten all week. A hungry shagcat could devour her own weight, given enough meat products and time.

"Let's get that tank ourselves. Too many to capture, but we could bomb it back to hell, or Germany. Whichever comes first."

[dakota]

"You three are alwful sure of yourselves that this tiger is after you." Shep said as he flopped down with his tray, intentionally bumping Tori so would miss her mouth. He chuckled as he did until Det slammed down beside him and nearly knocked the XO on the floor.

"Scope and Cap will be along in a minute." The borg grinned, catching Trassk before he fell.

"Big ox." Shep grumbled as he started into his breakfast, the tray loaded nearly as full as the cats as he started into it. " Maybe if we're lucky, Lt. Norrin will use Tank for catnip to lure your tiger out." he sputtered between bites being washed down with OJ