FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Where are you going to start with this waste of time?"

"Now, now, no need to be pushy."

"I'll be pushy if I want to be, since you're on my property."

"I'm assuming you know the infamous Diamond Ace?"

"Pfft, who doesn't know the name? Why is that important?"

"Well..."

~ ~ ~

24 years prior:

A female falcon stormed into the local Peacekeeper Corps station, dragging an unconscious chameleon by the collar to the counter. She only had one organic eye, the other one replaced by a cybernetic, the wing on the other side was replaced by a cyberntic one, and a leg was replaced as well. A few of her organs were also cybernetic, a life of bad luck on the ground and good luck in the hospital led to all of the replacements.

The Peacekeeper at the counter looked up and led her through to the holding cells. The field wall was powered down and she unceremoniously threw the chameleon inside, the wall powering up again once she was done.

"Diamond Ace, your payment will be sent to you within the hour. It's been a pleasure," the Peacekeeper said, before walking away.

Diamond Ace grumbled under her breath, her beak clacking in annoyance. She calmly and quietly walked out and back to her transport, hiding her grumbling, since it will only give her less clients.

Her transport wasn't big, it didn't need to be. A bed and bathroom, cargo area (which doubled as the temporary holding cell), the helm, and a kitchen. Nothing too outrageous is ever placed on these ships, only on the experimental ones. She went straight to the kitchen, snatching a cardboard-tasting protein bar and went to the bedroom, since the terminal was placed in there. She started tearing through the protein bar, while the terminal booted itself up, since the entire ship is many years old. The terminal finally completed it's boot-up, the message slowly coming up.

Welcome back, Atalanta.

She tapped the cybernetic eye, as it began to flicker slightly. When she was content that it was fine, she turned it off and disconnected it completely. She's learned to only use the organic eye quite well.

She looked through all the programs and found the transactions program from Dragonetworks, one of the 4 largest companies in the known universe and the one with the most trusted banking and transaction history, seeing that the payment has come in.

22,000 credit bank. It was a good run.

However, the life of a bounty hunter never stops, and more work is always just a few clicks away. So, Atalanta went through the appropriate channels and looked through all the contracts after giving in her details.

All were bounties, as befits a bounty hunter. Some wanted dead, some wanted alive, some were either. One bounty caught her eye, so she brought up the details of the bounty.

A local gangster on the planet of Thonov, a bounty for their death by the local government. She accepted the contract, placing a copy of her signature on the line on the terminal, and closed it. She navigated her way to the helm, placing the wrapper for the protein bar into the waste, and set the autopilot to Thonov. It gave her a time estimate for their arrival and she accepted it. When the transport went into motion, she went back down to the bedroom and sat on the end of the bed, disconnecting her cybernetic wing and leg, and went to sleep.

~ ~ ~

"So you're telling me when she sleeps?" A laugh followed. "You can forget you telling me the rest of this waste of our time, I'm calling the Peacekeeper Corps."

"Joke's on you, kid. I'm hired by the Corps as of now, they know I'm here and they know that I'm telling you all of this. We have time, life travels at a snail's pace."

~ ~ ~

Atalanta woke up to the sound of the ship's alarm, indicating that there's an hour's flight left until Thonov is reached. Groaning, she swung herself over and picked up the cybernetic leg. She could only marvel at the work put into it, as it is a mirror image of her remaining leg. She went to the now painless work of attaching it to the stump left behind. After making sure that the leg was secure, she did the same with her cybernetic wing. She checked that the motorized joints could move and wasn't hindered in any way, and she went to the eye. She still fumbles with this one, but she managed to hook it up and it turned on, giving her brain the full sighted experience yet again.

Sighing, she stood up, and went up to the helm, sitting in the lone chair and watched as the stars rolled by. The planets of this system did the same, the autopilot automatically moving to avoid the gravity pull of the planets.

"Destination ahead. Time of arrival, thirty minutes," the automated voice announced, which prompted Atalanta to begin the call.

"Thonov Orbit, SS Beak, thirty minutes from Thonov, request landing clearance for Thonov," she said, staring at the planet's surface.

"SS Beak, proceed to coordinates provided, landing port 3-5-5," was the response that came over the radio.

"SS Beak," Atalanta responded.

The coordinates appeared, which she put into the autopilot. The autopilot, recognising the coordinates, also asked for the landing port, so Atalanta put in 355. As the autopilot kept it's current course, Atalanta went down to the cargo bay to get ready. As it is a "wanted dead" bounty, she brought out her high powered plasma sniper rifle, placing it carefully onto the floor. She went around to her personal armour set, titanium plating of primarily blue with royal purple accents, which didn't protect her cybernetics because of the materials the cybernetics were made out of. The reason why she got her alias was the card emblem on her shoulder, depicting the ace of diamonds, depicted as if it was on her homeplanet with both letters the same orientation. Underneath the card was "Diamond Ace" in the script of her homeplanet, a series of lines and dots. With the armour on and secure, she placed the rifle on the mag strip and walked out of the cargo bay and back to the helm. Now, she wasn't Atalanta, she was Diamond Ace.

She was almost in Thonov's atmosphere, so she held on tight.

This hunt begins.