Triad's Sci-Fi Furry Book Chapter Two (Draft)
Sergeant Larry Dobbs was an unusual individual. He was, first of all, a Seleinanasin. This had lead him into some difficulties in the past, as some anasian peoples are not as tolerant of those who have what they might deem a "racial handicap".
Seleinasians were a race of anasians who had always lived on the peripheries of the Confederation. The mass of the AC's population lives in one of four major population zones, each of which are expansive, and may contain hundreds of habitable star systems. The central zone, the largest, contains the AC's capital system, the Felinasia/Ketynasia system, plus any others. It sits next to the Canid Triangle, formed by the Vulpinasia system, the Lupinasia system, and the Kendinasia system. The Canid Triangle is one of the most turbulent zones in the AC, as the Kendinasian territores are technically included. The Central Zone and the Canid Triangle contain roughly two thirds of the anasian population. The other two areas contain the rest of the AC's population. The Acquired Zone borders and surrounds the first two zones, and is made of territory that the AC acquired at some point through war or alliances. This zone includes Earth and most human occupied planets. The last zone, the Frontier zone, is the vast area that surrounds the interior three population areas. It is sometimes referred to as "the void" by travelers who go through there. It is very remote, and the anasian people who live there tend to be more or less out of touch with "mainstream" anasian culture.
The Seleinasians lived in the Frontier Zone. They were a hardy race of bipedial goat-like creatures who had a small civilization that extended over two medium sized star systems in a quiet section of the AC. The race mostly farmed and exported food and medicinal plant species native to their planet to other Frontier Zone systems. Larry Dobbs lived on the main planet, Seleinasia. Larry Dobbs, as stated before, was an unusual character. Born in a small farming town about 45 miles outside the northern continent's capital city, Altek. At the age of thirteen he ran away from home, leaving behind an abusive, drug addicted mother, an overworked shell of a farmer for a father, and six brothers and sisters. He made his way to Altek by hitchhiking aboard a hovertruck full of Setchel berries, a local food crop. He jumped off downtown, and began working odd jobs to pay his way. This did not work out well, so eventually, at the age of sixteen, he was involved in small time drug dealing in the seedier parts of town. By the age of eighteen he had developed a reputation for acquiring illicit goods and services for reasonable prices. But before he really hit the big time in the Altek drug market, a rival cartel decided that he was getting too big too fast, and decided to eliminate the competiton.
Larry was at a party when he was slipped a (supposedly) lethal amount of a plant extract that was used for recreational purposes on the planet. However, the individual who had mixed the extract in had not made the extract potent enough, and larry survived, although he was extremely delerious for nearly a day after. During the time larry was in a delirium, the poisoner realized his mistake, and removed larry from the party. Panicked, and realizing the consequences from the cartel boss if he failed to remove larry, he decided to get rid of him. However, they were on a crowded city street, and murdering him right there would have drawn attention. Two blocks down was a small, ramshackle CT recruitment office that looked as though it had not been used in years. The poisoner remembered this, and carried larry to it, formulating a plan, that, if sucessful, would rid him and his boss of larry, without killing him. "Hello?" Larry's poisoner asked when he walked into the small office. An older CT third-lieutenant of mixed ancestry but definitely from the fronteir area, walked slowly out of the back. "Yes, can I help you?" the officer asked the poisioner. "Yes, I'd like to enlist my lazy drunk, good for nothing son here in the millitary." He began. "I understand that you guys take them immediately? He needs some straightening out, and I'm tired of trying." "Sir, you can't just drop him off here inebriated like he is, and against his will." the officer replied, yawning. "Listen. I understand that you guys have a war on, right? Over on the other side of things? Other side of the frontier? And from the way it looks to me, " He looked around the unused office, "that you got yourself a quota to fill that you ain't making." "Yes sir, this is true, we need all the help we can get but-" The officer was cut off. "That's right. You need help. Now, this boy here isn't that smart, and I'm sure he's been doing some illegal activities round here, and you boys could use a strong back." The cartel member looked the officer in the face and placed a large amount of money into his hands. The recruitment officer inspected the money, and noticed that it was equal to nearly half a year's salary. He looked back up at the cartel soldier, and nodded. He understood how things worked out here. "Very well sir, you son will be taken good care of, once he's slept off his bender. We'll whip him up into good shape in no time." "Thank you very much." the poisoner smiled and walked out the door. Larry was taken into the back room, and the recruitment officer contacted his superiors. Within two days larry had been shipped out to basic training on a CT base in an unknown system nearby in the frontier.
Larry, against his will, was forced into mechanic's school after basic, which lead him further away from home into the Acquired Zone. In mechanic's school he had been involved in several altercations with other enlisted anasians, and had spent time in a CT correctional facility. He excelled in the subject material, however, and proved himself to be a very worthy mechanic. Once he left mechanic's school, he bounced between several different units, after getting kicked out of a few for disobeying orders and for drug use. He developed a reputation for ingesting a human invented chemical that periodically swept it's way across the AC, LSD. On his last assignment, when he was working with a unit in the Acquired Zone, he had ingested a large dose of the chemical during guard duty and had to be restrained by CT police officers. This incedent earned him the nickname "Lysergic" Larry Dobbs, which he was called during the rest of his duration with that unit. However, that unit was called off to the Phalanaxian war, a major conflict along the frontier zone on the opposite side of the AC. Larry had been deemed too unpredictable by his superiors, and was transferred to another assignment. The unit had departed for the war before Larry had received his paperwork, and was not pleased to find that he had been given another crappy punishment assignment. In fact, the magnitude of the logistics involved were extreme, as well as the distance traveled.
As he stood in the Main Hall of the nearly empty CT base, he reviewed his transfer forms. He was currently standing in the CT-934 base on the planet Nerkahl, a mixed human and anasian planet in the Acquired Zone. According to his itinerary, he was to travel, via CT cargo ship, to a base on the edge of the Acquired Zone and the Canid Triangle, the furthest into the interior of the AC that he had ever been. Here he would be put together with a group of twenty five soldiers and technicians to be sent even further into the Canid Triangle, to a planet in the middle of vulpinasian space called Vulpon. This fact terrified him. Very few members of his race live in, or much less had been to, the Canid Triangle. Hell, even most Seleinasians who served in the CT remained in the Frontier areas. He had served with Vulpinasians before, but that was when he was stationed with an enigmatic Vul'Prassad-run unit for a few months. They rarely spoke to him.
Three months later, he had made his uncomfortrable trip across countless light years. He had never grown accustomed to hyperspace travel. It always made him feel sick. He was now on a cargo freighter, lifting off of another nameless planet in a nameless star system, full of faces of thousands of different kinds of anasians. they all began to blend together, after a while. He was seated in the passenger cabin behind the bridge of the massive vessel. He was absently staring out of his window at the crew on the ground, when we was startled by the loud announcement from teh bridge. "Ten minutes to launch. Secure all loose objects. E.T.A. to HS jump one hour. E.T.A. Vulpon system, one and one half hour. E.T.A. CT-6284, two and three quarters of an hour." Larry winced at the high volume of the announcement, and realized that he was sitting underneath the speaker. He sighed. The engines of the ship started up, first with a humming that turned into a loud roar. Soon he felt himself sink into his seat as the ground outside of his window faded away below him. Ten minutes later, the blue sky faded to dull grey, then to black, as he and the ship left the planet's atmosphere. He looked outside his window, to see if there were any nearby ships that he could see. This planet was not large, and there were few large cities on it. He doubted he would see any of the famed "Vulchox rings" found around heavily populated planets in the AC. The rings were made up of massive amounts of spaceships, organized into designated orbital patterns, which looked like visible rings. These patterns were created to organize high volumes of space traffic around a planet, to avoid accident. They were named for the first visible ones found around the AC and CT's largest source of millitary and civilian manufacturing, the industrial fox planet of Vulchox.
Ever since he was a child, he had dreamed of seeing the artificial rings around a planet, but sadly, few planets in the Frontier had enough resources or population to support that high volume of orbital traffic. He had hoped that he would see them at some point, and to him, this was the only redeeming factor of his trip. The possibility of seeing his almost mythical rings. However, he had been disappointed on every leg of his journey. Most of the planets he had been to were small and medium sized planets with CT facilities on them throughout the frontier and Acquired zones. Now that he was about to enter the Canid triangle, and enter Vulpinasian space, he hoped that would change. This planet he had just left, however, left him annoyed. Once his ship was a safe distance away from the planet, they began preparations to enter hyperspace. This was the part he dreaded. To him, hyperspace was a nightmare. There were no stars outside the ship's windows, and everything on the ship appeared distorted. Like LSD, he mused, only with more nausea. He braced himself for the jump, as the loud announcement from the bridge commanded him to do. He braced himself, and closed his eyes. Within a half hour the ordeal was over. The nausea went away, and the stars returned outside. things felt solid again, and Larry was happy about that as he opened his eyes and looked outside his window at the planet they had just arrived at. He gazed outside. He was surprised immediately at what he saw. His ship had come out of hyperspace near one of the planet's three moons, about two hundred miles above it's surface. Looking out, he saw that in the space between his ship and the surface of the uninhabitable moon was slowly filling up with ships that had also just left hyperspace. All the ships had stopped a equal distances from each other, and appeared to be waiting for something. Soon, small buoys that surrounded the group of ships lit up, and the ships moved at an equal rate around the side of the moon, which brought the planet Vulpon and both of it's other moons into view for Larry. And what a view it was. Vulpon was a planet that was slightly larger than the one he grew up on, yet he could already see that it had far more anasians on it than any planet he had been to. The planet had an unusual looking cloudy sliver band running around it above the equator, that looked similar to planetary rings, except that it was far less defined, at the wrong distance, and appeared to break off into smaller and smaller independent sub-rings when he got closer to it. In fact, his ship and the group of ships that had materialized behind him were entering the outside of the ring shaped cloud at that moment. He looked outside with amazement as the cloud turned into hundreds of thousands of spaceships, from the smallest to the largest. The majority of them were independently owned cargo ships, with various corporate markings on them. He finally had his ring.
He watched the ships around them disperse and enter various ring segments of moving craft. Many of the segments he passed moved away from the main group and wound their way down toward the planet's surface in various areas. He watched in fascination until he was interrupted again by the speaker over his head. "Leaving ring, entering Vulpon atmosphere. E.T.A. to land, fifteen minutes." The pilot announced. Larry noticed as they spun away from the group of ships in the ring that they had been following. They descended into the atmosphere, and Larry was jolted forward in his seat. The outside of the ship was glowing red, and soon it was surrounded in fire. The air vents in the ship began blowing out icy air to compensate for the heat created by entry. He looked at his feet and took a deep breath. He didn't like this part either. Soon, the fire gave way and was replaced by a blue sky filled with light, puffy clouds that sat on top of a azure ocean. He noticed a coastline appear out of this window, with rocky cliffs and beaches interspersed with a dense semi-tropical forest with an occasional palm tree that stuck up out over the top. The forest was soon replaced by habitation that got denser and denser until large spires of buildings over a mile tall poked up over the horizon. They were followed by another tall object that remained behind them, but still visible for miles away. It appeared to be a tall, thin rock formation that was part of a jagged mountain range that gave the giant metallic forms in the middle of the city a picturesque backdrop. They flew over the massive city in the direction of the tall rock formation. Once they flew over the first set of mountains, they looped around the rock and made their descent. As they flew over the mountain range, they entered a large valley with several small rivers running through it. On the north side of the valley, where it met the second range of mountains, was their destination. It was a large, but run down and battle scarred base that had definitely seen better days. Larry had enjoyed the planet's scenery until now, when he realized that this place might not be where he really wanted to be.
He was startled once again out of his thoughts by the pilot's final announcement. "Attention all personnel. Prepare for landing. All transfers are to be processed by base personnel at landing site. Keep all documentation ready for inspection." Larry clutched the folder containing his papers. Another planet, another waste of time, he thought. If only he knew who drugged him up back in that party in Altek and made him go through ordeal after ordeal. It was worse now, he could tell. Hundreds of light years from home, not even a home he had fond memories of. The only member of his people in a foreign land, on a foreign planet. He had always felt alone, but when he felt himself shake when the ship thudded against the hard pavement of CT-6284's tarmac, he knew it was for real this time. He felt isolation and fear. -- The ship on the tarmac was surrounded with vulpinasians when it landed. Immediately after it touched down, the cargo and supplies, mostly clothing, building machinery and munitions, were unloaded and hauled away in the base's three large wheeled cargo trucks. The passengers, five vulpinasians, Larry, and two lupinasians climbed down a ladder on the side of the passenger cabin. The ship's crew of four did the same. Larry walked around to the rear of the craft, following the rest of the passengers. The ship's pilot opened a hatch on the botton of the craft, and unloaded the belongings of the passengers. As they waited, Larry overheard a conversation between three of the foxes. "I've always wanted to see Vulpon. " One began, "I've heard it's a great place, lots of party spots in the city. The girls are nice, too, heh heh." "Bullshit, "said another, "this place is a shithole. I hear the base commander's insane, too. Great place if you have a death wish." "Yeah," said the last one, "but at least we're not in the war. Apparently none of us are fit for real combat, so they stuck us here." They stopped, looked at Larry, and went back to their conversation. Larry picked up his bags and searched out the transfer officer. He had done this every time he had been moved to another assignment, but for some reason, this time it felt different. Probably, he thought, because we always fill out our forms inside, not on the field, unless it's a battle situation.
He looked around the small crowd of vulpinasians. Damn, he thought, they all look the same. He was not used to such a homogenized group of people. He began searching around the crowd for an officer who could direct him in the right direction. Out of the sea of enlisted vulpinasians he saw a female lieutenant who had an electronic pad, taking inventory on a cargo pallet that had not been moved yet. "Excuse me, ma'am" he asked her, "but do you know who the transfer officer is?" "Transfer officer?" She asked, "Shit, where do you think you are? We don't have those. Wait, are you one of the new people?" "Yes ma'am." Larry replied. "Oh good. We've been waiting for you all. Hang on, let me call up the person responsible for your transfers." She unclipped a radio transmitter from her belt, and typed in a code on it's keypad. She perked her head up, and looked around. "Oh wait, nevermind. He's over there. Tall fox, major." She pointed to a vulpinasian at the other end of the ship who was arguing with the ship's co-pilot. He took a deep breath, and thanked the lieutenant as he walked down the length of the ship. He looked behind him, and noticed that the three vulpinasians were still carrying on their conversation. "I'm sorry, what?" Larry heard the fox say to the co-pilot. "Look, I'm sorry sir," the co-pilot explained to him, "but that's what the message was that they told me to give to you. This is all you get for at least six months. Resources have been spread too thin and we've lost six planetary systems in the war this week already. You should be lucky you got anything at all." "No, no, I understand," the fox replied, "but we've lost almost forty people in the last couple of months. This was not a problem prior to the attacks two months ago. When the last contingent of CT troops landed here, they promised us at least twenty five new, fresh soldiers and mechanics, so we could begin to make up for our losses. Instead we receive eight people, Three mechanics, a health inspector's assistant, and four solders, all of whom have highly questionable service records." "Yes sir, but that's just how it is these days." said the co-pilot. "Most bases in the interior regions simply do not need the extra help. And with the war on, they've been emptying correctional facilities to provide soldiers. It's getting really bad, sir. There's supposedly some new kind of..." He stopped speaking and looked at Larry. "Can i help you?" the major asked him. "Um, yes sir." Larry told him. "I was told that you could process my transfer? I'm sorry if I interrupted." `"Transfer? Oh, you're one of the new guys. Listen, I'm swamped, and there's no one to process that here." the major told Larry. "In fact," the major continued, "I can't waste time with this. You're in the CT right?" "Yes sir." The major snatched Larry's transfer paperwork and tore it in half. "Good enough for me. What do you do?" He asked. "I am a mechanic, sir. Specifically a munitions officer, but I can fix about anything." He replied. "Excellent." The major said, pointing to his right. "Go to that hangar over there, number three. We have several ships and H-tanks that are in desperate need of repair. Talk to whoever is in charge there that you're here, and get to work. " "Yes sir." Larry said as he picked up his bags. He heard the Major and the co-pilot resume their conversation as he walked off toward the hangar. He remembered some of the things the co-pilot said when he approached the two of them. What had he said? Lost around forty officers? In how many months?
Larry swallowed, and tried not to think of the horrible realities that may lie waiting for him at this new assignment. He looked around the base and found some of the buildings in bad repair. The airfield did not even have a proper control tower set up. Instead, a makeshift shelter and three communications trucks were set up near the crumbling hulk of what Larry assumed was the last control tower. Many things about this situation seemed wrong to him. Why would a base this size have this many losses, and this much damage? He understood that there was a war, but that was hundreds of light years away. This was the middle of Anasian space, why is there conflict here? He carried himself down the tarmac, towards the base's three hangars. He stopped again, and smelled smoke on the air. He looked around, and didn't see any. A shiver creeped up his spine, and he wondered if this wasn't an omen of sorts.
With trepidation, he walked on.