FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I had a good time with the Lillieth, and full of enthusiasm, I was informed on Friday night by Takori that our party, minus Salbar and plus Takori himself, was going to visit a new planet. Ryan Lewis wasn't drawn for a trip, so he attached himself to me and announced I was going over his dead body. I laughed, and corrected him, saying he was coming with me if he wanted. And Silverine left it at that.

Saturday mornings, I live for that moment, getting up with the prospect of a new planet to visit. Gareth awoke and came with us, and as Takori Tano, Draco, Simba and Javid arrived in the great hall. Silverine gave me my instructions.

"There is apparently a friendly life form to aliens, they have already made contact with other races, so a touch of subtleness is required."

"Righto."I nodded cheerfully,"So that's ask them what they're up to before I blast them?"

Silverine sighed, the Lupogriff's shoulders sinking as he tried not to laugh at my hilarity. I spared him further giggles by teleporting.

I landed heavily next to a river. The water was a murky, oily black, and as I followed it's course up river saw it lift among the valley towards several high pinnacled mountains. Trees dotted the landscape, although all of them were stripped of bark. That was peculiar.

"Ryan Lewis, could you come down?" I hadn't activated my glasses, and as he teleported I did so.

The forest either side was fairly thick, and I waited until my compatriot had arrived.

"Is there a problem?" Ryan asked. I moved to the water's edge. Ryan followed, and I stuck a finger into the dark water. As I pulled it out, I saw it was blackened and filthy.

"You've got a molecular structure device, can you tell me what's actually in this water?" I asked, and shook the drip off my finger. I looked upstream again, and scowled at the fouled water.

After five seconds, Ryan spoke.

"Let me put it this way, you don't want to bath in there. You don't want to drink it, and you most definitely do not want to taste it. It's also highly flammable."

"How bad?" I asked, smiling a bit.

"You have no idea. My readings say that's practically poison."

I looked downstream, and then back up.

"Can you see something?" Ryan asked me. I activated a zoom on my binoculars. No, naught but trees, so far. I scanned back and forth for five seconds.

"I think there's a heavy population up there. Not just the water, but I can smell smoke, and fuel."

"What do you want me to do?" Ryan asked. I smiled.

"Well, I'll go up there, and see what we can find. You, well, there's a lot of unspoiled forest that way, so if I'm wrong, then you can come into contact first."

"No fair." Ryan laughed," You definitely are going to come into contact with something."

"Yes, but is it the sort of something I want to come into contact with?Look at the water again, and tell me that."

Ryan thought on this."Right." He moved low and fast towards the forest. I stood on the water's edge, and saw the bolt come from the undergrowth at the far side.

It whistled past me, and almost hit Ryan, charring the ground. I drew my RPG in an instant, and loaded, while Ryan drew his pistol, looking for where it had come from.

"Ryan!"I shouted, full of authority,"Go!"

He did. I was bulletproof, and mostly anything proof in bionic form, which I now changed to, and he vanished through the trees. I saw the bolt come from a cluster, aimed at him again, and I fired the RPG straight at it. The rocket was so low to the water it left trails in the slow moving water, and there was a huge explosion. A couple of bushes were destroyed, and bits of something landed around the clearing.

"If that was the friendly somethings Silverine was talking about."I shouted," Then I'd like to see his dictionary!" I lowered my smoking RPG, running a thermo and X-Ray scan on the other bank. I couldn't see anything. I looked upstream, and saw a futuristic craft lifting over the trees. It was rounded, sleek, and like something from Star Wars or Stargate. It carried twin cannons, one on either side of the wings, and it was heading right towards me. I debated briefly on having a shot on it, but decided I wasn't a good enough shot on flying aircraft. So I shouldered my RPG.

I had my CAC-13 Phoenix today, and mentally cursed myself for not having the hyper Raptor. The Phoenix could carry my bombs, the nuclear warhead, and do Mach, but the Raptor was an ultimately better dogfighter. Silly, I thought,combat does not arrange itself around schedules. The shuttle was now less than a kilometre away, and closing fast. It didn't seem to be running into a strafe, more following the river. It slowed down, and I saw the blackout windows. Whoever it was had seen me.

I sat down on a stone, and waited as the craft came to a direct halt above the river. It's bottom was rounded and equal, water based design. It landed gently on the water, there was a small splash of an anchor, and then a hatch in the side of the craft opened up.

There were two types standing in the doorway. One was a vaguely human creature. They had four limbs, two arms, two legs, and vaguely human faces. They also carried small pistol like weapons, and seemed to obey the orders of the other race.

The other race was fantastic. Eleven foot tall, with monstrous arms and four legs. It was a dark green colour, with a long tail which ended in a scythe like blade. It's fingers and toes sprouted sharp claws, and the outside of it's fore arms had three sets of short blades, in series with one another, which could be used for slashing. It was very muscly, and it's neck was very long. Then I saw it duck, and saw it's head properly.

Half avian, half draconic, it's mouth was a bit of both. It's eyes were blood red, and black slits for an iris. Two horns curved forwards, these were obviously used for head butting anything. This was nothing like I had ever seen, and nothing seemed more dangerous purely by looks.

"If this thing is unfriendly."I said smoothly in Centralite,"I so want to see a battle between this and Silverine."

"Gladly." the Lupogriff replied," It looks the part, but I would beat him."

Although this creature looked over two hundred kgs and had chest muscles like tank armor, I had severe doubts about the speed of this creature. I could see the Lupogriff's point. The eight or nine humanoids encircled me, while the hulking monster stood behind them, next to the gangplank to the craft.

"There was an explosion about a minute ago, what was it?" the thing hissed, and I saw it's four claws outstretched. It was ready for a battle.

"I just heard a huge explosion over the other side of the river."I shrugged,"Maybe the water or something, I dunno." I was speaking in a heavy drawl that slurred this last word.

"So what are you. You are a Skreeks?"

"Definition of you. I was minding my business when you turned up. You are?"

"I am Severn-3121, Skreek subrissia 14."

"And these men?"

"My soldiers. Now who are you?"

"My name is Alduin Raptormaster, human from the Westernesse. My purpose is knowledge."

All of them looked at me, in interest and suspicion. Then Severn spoke.

"Well, Alduin, I think we can mange that." he oiled, and his men stepped aside, and he proffered an arm, pointing towards the hatch of the ship.

"Into the jaws of death,"I said in Centralite," Rode the six hundred."

"Cannon to the left of them, cannon to the right of them." Ryan echoed.

"Into the valley of death, rode the six hundred." finishing the verse." Now this could get interesting. Ryan, are the others with you?"

"That is correct, they are splitting up now." the human replied.

I walked on-board, smiling at the futuristic but luxurious couches and the cockpit. Severn sat down next to me, his tail curling around my back, rubbing against my far leg. The creature seemed to be smiling. I returned it, and as the last of the humanoids got back on board, the ship took off, flying back the way it had come.

It was not long before I saw what had fouled the water. A huge dome, with a single pipe heading inland, and a series of launch pads next to it.

"Severn, are there many of these here?"

"Fourteen, all connected to a single one in the centre, our city. These are merely outposts." the hulking beast replied. I noticed one ear was blackened, and that this was copied on everyone else in the craft.

The ship descended towards one of the landing pads, and after a minute we touched down gently, the pneumatic pipes locking onto the concrete ground. The dome was made of a special plastic, toughened to deal with any kind of weather, and inlaid with strong metallic girders. The nine humanoids formed a circle around me, as the huge monster placed a companionable claw on my shoulder. I could feel my shoulder grating together under the pressure. I stepped sideways, the claw let go, and we walked together towards a service door.

After a few passwords, we got into a long corridor, and Severn went into a small side room. I was asked not to move, and by the looks of the humanoids around me, they were aching to fire should I disobey.

"A sitting duck in the water, with ten shotguns trained on me." I laughed quietly in Centralite.

"Yeah, a duck with a steel plated hide." Draco replied, chuckling.

I stood at ease, waiting for two minutes, and Severn came back, smiling widely, and rather falsely in my opinion.

The monster walked down a small corridor all of us in tow, and then he came to another door.

"So you are all Skreeks, correct?"

"We all are." Severn replied gaily. The monster seemed to be exceptionally happy about something. He let us through, and I saw a huge room.

It was about a kilometre in length, and followed the curvature of the dome for the roof. Pools were dotted every twenty metres, and were clear.

"So, what's this room?" I said, all innocence.

"This is our merging room. Our real form needs a host out of the water, so thus the facility."

I knew all too well. These creatures were parasites, and they enslaved the bodies of the small and large creatures alike. And I could tell by the way I heard several power cells charging up behind me that these creatures were not welcome friendly. I smiled wider.

"Really, sounds interesting." I followed the huge one.

"Alduin, you're being led like a lamb to the slaughter."

"I know." I hissed to the dragon in my headset," But while I imagine they want to possess me with one of their own, they don't know my mind's secret weapon."

"The goddess' power?" the dragon asked.

"Exactly." I smiled,"If I feel my mind coming under attack, I can channel the power Kohana granted me to repulse it. They try anything, it will not be pretty."

"As long as you know what you're doing."

I was stopped by Severn, he was standing in front of a pool, and three of the humanoids stood behind me.

"Alduin, you have to be the stupidest creature I ever had the fortune to meet." Severn laughed.

I laughed," Stupidity is one thing, Severn. What ever you're about to try, I can guarantee it won't work."

"We shall see." Severn spoke, and the three behind me grabbed me by the arms and chest, forcing me to put my head into the water.

I let them. I wanted to know what the hell was going on. I looked around under the water, and saw the real form of the Skreeks.

It was a small black thing, it looked like a very small octopus. Five black tentacles probed the air, each about the length a fingernail, the body again a fingernail. It wormed it's way closer, and touched my ear. It latched on, and I felt it's communication.

"How interesting, we've never seen one of these before." it thought.

"If I were you, Skreek, I wouldn't try to go any further."

"And why is that?"it seemed delighted.

"I just wouldn't. You don't know my race enough."

"I'm about to, your body will be interesting."

A tentacle went inside my ear, and it sucked on. I could feel it's mind trying to enter mine, and I inwardly thought.

"Kohana!"

What happened next deserved a replay. The water hissed in heat, steam rising, and gold sparks crackled through the water. The little black thing was flung away, vaporised by the sheer power of the goddess' residual magic.

I was lifted out of the water, and I spewed water like a fountain, gasping deeply. I coughed, brushing water from my hair and eyes.

"Well, Caddir?What is this creature like?"

I staggered backwards, and then drew a grenade from my pocket, and a shell from my RPG from my pack.

"He's heavily armed, I'll give him that. This over my shoulder is a rocket launcher. Hold these, I'll see how fast it is."

Severn was standing behind the nine, and I gave the grenade and rpg round to the one in the front. I lowered to the ground as I did so, and then took off, running like the wind, with the key of the grenade on my finger. I counted five, running a good thirty metres, and then there was a huge explosion behind me. I counted two, and then turned.

Severn was sitting there, he hadn't been affected, but the nine had been vaporised. I folded my arms, and grinned at the stunned creature.

"Stupid is it?" I dropped my scanner, and heard Silverine teleport.

Severn looked at me, then at the pool.

"How the...you...what...?"

"Nothing can possess my mind, I have magical defence against it. Now run and hide, because Silverine's coming."

I was wrong about something. These things were not slow, and by god Severn proved it. With a roar he launched at me, a leap of over ten metres, a quick sprint, and the monster was lunging at me. I ducked as he whistled overhead, his tail whipping past. Silverine appeared as it landed, and the Lupogriff stood tall as the monster turned.

"Silverine, they're faster than I thought, very fast." I warned. Silverine smiled, rubbing his claws in glee.

"Excellent, I deserve a fair fight. Come on, Severn, don't you know death when you meet it?" he howled to the air, and charged. Severn backed, and the Lupogriff collided at high speed. Silverine was a whirl of fur, landing punches around the larger beast's body like rounds from a Tiger tank. Severn grunted in pain, and tried to grab Silverine, trying to rake the Lupogriff with his claws.

I winced as they fought, and then saw that a couple more of the big creatures and a couple of dozen humanoids were coming through the door towards us. I drew my rocket launcher.

"Into the jaws of death!" I shouted, I had that poem on my brain recently. By god it was apt for so many thing,I thought as I loaded a shell," Riding on wings of fire!Give my regards to the devil!" I fired a shell, and the leading ranks were obliterated. Silverine and Severn yelped as the blast of heat out the back scalded them, and then the fight resumed.

"Sorry, Silverine, here comes another, so get behind the bastard!" I called in Centralite. I reloaded, as Silverine sprung around the eleven foot subrissia. I guessed subrissia was like a captain, or higher ranking than what ever the foot soldiers were.

Severn felt the powerful arms of the Lupogriff grab around his throat, and he roared, pulling at the wolf hybrid. He then screamed as he felt another blast of air roast his front as the rest of the foot soldiers were killed. Now it was only me and Silverine versus four eleven foot subrissia. Hmmm, not good. Even more not good when Silverine gave a yelp, and landed beside me, a huge raking mark on his shoulder. He got up, looking coldly at Severn, and I drew my sword.

"Want some help?" I proffered the sword to the Lupogriff.

"No." Silverine stared back at Severn, the larger one licking it's numerous claw marks,"I'm going to kill him the way I killed the scorpion, with my bare hands." He flattened into a run, and leapt. Severn swung a mighty fist, and would have connected had Silverine not spread his wings, rose straight over the flail, and smashed into the front of Severn's neck. There was a roar of pain as Silverine bit deeply, and I looked at the remaining three coming towards me. They were all armed with these laser things, but couldn't fire in case they hit Severn. This suited me, and they dived for what cover was provided by a pillar as I reloaded and fired. All three went down from the blast, and ran away as I loaded and fired a fourth after them.

The yips from Silverine getting his back raked coupled with the roars of pain from Severn suggested it was an even fight. I turned, and saw it was the case, the Lupogriff had his teeth clamped on the throat of the subrissia, and refused to be dislodged. He was more agile, about as strong, and felt less pain than the larger monster, and Severn keeled over, his dying spasms cut short by Silverine brutally tearing out what remained of the beast's neck.

The Lupogriff flung back the meat of his prize, swallowing it and howling in victory. I took a couple of careful steps backwards while Silverine wound down, and panted. He was bleeding from several claw marks, but perfectly fine otherwise.

"Silverine, if you have shaken the cave wolf from your system..."

"I told you I'd beat it."

"You did, now three of them are currently running for reinforcements, so I suggest we get either a couple of our own, or we leave."

"I'm having too much fun to try otherwise. Abigail, get the birds in the air."

Now this could get interesting. Saying that to her was a code for launching the Centralite squadron of aircraft, and would take about ten minutes, but there were four F-22's, and one Aurora. All of them had gone under terrific engineering feats with ion replacements and general weapons modifications, but we would see soon how they reacted in the air.

Abigail spoke to both of us. "I did a check, the base, and subsequently each base has three small fighters, and one larger one, a two person jobbie. I haven't seen the city so I don't know about that yet."

She is good with her computers, I'll grant her that. Silverine vanished, and I knew he was about to pilot one of the 'birds'. I, meanwhile, was left on my own, and an outpost to break out of.

I changed into my CAC-13, and loosed a single missile at the roof. The small missile blew apart the polymer, and left a three metre hole. I took off and flew through the hole, simple as that.

I flew around the base, noticing that there were a hell of a lot of klaxon blasts coming from inside, and that a frantic activity was around the launching pads on this side, and a small single pad half a mile away, a stealth pad. I idled away, thinking I should really blow them to bits, but held my fire.

I checked my armoury. Missiles, five left. Heat-seekers, two, bombs, two, solinium nuclear warhead, one. Scanner, one. There was a puff, and I felt the scanner detach from my wing, trailing one hundred feet behind me on a length of wire.

"Clever little human, I hadn't thought of that." Abigail commented,"I'll tell you when you can stop doing that."

There was a bang behind me, and an F-22 appeared behind me. I saw it was Valmeero's because of the awesome wolf's head and lightning on the side, and he banked away. Brendan appeared in an F-22, along with Alex, and Silverine in the mighty Aurora.

Then something very weird happened. Behind me there was a bang, and I saw two elves flying identical F-15's.

"Abby, did you build more than we were told?"

"Ummm," the lioness tried to sound innocent,"yes, seventeen planes."

"What seventeen?"

"Four Raptors, four Eagles, four Eurofighters, Type A-class of course, and four Lightning F-35 B's.Then one Aurora, for Silverine."

"What happened to Russian aircraft?"

"Hey, give me credit!" Abigail sounded wounded," I was working on those. Four Foxbats and those blasted FSW Su-47's, I just haven't finished testing them."

"And you managed to fit all that in those hangars?"

"You didn't go down, all of them are multi story underground."

"And are the Foxbats battle worthy?"

"They have been tested, yes, but not the 47's."

"Right, better get someone in those, because if you're correct, that means thirty six small aircraft, twelve larger ones, and what ever the citadel has."

"Will do." she replied, as the elves banked away and were replaced by the other two Eagles," As for the attack chopper, Javid's just come back to gun, and we need a pilot with chopper time."

"Can't be me."I replied,"I carry my own weapons."

"I know."

There was a flash of gun fire from the ground, as several beams of laser fire were sent up from below. The elves dived away, and I flew towards the mountains, where everyone else was heading for. After twenty minutes, the group was complete, 21 aircraft, then me, and Javid and Takori in the helicopter. Draco had taken a Foxbat, only Simba and Ryan Lewis of our party were not getting involved in the fighting. Where had Lewis got to, anyway?

"Right,"Silverine said,"These aircraft are expensive to build..." he began.

"You have no idea!" Abigail said from her Foxbat.

"So, if these things are better than ours, than use the material teleporter, it will randomly move you five miles in any direction at most if left to the setting it's on now. We don't want any of us getting hurt. Alduin, I don't know your intention, but what ever it is, good luck."

"Easy, Silver. The Phoenix is just going to find the hub. Find the hub, destroy it, the wheel will fall off."

"That will be the centre city then. All make course to it."

There were several blips as we made a course to the largest city. From our long range radar, we could see that there was a mass of fighter aircraft in the far distance above that point.

"Oh, this is exactly what we were after." Silverine said, grinning.

"Last one to kill a baddie buys the beer." I whooped.

"Make that last...." Draco began.

"No!" at least three voices shouted," we are not having sexual bets with any dragon." there was a mass laugh,and Silverine chuckled.

"O.K. Over the mountains on my signal. Aurora centre, Phoenix behind. Raptors behind him, Euros behind them, take the tail for the come in. Eagles to the left, Lightning to the right. Foxbats are the fastest, so take up two either side of the Eurofighters in the centre. Create formation."

This was truly awe inspiring. Ryan told me when he saw it later on, and he filmed it too, that it was awesome. The Aurora was in front, followed by me, and then four diamonds in the shape of a diamond. The F-22's formed a pointed diamond, Valmeero was right behind my exhaust, the Eagles and Lightning did their own diamonds in sync with the F-22's, and the Euro's completed the full sized diamond. Sixteen aircraft. The Su-25 Foxbats slightly spoiled it by forming a straight line formation behind the Eurofighters, but near enough.

Silverine led, and he broke our circle and went straight over the ridge of mountains towards the centre city. We all followed, a pack of hounds after a bitch in heat. I dropped under Silverine so I wasn't over heating my engines from his exhaust, and then all hell broke loose.

"Combat power!" Silverine shouted, and all the engines went up a couple of gears. The noise markedly increased, and I saw what we were facing. Seventy nine by the counter, aircraft, of small single seat things, and a dozen two seater planes that looked like the snow speeders from the battle of Hoth.

Then there was the one thing. A cruiser, easily the size of a couple of football fields, it's slanted nose facing our way.

"Big." Brendan said weakly, the master of the understatement.

Underneath the cruiser was a massive dome, four times bigger than one of the outposts. It was connected to fourteen massive pipes in equidistant gaps, and was made of the same polymer. In the distance behind us, the chopper was busy flattening the first base we had come to, circling around it and using it's missiles and cannon to great effect.

Draco spoke."Missiles, check, guns, check, supply of sugar rich energy drink, check. Let's get them."

"I order no one to go near that dragon after the battle." Silverine said firmly. There were a couple of sniggers, and the flashes started.

The lasers were long range, but then so were the missiles. Silverine targeted his twelve in a fluid motion and loosed them all, banking hard and vanishing allowing the front line of aircraft to lock on. They fired their's and vanished. Then the last line fired, and vanished. I was behind all the small darts, and I watched as the 100 plus missiles converged on the heavens above the city.

Nearly everyone was firing at the cruiser, and everyone but Silverine had fired half of their allotment of heat seekers and normals. The fighters bobbed and weaved, and then realised they weren't the targets in the first place. Then the cruiser took the broadside.

There was a bright flash, a small implosion, and the wreckage was falling to the ground.

"Implosion warheads?" I asked,"How the hell does that work?"

Abigail spoke."That's not us, they are conventional rockets. I guess whatever powered what was in there brought it in all by itself."

The fighters were looking around for their foe. Then it came. The entire Centralite air-force came in from all sides and angle, firing into the centre of the hovering aircraft. They scattered, and dogfights broke out everywhere.

They accelerated quickly, but had very little top speed, so they out turned us. But our advantage was speed, armament, and the precious ability to teleport out of the battle if we had someone behind us.

Valmeero pulled off a coup in that department, and none of us knew how. He got one of the smallest on his tail, and he hit the material teleporter. The Raptor vanished, the small plane flew on, and the Raptor materialised right where it had been, with a very surprised but gratified wolf dragon hybrid at the helm. I had recorded it too.

My own part in the battle was limited. I fired my machine guns, but that was about it. Everyone else knew what to do, I was just helping if they needed it. I noticed the small wreckage of the cruiser had crashed through the polymer dome of the citadel, crushing a large building in the centre, and I had an evil idea. Deadly simplistic, but evil for an idea never the less. I went to the far side of the battle, and hovered from a distance, waiting for the conclusion. The Aurora was down to it's guns, the lasers were better than the guns, but they had no missiles or trackers, they shot in straight lines.

I watched as Draco pursued one of the two seaters, firing rounds spasmodically at it. The dragon howled in delight as it blew up, and the Russian fighter let off a flare in celebration before rejoining the battle.

It lasted fifteen minutes. Three of them survived and flew rapidly away, and Silverine allowed them to escape. The twenty unscathed Centralite aircraft circled around the city.

"That, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do that." Alex said.

"Where the devil is Alduin?" Silverine asked.

"I'm here, just hovering quietly out of range of the weapon I'm going to drop on that town." I said, whistling innocently.

"Did you actually get a kill in that?"

"No." I smiled.

"Hah!You are so bondaged when I get back."

"Oooooh!" I shouted gleefully," Look what I've got here!"

Draco's whoop of delight faded,"What?"

"It says, one solinium-3 nuclear warhead, hmmmmm, decisions, decisions."

"I take it you want us to clear the battlefield."

"Well, if you don't get out in two minutes, you're likely to have a mushroom cloud on your tail."

All twenty two carefully banked back the way we had come. I counted to a hundred, they were all far clear by then, the Lightning aircraft, with their VTO were two miles away and recording for posterity what was about to happen.

I maxed my burners, and dived towards the city. I dropped the nuke, and it headed directly towards the debris of the cruiser. I pulled out, flying low and fast towards the first outpost.

The range of the solinium nuke is one mile. Unfortunately that didn't account for something I had completed forgot.

Ryan had said the water was almost flammable, such was the chemical imbalance in it. Well, I found out that in those pipes is the raw product. Mountains of petrol exploded around me, the pipeline blowing up in spectacular fashion. It was doing so all fourteen ways, and in the centre the trademark mushroom cloud.

Petroleum and oil rained around me, coating me with flaming blobs of various nasty liquids. I dived to the ground, heading towards the trees where we had first landed, diving quickly to one side to put out the fire.

"I'm alright, just everything around me is on fire!"I shouted, and flew through a gap in the trees in to a clearing, and as I slowed, changed.

Anyone watching would have seen me change in mid air, rolling hard on the turf, thankfully extinguishing most of the flames on my chest, and I jumped to my feet.

I yanked off my shirt, jumping up and down on the flames that singed my shirt and then breathed out as the last flame died. I stood in bionic form, looking at my slightly charred shirt, when I turned and saw something that made my smile die.