FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ilaria sat up straight in her captain's chair with a huge gin stretched over her muzzle. "Damn. You weren't kidding when you said you would be quick."

Iolvin smirked right back at his sister. "Is twenty minutes quick?"

"It is when you see what she just added." Ari stood and slowly cozied up to the edge of the bridge's main hologram emitter. "Seriously, I was just looking for names and stuff. You gave us commodities... weather... ~everything~."

Yomi nodded as she came back to reality from her machine-level Link. "You desired information, correct? I gave all I have. Is this not good?"

"Oh, far from it. This is perfect." Ari skimmed through the galactic anomalies that were added and sighed in relief. "With these gravity wells alone, you just shaved off at least a week of bad dives from our trip."

"Weeks, days, hours, minutes... I finally understand these odd time units of yours." Yomi brought up a depiction of the current Earth time that the Starbreeze ran against, then paired it with a strange, circular reading of different sized pips that were all equally fractional--similar to metric systems. "You should really upgrade to universal system if you are expanding your reach to other planets."

"I see that. So... are these each a sixth of the higher set? Wait, no..." Ari created some nanite glasses and focused on the smaller details of the pips. "It's way more than that. What's the logic here?"

"Our time system began on three cycle count for rotation of Yangurrar." Yomi brought up the old system, showing a jumbled mess of conversions similar to Earth time. "We have switched to portions of the pulse between Gemini twins, Yangu and Grurra. Pulse become beat, become pattern, becomes cycle, becomes arc."

Ashe waved a paw from a spot in the corner where she had her laptop set up. "Sorry for peeping, but it makes sense. Look at this... Um..." The star map scaled up to show the formerly blank location of Yangurrar and highlighted the twin stars of the system. "Is that showing?"

"Yeah. You're good, Ashe."

"Well each star is a variant stable pulsar. They each pulse at different rates, but there's a combined pulse when they happen to align axes. That's every two-hundred and thirty-one smaller pulses if my math's right." Ashe synced the various clocks to an animation of the stars and let the visuals highlight the pulses as markers on the clocks. "Every group of pulses makes a 'beat', then so an and so forth in a universal multiplier of two-thirtyOne. If you think of beats as seconds and the next, uh... 'patterns' as minutes..." She slowed the clock near the end of one Earth day as well as one Yangurrar day. "One cycle is really close to a third of their full day, and coincidentally their night period is only about one cycle. In Earth time, that's damn close to five days per cycle and... patterns are like half hours, beats are eight seconds... yeah, and the stars pulse at about twenty-eight and a half hertz."

"Yeah, even ~my~ brain hurts from that one." Ari checked Ashe's diagram of calculations and cringed at the long pace of the Yangurran year. "Wow, so an arc is a third of their year... that's close to ten of our years. Holy crap. Good thing they live just as much longer."

"Our lifespans vary greatly. Settlers and traders grow to about two hundred returns, while the rooted might reach three and half hundred."

Yoyo tried to do the math but performed a lot of rounding to get to a result. "So... Holy shit, you'll die at like six hundred of our years?"

"And she'd still be closer to about seventy of theirs. That's impressive." Ari took a moment to draw the correlation of that lifespan to the one Sprite estimated for her now that she had nanites for blood. "A lot of this is making sense now. We'll have to come up with a similar system if we're to keep track of any of this."

"Yomi only has thirty-two cycles in one revolution, so we measure more in batches of beats. Perhaps you might do the same?"

Ashe did a quick crunch and proposed, "Ten thousand, six hundred and sixty beats in an Earth day. We could round it out to an even ten grand and call that a space day. We'd lose an hour and a half, but still..."

"You might be onto something there. Ten thousand for our day, fifty for shy of a cycle, one-fifty... No, one-sixty to match their day pretty damn close." Ilaria nodded as she drew close approximations to all of Earth's standard measurements. "Prisma? Set my watch to have another parallel time system. Minutes are now ten beats and... hours are now five hundred. That puts twenty new hours in a day... right?"

"Yup! I'm thinking a radial display is best for this while you learn the system." Ilaria's watch shut off its display for a pawful of seconds, then switched its holograms on again with a radial beat time surrounding the digital Earth time. "There you go, Ari. Give it a test run; I'm curious how it works for your biological cycles."

"Wow..." Yomi poked Prisma's avatar, causing it to flicker. "Your ship has veile?"

"Oh, no. Well... they may be loosely related, but Sprite and Prisma happened accidentally. They're just as alive and independent as you or me, though." Ari looked around, then shrugged to the AI construct. "Pris, where's your body?"

"Recovering from exposure. The minerals in the sand of this world are slightly corrosive and quite rough. Having discovered this, I somehow decided to walk down a dune for some stupid reason." The AI pulled up a video feed of her shell hanging near a larger matter printer in the cargo hold. "You may want to check your exposed metallic surfaces and joints of your own artificial limbs. That sand gets everywhere."

"~All~ sand gets everywhere. Thanks for the heads-up, Pris." Ari smiled to her guest and gestured to her command console. "Thank you for sharing your information, Yomi. Did you get everything you wanted, or would you like some more time with the database?"

"Our people are now far richer for having this information. Thank you, friends." Yomi bowed politely and then stood up straight, ready to move. "It will take quite some time to ingest this technology. Research on Yomi is very primitive and traders are many cycles out."

Ari nudged her snout to Yoyo and he led the way to the forward elevator. "Well we'll trade this again wherever we stop next if it's safe to do so. All I ask is that you do your best to keep this information out of bad paws... er, hands."

"Agreed. There is no sense in arming our enemy." Yomi slowed to a stop halfway down the hall. "What is that... ~wonderful~ noise?"

"Noise?" Ari stopped as well, followed by her brother. They took a moment to discern any odd sounds, but it soon dawned on Ari that there was music bleeding through the captain's quarters door. "Oh, that's just music. We could make a detour if you'd like to meet my new fiancée."

"Fian... sea... I've never heard this word. What does it mean?"

"It means she's going to be my wife one day. Here, let's take a break so you can meet her." Ari tapped her thumb on a pad by the door and the hatch popped open. She held the door for the others, then grinned as she found Rhyme both facing the far wall and distracted with singing. "Boo!"

"Holy shit!" The tanuki literally leaped to her hindpaws, her sudden lack of singing revealing the music was a karaoke version of the pop track. "Gods above, Ari! Stop doing that!"

"Well you need to stop singing without a care all the time. Wait, that's cute. Scratch that." The otter gestured to her guest. "This is Yomi, the head honcho I told you about. Yomi, this is Rhyme."

Rhy held out a paw for an odd few seconds before the alien remembered the gesture. "Nice to meet you."

"Yes, well met. Oh! May the goddess nurture your sprouts." Yomi knelt down next to a playpen and the three children Rhyme was supervising. "These are yours, correct? They look similar."

"Yeah, they're our pups. This is Pepper, Paprika, and Salt." Rhyme found her seat and slumped down, reaching for the music controls to lower the volume. "They've been itching to walk, Ari. Not quite there yet, but for being only a week old that's amazing."

"They're growing faster than normal, remember." Ari reached inside and pulled out Salt to sit on her arm. "They don't mind the music? Please don't tell me they're... deaf like my girls..."

"Oh, not at all. They ~love~ the music. Probably got that from me." Rhyme gave the pup a kiss on the forehead, then pointed to the main bedroom. "I've also been trying to hide Carmine, too. Figured the music would help that."

"Carmine? What's he doing hiding in here?" Ari gave her pup to her brother and walked over to her bedroom. "Hello? Car?"

"Ari?" The hare sat upright suddenly on the edge of te bed. "S-Sorry... I didn't have anywhere else to go though, and--"

"Car, what's wrong? You're flustered."

Carmine took a deep breath, then pulled out a paw he was hiding that appeared damp. "I'm in heat." That would have been more than enough to explain the situation, if not for the bunny's continued distress. "Adem... doesn't take well to it. I can almost always keep him in check, but when I'm in heat? He... loses to his other..."

"I didn't even know you two were a... Wait, the bastard side tries to claim you? Damn, that can be rough." Ari sat next to Car and gave him a comforting sideways hug. "You can hide out here all you want. Hell, you can paw off as long as you clean the mess. Anything that helps is alright."

"But he's looking for me. I can't hide here until it all dies down. I just started this heat today and already he's... claimed me twice." The hare laid back, then a few seconds later spread his legs provocatively. "Maybe you could help me like before? It'd be way faster and... it'll feel pretty good, too."

"I don't know, bunny boy. Apparently I'm not shooting quite as many blanks as I thought, and it won't help much if I pull out."

"Do it." Rhyme stood in the doorway with a ponderous expression. "I mean, it'll help... but I'm sort of curious too..."

"Rhy, what if I knock Car up? Not mentioning the wonderful pups we already have, Carmine he would also have something permanent with me. I can't do that to him and... and Adem. I can't put you through that either."

"Unless I tell you I'm okay with it." Rhy sat on the opposite side of the hare and started yanking off his pants. "The guy'll get much worse from his boyfriend. Hell, his options are risk kids and have fun, or risk kids and be raped."

Ari placed a paw on Rhy's to pause her assault on Khaki Hill. "Or he could just take one of my toys and go to town. Nobody has to risk anything here."

"Ademeus pushed past me earlier to search our room. Carmine's hiding in here now because of that."

Ari noticed a limp when she touched her fiancée's wrist, determining it was bruised beneath the fur. "Are you hurt? Did he... try anything with you?"

"Nothing a few days won't fix, and... he felt me up. He... put his fingers..." Rhyme shook her head and resumed exposing Carmine from the waist down. "The girls came by and overpowered him. It didn't go any further than that, but... he could always come back. If Carmine can calm him once his heat's sated, that's the only safe bet."

"That fucking..." Ari held her personal rage back due to the company she shared. "He's not himself, and yes Car seems to have a huge effect on him. I still think there's got to be more options, though."

"Ari... you don't need to if you really don't want to." Carmine shut his legs and yanked up his pants. "If it's Adem, I guess I can find a way to--"

"No. He's not the fur you know right now." Ari swallowed in anticipation and climbed atop the bunny. "I'm not letting you choose to be raped. You don't know what that can do to a fur's head, Car."

"So... you'll do it? Thank you, Ari." Car let himself spread out limply as Ari wedged her lower half between his legs. "You don't need to make a big thing of it. If you just get in and out, I'd be alright with that."

"Nope. That'll never happen." Rhyme kicked off her own pants and immediately shoved a paw into her shorts. "My Ari isn't the half-assed type with these things. Besides, might as well enjoy it if you're getting it."

"Says the woman with only a few dozen times under her belt." Ari pulled down her spats beneath her sirat just enough to free her erect cock. "Fast, slow, or hard? Bunny's choice."

"...Painfully hard? Adem's gotten me used to a bit of... well, not roughness, but..."

"He's big and has barbs. I'm not sure he can go soft if he tried." Ari sighed painfully as she remembered her first sexual encounter with the crazed form of the liger. "Well I've got the big part working for me at least. We'll see what I can do."

"You're... bigger than him, actually."

Rhyme kicked her underwear to hang from one ankle then shoved her fingers back inside her folds without a hitch. "She's broken me for anything smaller, I think. I mean, my first was that huge thing, so anything else... well, you get me."

"If big's your thing, sure. I think Adem's about right though. Not being mean here but--" Car choked on his own words as half of Ari's manhood filled every free space inside his pussy. "Gods, damn... You're ~too~ big for me."

"You're a small guy, too. I get that. Not sure how Zoë takes my brother, either." Ari shoved forward lightly, noting the hare's womb was wide open in his bout of estrus. "How hard we talking here? I could knot you if you're down with some actual pain."

"N-No, thanks. Just... keep doing whatever you just did." Ari grinned as Carmine winced in pain and pleasure from having his cervix forced wide open. "That's p-perfect-t."

"That's godsdamned tighter than ~I~ can take. It's hurting me too, in a... a good way." Even though Carmine was gasping and out of breath, Ilaria shoved all she could into him until all but her knot was buried deep in bunny cunny. "Ooh, damn... I could burst just staying still."

"No future wife of mine peters out like that. Give the guy a huge one like you do with me."

"You're enjoying this too much, Rhy." Ari giggled as she pulled herself out of the hare, then again when she flipped him on his side and re-entered from behind. "Might as well give you a good view of the action."

"Oh, ~fuck~. That feels perfect." Car moaned as that otter cock split him to the core, the whole of that length pressing against his G-spot on the way. "I l-love it from behind. Adem always w-wants to s-see me cum, though."

"Yeah, and I think Rhy here does too, from both ends. Where we at, hon?"

Rhyme added two fingers to her clit in addition to the three in her. "Gonna cum... gods, any minute now..."

"I meant our guest here, honey."

"O-Oh..." Carmine cringed as Ari shoved one particularly good stroke perfectly into his G-spot. "S-So damn close... Just... need something more..."

"Fuck, so do I. You'll hate me for this, but fuck it." Ilaria attacked on two additional fronts, one with a paw rubbing circles over Car's clit and the other mainly consisting of trying to cram her already-inflated knot into the tiny hare. "Is that... hurting too much?"

"Gods! Fuck, I don't care!"

"Exactly what I wanted to hear." Ari bucked ferociously against the smaller fur, eventually bringing a paw to his shoulder to help press him into her her fleshy bulb. "Gods, it might not fit now."

"The hell it won't." Rhyme switched to using two fingers inside herself while her thumb rolled over her clit hood. Her free paw then latched beneath Ari's knot, clamped down tightly, and shoved the rest of her cock in to the root. "Damn, that's sexy."

"F-Fuck!" The pressure around her knot set Ari off, opening the floodgates so huge swaths of amber cum seared into Carmine's stretched snatch. "Gods! Car, fuck!"

"Ah...!" Carmine went silent as his orgasm shot every hair on his pelt outward in a wave of electric bliss over his skin. Every time he clutched and quivered uncontrollably he squeezed down on that knot and drove it further into his G-spot, only queuing up another aftershock orgasm. "I... I can't... Gods..."

Rhyme sped up her own pawing fervently as she watched Carmine's abdomen swell with potent cum. "That's so... so hot... Gods, so close..."

"Fuck... let me... help..." Ari removed her paw from the fur locked to her groin and moved it to her fiancée's, cupping and plunging four webbed fingers as deep as they would fit. "Cum for me, Rhy."

"Ah!" The tanuki hunched forward as her peak exploded inside her, not once complaining when her mouth crammed into Carmine's. "Ari... Gods, Ari... I fucking love you..."

Ilaria leaned down over Car's side and gave Rhyme a deep kiss of her own. "I love you too, Rhy."

"Fuck... You tied me."

"Oh shit, I did." Ari chuckled as she bucked instinctively, draining every last bit of a gallon of her cream into that tight bunny cunt. "I'm not really sorry about that, actually. I think we both needed that today."

"Gods... That was the best I've ever cum." Car was suddenly overcome by smiles and grins. "Now I'm glad it was you instead of... well..."

"How the hell does it all fit?" Rhyme scooted herself down and gave the two lovers a lick. "Not an ounce. Damn, are cuntboys... uh, is he really that tight?"

"You're just as tight, maybe tighter." Ari wiggled and jerked to play with her mate, but some combination of tugging and overpressure resulted in her knot being expelled with a hefty load of otter batter all over Rhy's face and hair. "Ah, well fuck me. You alright, honey?"

"I'm fucking covered..." Rhyme wiped her eyes clear, only for another pint of cum to rocket out onto her face. "Your cock punched me in the face and now I'm a damned mess. I think I'm in love."

"You're engaged, Rhy. Of course you're in love." Carmine tried to wince his pussy shut to help the tanuki, but only managed to provoke the remaining two quarts inside him to immediately dump on Rhyme's face. "Uh... sorry?"

"I guess you're ~covered~ in love now. Heeeee..." Ari slid off the bed and pulled Rhyme with her, giving the tanuki's face a good lick with her rough tongue. "So you like having me all over you? That something I should remember for later?"

"Yeah. That's a definite yes." Rhy wiped her face and then licked her palms. "Just let me enjoy ~this~ in private, please. I don't need Alex licking me clean or the guys making it worse."

"They still see you as one of the guys, Rhy. Just because you had kids doesn't make you suddenly a ~girly~ girl."

"It does make her look fucking sexy though." Iolvin knocked a bit late on the open doorway. "You do realize this thing was wide open the whole time, right?"

"So you got to enjoy a show. Nothing you haven't done before."

"Yeah, but it's not me I'm concerned about." Yoyo pointed to Yomi watching from the couch, her tendrils shoved into her pants. "I think you just made another problem, and I'm not sure what our protocol is here."

"Neither do I. Shit." Ari sighed and stood up, walking just outside the bedroom to check on her new pups. "At least they didn't see anything."

"They're kids. They barely know what's going on around them."

"But if they have those veilee in them? Couldn't they record this for them or something? I'm fine if there's context, but..." Ari frowned at the idea of shielding her pups, but soon noticed her older pups had exited the spare bedroom in nothing but towels. <Oh, hi whelps. You were taking a shower?>

<Yes. We required a second after seeing you and Carmine.> The twins pranced out and sat on either side of Yomi, their arms around her shoulders such that each girl performed half of their next signing. <You look like you need a shower too. Should we help Yomi while you three take one?>

"Damnit... That does sound like a solution, actually..." Ari backed herself towards the master bathroom and tapped a wall console to prep the water. <Not now, girls. We'll try to find something more appropriate first. You'll be the backup plan though, if you'd like that.>

<We would!> The twins looked at each other, then planted kisses on Yomi's cheeks. <And we have a feeling we'll have some fun sooner than later.>

"It's a giant spider!" Sydney shivered at the sight of Carbon slurping down the insides of an alien sea arachnoid's leg. "Eww. That's just wrong."

"Hey, I don't care what it is. It's tasty and it isn't artificially latticed protein." Carbon sucked out the remainder of the juicy, blue meat from its hard skin 'shell' and shut her mask's visor as she chewed. "Damn, if it doesn't go down easy too. Some spices and it'll shine."

"It's better than nothing. These people live between a desert and a still ocean. Beggars can't be choosers." Iolvin brought one of the cooked legs up to his muzzle and sucked out the meat, chewing as he elaborated. "We've got to respect their lifestyle, even if we don't like it. They're kind enough to share what they have with us. Besides, this just tastes like crab..."

"Hairy, mutant crab." Cid grumbled as she looked away from the group and focused on the Starbreeze. "We going back? I'm a bit tired of walking around and avoiding space spiders."

"Ready to zonk out?" Carbon gave her remaining creature legs to Ilaria with a smile. "I could use some rest too... for ~the baby~ and all. The beach sounds more relaxing though."

"Yeah, I get it. Go have some fun while you still can." Ari eyed the odd spider legs with a full stomach and kindly pawned them over to Ademeus. "You look like you could use some more, big guy."

"Might help my mood some." The liger yanked the meat out of one leg, then pulled the rest free from the remaining leg whilst he chewed the first batch. "Car, you don't want any? All yours if you want."

Carmine shook his head and averted his gaze. "N-No... I'm on board with Cid here. That, and I'm allergic to shellfish."

"Well I don't think aliens that ~resemble~ shellfish count. That and they don't really have shells..." Ari nudged Car to the side and lowered her voice. "So, what's the damage? He's looking alright."

"Well he's not. Adem... refuses to handle himself when he has me. He's pent up."

Ari quirked her head and slowed down as the others walked along. "Wait, what's the problem then? If he's got you...?"

"Yeah, we tried... but I stopped him because I'm sore from you... and your knot..." Carmine skipped along to make up the gap they'd created and hug Adem's free arm. "I think the beach might do us some good, though. You never know... the relaxing atmosphere might loosen us up a little."

"Really? Then I'm all game, sandy fur or otherwise." Adem looked over to Ari briefly for approval. "I'm on shift this evening, though. Do you think...?"

"I don't think we're assaulting any enemy bases tonight, if that's what you mean. Just take it easy, Adem. You deserve it."

"Thanks, cap." The liger dropped his sour mood in favor of anticipatory glee. "Let's go find us a private corner somewhere, Car."

"We'll be helping the cargo teams if you need us." Ari reached into the waist of her sirat and tossed a strip of two condoms to Carmine. "Just keep it safe and... discrete. The locals get riled up easily and we don't need that."

"Y-Yeah... We'll keep it on the down-low." Adem tugged Car towards the beach, veering to the side of the ship below the dock. "Don't seem to be any prying eyes this way, plus it's out of the sun."

"Ah, I didn't think this through. We don't have any towels or swim suits..."

"We have fur and constant sun. We'll be fine if you can bear to be bare." Adem waited until they cleared the open before he reached down and grabbed the hare's cotton ball tail. "I can try it if you can."

"Not normally, but... nobody here knows us and I do owe you." Carmine clamped his paw around the huge bulge in Ademeus' pants. "Hate to say it, but everyone was staring at this mess I left you with."

"Hey, it's not your fault. You were still smelling like heat and..." The next part required a pause and painful sigh. "You got fucked hard by Ari."

"Adem... I didn't want to hurt you. I just also... didn't want you to hurt the both of us." Carmine slid his paw higher and evolved his touch into a hug. "I trust Ari. She's proven to be a good partner for me and she can keep it impersonal. And if I didn't do that with her, you would have legitimately lost your mind trying to trap me in a corner."

"I know I wasn't my better half, but I'm not sure I would have gone that far--"

"You already fucked me twice leading up to that point! I didn't want to both times, but... I didn't want to leave you pent up, either..."

"I don't... I don't remember that..."

"And I don't blame you. But you can't blame me for trying to protect myself from being raped. And that's not even for my sake, but because you might remember it..." Car latched onto his man with all his love. "It wasn't the Adem I love. Don't blame yourself, please."

"I..." Adem trudged forward silently a few paces, then switched the focus of their chat. "We need to plan ahead. You're going to go into heat regularly, so we should... have a few furs that can help service you."

"Adem..."

The liger shook his head with a smile. "I'm fine with it, little guy. Was it good? I mean, she sorta broke you."

Carmine took a few seconds to determine how honest his man was being. "It was... different. She's great in her own ways, even if she decides to knot me when I've told her not to." The hare smiled back for his lover as they found a quiet spot. "But she's not as caring as you are with me. That's way sexier."

"It is?" Adem sat down in the sand, pulling Car to sit on his tented groin. "Sexy how?"

"Enough to make me feel this way..." Carmine pulled Adem's paw into his pants to feel the sticky moisture rapidly building in his crotch. "It's still pretty sore, but I think I love you more than enough to make it work."

"You're so damn sexy." Adem pulled his paw to his face and licked it clean, frowning briefly as he tasted Ilaria's seed still drooling from his lover's cunt. "Didn't clean yourself after? ...Kinky bunny."

"I tried, but... she makes more than you can believe." Car pulled off his pants and underwear, indeed finding a faint trickle of amber mixed with his own arousal. "Sorry. There must still be some really deep inside."

"Let's ignore that she came so much in you while in heat and... start thinking of it as a gift of ~free lube~." Adem scooted out of his own pants and rested Car's drooling slit over his hard manhood. "Might work better than last time. Whad'dya' say we give it a try?"

"You're not hearing me complain... yet." Carmine reached down and placed a condom on Adem's length, only then noticing his literally swollen, blue-ish balls. "Did I really do this to you? What if I still can't take it? Should I... maybe use my...?"

"I know you don't like cock like women do, Car. I'm not forcing you to suck me off if you despise it. And don't you dare argue, because I know the looks you've given me on that matter." Adem groaned as his sack was massaged. "We'll make this work if we can, and if not I'll just wait a little longer."

"...Maybe we should have a plan for you, too. If I'm out of action... maybe you can get help from someone else?" Car rubbed his folds over Adem's length, prepping him for a trial. "I heard... that Ashe kid is servicing the crew now..."

"I'd break that poor girl." Adem angled his tip upward and prodded gingerly at Carmine's pussy. "Besides, I only have eyes for you. I love you, Carmine."

"I love you too, Adem...e...us?" Carmine cocked his head to the side as he looked up to the ship. "What's going on up there?"

"Afraid we'll get spotted? Well too late for that." Adem pressed himself just inside the hare, letting him adjust. "Besides, it's just some kids being kids. They're exploring or something."

"I... I guess..." Carmine stifled a gasp as he sank another inch onto that liger cock. "I j-just... something doesn't... feel right."

"You're reading something?" Adem groaned as he stopped his advances to focus on the three male and two female 'kids' snooping around on the dock. "Think this is a thing? We can always pick this up later if you think there's trouble."

"I don't know. I'm getting conflicting emotions here." Carmine leaned to the side a bit to get a better view, slipping off his man's sex while keeping cautious of the sand. "There's something about the darker-skinned one on the right. He's conflicted about something but... Oh. They're running off?"

"Oh good, it was nothing. Must've just been arguing over where to screw or something." Ademeus reeled Carmine close and tried to get back into the mood. "Teen crisis averted. Now, where were--?"

An unexpected shock-wave hit the two hard in the chest, threatening to drain the air from their lungs. Following behind by mere milliseconds came the sound of an explosion, driving both furs to look upward at the distant ship. A plume of smoke forced Adem and Car to their hindpaws, but the smaller of the two promptly keeled over with a spurt of brilliant red. Ademeus dropped down just in time to avoid the same fate, a piece of random shrapnel zipping past his head and burying in the sand.

"C-Car? What...?" The liger cradled his lover in his lap desperately as blood trickled down the side of his head. "Shit, you're bleeding!"

"Don't... feel so..."

"Car!? Carmine!?" As the hare went limp Adem tensed up, a darker creature welling up inside his heart to take his place. "Little guy, no... I'll do anything, just..."

"Anything, for this queer piece of ass?" Adem despised that cruder version of his own voice, but was in no state of mind to argue. "I think we have an agreement. A little fun for me, a little revenge for you."

Adem slowly stood, his paws shaking in fear and anticipation. "Just... don't let me remember it..."

The liger stood tall and confident, suddenly a different person as he snapped off his condom. "Now where's the fun in ~that~?"

"Nn... Fuck..." Ilaria rapidly blinked her eyes open, finding she had to wipe them clean of dirt and soot lest they remain blindly burning. "What the fuck...? What happened?"

Iolvin groaned as he splashed over in a heavy leap, the result of somehow having his prosthetic leg torn open. "Hold still, Lulu. Let me check you."

"Check me? What happened?" The otter choked on the dust in the air a moment, finding herself looking down at her body submerged in a foot of water, then more concernedly at a piece of flak stuck in her false breast. "Oh shit! Fuck, I--"

"You're lucky you've got those airbags, sis. Other than that, you look fine... until Liv sees it, anyway." Yoyo slumped against Ari's cargo bay wall and propped up against her. "Shit... You never said you felt pain from these things."

"Without it you'd never be cautious. Get used to it." Ari tried to make out the situation, but a possible concussion and ringing in her ears prevented her from seeing the larger picture. "So what the flying fuck happened?"

"A bomb or something. A pretty shitty one, too." Zoë carefully navigated the debris with her bare feet to collapse into Yoyo's lap. "Sorry, kiddo. Had to check on Lulu."

Not able to hear much of anything herself Zoë weakly signed, <Master is correct. Master does what he must for family.>

"Thanks, Zoë. Is Dee back?" Yoyo relaxed every muscle he could spare as the human shook her head sideways. "Try to stay awake, sis. That's what you do in emergencies, right?"

"Y-Yeah... but I'm fine." Ari shoved her twin to balance him flat against the wall, then slowly stood to survey the damage. "Where was the bomb? You see which direction?"

Yoyo pointed to the starboard wall that was currently spread mostly over the floor. "The side..."

"Iolvin, you might need to take your own advice. Zoë, keep him awake and talking." The human nodded and started signing something so small in scale Ari couldn't read it. Instead the otter walked towards the hole in the hull and kicked aside hidden debris in the water. "At least they were dumb enough to hit the already-destroyed part of the ship. Gonna suck welding all this again, in water now."

"Ari! Where did--!?"

"There, guys. I think he's concussed." Ilaria pointed to the spot she'd come from as Adrian pulled Elliot through the mess. She sighed as she started to absorb the whole picture. "Low velocity explosives, maybe homemade from the residue... But who would do this? An accident, maybe?"

The quartermaster James and a few of the armed crew walked outside to form a perimeter. "Shit. Ari, maybe... them...?"

"Them?" Ilaria looked down the dock where James pointed and nearly lost her lunch. Chartreuse blood painted the stone, dotted with five barely-identifiable corpses. In the center of them all sat a destroyed, broken liger. "Adem... Gods, what did you do?"

"I didn't... mean for him to..." Ademeus finally forced himself to look beyond his bloody paws, noticing the shredded boys at first and... soon the ruptured, semen laden abdomens of the girls. "They didn't deserve this much pain. They... Gods, they took Carmine, but..."

"Carmine is hurt? Where is he?"

"He got hit in the... the head..."

"Adem, I need you to get your shit together." Ari walked over, careful of the bodies, and firmly shook the liger by the shoulders. "Where is Carmine? Did you see him die, for sure? Time is important here now that we have... murders to deal with."

"H-He... Down there." Adem pointed a claw to the spot tucked beneath the dock, and only after careful examination did Ari spot the hare. "Gods... please tell me I didn't kill them for... for nothing..."

"We'll worry about that later. Can you move?"

"I don't, um..." The feline tried to stand, but his trembling knees didn't want to cooperate. "I can't."

"James, help me move the big guy. You two, go fetch Carmine from that beach before the locals grab him." Ari dug herself beneath Adem's shoulder and barely managed to lift the large fur with James' aid. "Sorry, Adem. We'll get you cleaned up, but you have to... stay in the brig. It isn't the killing but... it's for everyone's safety with Car out of action."

"He used to keep me from..."

"And he still ~will~. We'll get him patched up. Trust me." The three passed the liger off to more marines as they hit the elevator shaft. "Take him for a shower, then to the brig. Take it easy on him, but... still keep to your toes."

"Aye."

James nodded and two of the men led Adem inside. He then grabbed the other three remaining and assigned them positions. "Defensive perimeter. We may have torches and pitchforks here any minute. Last thing we need is--"

"Sir! Hostile!" Two shots rang out from a soldier's rifle, landing squarely inside Yomi's chest. "Down!"

"You fucking idiot!" Ilaria hurled herself towards the limp Yangurra, cradling her for an inspection. "Fuck... Right in the heart..."

"Hea...rt?..." Yomi winced in pain and wheezed through a punctured lung, but the alien apparently wasn't going to bleed to death anytime soon. "Wh-Why...?"

"Medic! Ellie!" Ari cradled her new friend, trying to calm her down so neither of them did anything rash. "Yomi, stay quiet. Breathe slowly and we'll try to fix this."

"Ari... why you... kill...?" Yomi coughed up fluorescent green into her breathing mask. "...just sp-sprouts..."

"I don't have the details or any answers, Yomi. I promise you we'll find them." Ari groaned as she lifted the Yangurra even with her false leg straining to pop loose. "But it won't matter if we let you die. I won't forgive myself either."

"Gaia... forgive all." Yomi groaned as her wounds were contorted and wrung for more of her blood. "Yan...gurra... harder with... forgiving."

"I know. That's why we can't let you croak." Ari barely kept from toppling as she reached the hatch to the elevator, meeting Ellie in the process and presenting him with a retaliatory kick to the shin for not hearing her call. "Idiot! I needed help!"

"Yomi? Damn." The smaller otter gave the plant a quick once-over and nodded to Ilaria. "She'll be fine if I can get her to surgery. She's shot through the lung and needs it sealed."

"So it missed her heart? Fuck... That's a relief."

"I'd be concerned if it did manage that, considering they don't ~have~ hearts in the formal sense." Ellie lifted Yomi's legs to aid Ari as they rushed to Medical. "No, she'll be alright with some laser work and a staple or two. Might be more involved, but fingers crossed."

"You hear that, Yomi? You'll be fine." Ari quieted herself as she realized Yomi had long since passed out from blood loss. "Sorry, new friend. I hate how this turned out, but we could really use a healthy hostage about now."

"Hostage? What aren't you telling me?" Ellie paused to call the elevator, but Ari went ahead and jumped upward in the zero-gravity shaft. "Hey, wait. I'm not helping if I don't approve."

"I honestly want Yomi to live, and it's up to her if she'll help us. Don't worry." The otter paused to grab the railing a deck higher and guided Ellie onto the new floor. "Just keep my friend here alive and I'll thank you endlessly. The less you know about the explosion or those poor... Well, the less the better."

"Not good enough. I think I deserve to know why we need a hostage."

"Ellie..." Ari struggled moving Yomi, kneeling halfway to Medical Bay for a reset of her prosthesis. "We may have murders on our paws. We have crew out there still, and I'm not leaving them behind to run."

"And you'll use Yomi as a way to buy time." Elliot nodded and threw his new patient over his shoulder. "I'll take care of her. Just promise me we're doing this for the right reasons."

"Only the best." Ilaria snapped her leg back into place and stood, ready to return to the rescue effort. "And with a little luck, we'll all make sense of this."

"Ari? I think I can help there." Prisma walked over in hologram form, barely able to project her full-sized self with the weak hallway projectors. "I have some interesting evidence about what happened to my hull."

"What? That's good news."

"Yeah, sorta." The AI brought up a clearer image on Ari's watch, this time a video feed from outside the ship. "Watch this."

Ari noted that the five young Yangurraa timidly walked up to the ship, but they soon went below the curve of the hull. A few moments later the camera fizzled, returning to the exploded side of the hull. "What am I looking for here?"

"Oh, right. Look again, this time at the shadows and the reflection off my nacelle wing."

The video restarted, and sure enough the now-highlighted shadows revealed the group had been concealing something until the last moment. They walked away but a small dimple of shadow remained... which in the curved reflection looked exactly as you'd expect a bomb to appear. "They did this? It wasn't an accident?"

"Nope. They tried to sink me." The video continued, showing quite clearly what had become of the five young Yangurraa. "They won't make that mistake again."

"Maybe Adem was just in his--" Immediately Ari lost her lunch, spilling alien sea spider all over the floor. "What the fuck!?"

The video told all, clearly showing the first boy being ripped in two by a liger's bare paws. The next tried to run away, finding a large section of his gut missing by way of razor-sharp claws. The last of the boys tried to surrender, only to have his eyes gouged out. Once his neck had been twisted for good measure, the liger switched his attention to the girls.

The boys were enough to force Ilaria's stomach to turn, but the girls brought back traumatic memories. Over and over, each was pinned down and raped. One managed to snag their assaulter with a stinger from a vine, but even that neurotoxin didn't stop the rapidly-healing liger. Whenever one inevitably tried to run away she was deducted a limb. One tried to resist an assault on her mouth by biting and promptly found out what it truly meant to be skull-fucked. Even though the girls were long dead, the liger continued to enjoy their limp bodies until even their lifeless innards gave out from the stress.

Ilaria fell onto her back and hurled her watch down the hallway. "I need Yoyo."

"Ari? Didn't you see? That was redeeming."

"What!? Prisma, that was torture!"

"But they--"

"I need my brother!" Ilaria curled up into a ball on the grated floor as she threatened to die of dehydration from her crying alone. "Get me Iolvin!"

"Y-Yeah... I will..." Prisma stared at the video footage that looped on the damaged watch then started virtually crying herself when she realized what she'd caused, and to whom. "I'm... I'm sorry... Aunt Ari..."