FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I had kept a fairly low profile in town after the incident with Drakoss, for while no one had hung around long enough to get a picture of the young dragon, humanity's first response being getting to cover, I had been there and I was carrying a rifle. Carrying weapons on the street in New Zealand is not legal, and if any passerby had a sudden attack of recollection, I could be in a lot of trouble. My solinium button meant any cameras of me and Drakoss had been erased from the video footage, but you couldn't erase a person's memory without glower assistance.

Despite this, Silverine turned up a couple of weeks later after my check up, and announced in his usual fashion that we were exploring a new planet. The only difference between this trip and many of the others was the knowledge that the world in question was undergoing something of a war, our deep recon satellite had detected several explosions going on the planet's surface. Thus informed, Silverine, despite my current armoury suggested I got something a little more high tech than my rifle, and a little faster firing than my rocket launcher.

I refused to use a blaster on the principle that they were far too light and far too advanced compared to what I was used to. With this in mind, Draco and self decided to take a trip to Ryan Godsey's old base, which he had shown us on one occasion. Godsey himself was in Iraq, and apparently fine, which was good, the tiger hadn't been discovered by his team mates. So that very night, I retrieved the co-ordinates for the armoury at the base, and teleported with the disguised dragon.

Straight into a teenager's dream. The armoury was stacked with all sorts of things a gun happy fellow might want, and it was 3am in the morning, so I had an hour or so to grab something that I preferred. Draco immediately disappeared into the darkness, looking for something he could use, and I looked down a few shelves.

Within thirty seconds, I had one weapon listed. The traditional M4 Carbine would be more than an equal replacement for the .303 I owned, and I placed a gold coin underneath the shelf in payment for the weapon. I placed a second underneath the shelf that had the ammunition for said rifle, and put about 6 magazines in my backpack, each one stocked to the brim with rounds. Draco came back carrying a sniper rifle, and I knew without looking it had to be a Barrett 50.cal, there was no other sensible option. He then moved back to the assault rifles I had been surveying, while I went to get a handgun.

A confession needs to be made at this point. I was a great fan of akimbo weapons, otherwise known as dual-wielding. I had watched Tomb raider, which was the quint-essential movie featuring duel wielding, and had a lot of fun using akimbo weapons in Modern Warfare 2, my favourites being the Mini-Uzi, or the G18 machine pistol. When I was confronted by the hand guns, and saw both listed above, my lust for the dream over rode common sense, and I grabbed two G18's, along with another 6 mags for both of them, at the expense of another three coins. Draco came back from his search with another two things.

The first was a machine gun, which he worryingly managed to hold in one hand with relative ease, and the second thing made me want to run for cover. I had a bazooka back at Central, my famed wolven weapon. What Draco had managed to find was a properly human rocket launcher. This thing was the stuff of movies, the writing on the side saying this was an R-47. Draco had filled his bag with projectile rounds for this almost to the brim, and on top were two boxes of ammo for the machine gun.

His entire arsenal had cost 13 gold coins, to my five, but Draco's arsenal was worth the two and half times price in terms of firepower. Doubtless the military would be quite annoyed if they knew we had walked off the block with several of their guns, but the hidden gold should at least soothe some of the ruffled feathers. We teleported back to Central carrying these weapons, and Abigail was there as we arrived to detail our weapons. She had built a machine that could make rounds for projectile weapons, and while it couldn't make things on the size of the rpg or R-47, it could easily make entire magazines for our respective smaller weapons in quarter of an hour.

Thomas Nagoya smiled at me. "So you gave in,did you?" "Only because I like these." I retaliated, there had been a constant argument on the subject, ribbing from both me and Thomas at one another. Draco gave a mag for the Barrett to Abby, along with a box so she could copy them and reproduce ammo for him, and I did the same for my G18's and the M4. And on the subject of the M4, the one I had found did not have a scope, just a red dot sight. Draco's Barrett had a scope, and his machine gun had nothing at all.

Silverine had pulled out his massive sniper rifle and a phaser rifle, Thomas had his dual pistols, and a heck of a lot of ammo. Salbar had decided not to come on this trip, he preferred his swords, and was never that comfortable with guns. Javid was coming, and he had his sniper rifle, a side arm and one of Abby's shields. Simba was coming, he had his phaser and shield, but he was the medic, so had nothing else. So the five of us compared weapons in the Great Hall, while Draco and self practiced reloading our new weapons.

I had borrowed a friend's replica M4 bb gun before, so was fairly familiar with the principles of loading it and priming it. The machine pistols were slightly different, I had to learn it, and so Thomas, Silverine and Draco went to Marksman's range with me. The bionic dragon was still awake, and he was intrigued to see the new weapons. Rather than explain all of them piece meal, we just walked up one at a time to fire a mag or two from our weapons. Draco went first, hefted his machine gun easily, and began firing.

The noise was incredible, empty cartridges spewing out of the side as the target down range began to disintergrate. I put earmuffs on quickly, watching as 200 hundred rounds of machine gun ammo vanished in about 15 seconds. Draco casually removed the empty box, attached a new one and fed the bullets into the top of the gun, and was fully reloaded in about ten seconds. He then set that down and began firing the Barrett.

These two targets taken care of, it was my turn, and I switched the M4 to 'burst" and then began firing. Every time I pulled the trigger, a burst of three rounds would bury themselves in roughly the middle of the target. This happened nine times, I reloaded, switched it to safe mode, and then drew the machine pistols. They weren't loud, they didn't have much kick, and they weren't that powerful compared to anything we owned, but they fired fast and were handled easily. Reloading took a matter of seconds, and if I had the special belt, would be over in under three seconds for both of them.

But thus satisfied that we were well prepared for any situation, we all went to bed for a good night's sleep. Ryan was off on some trip going to an avian world apparently, and he was going with a few others, so he was sleeping soundly. Gareth was sleeping quietly in his room, and I decided to spend the night on Central rather than teleport and wake them up. Draco politely requested that I slept with him, and I decided that it would be alright.

Draco took me back to his room, and the dragon stripped down with me. He got into the bed, and licked my cheek as I got in.He pulled the duvet over both of us, and gently hugged me. "Thank you, Alduin. I sleep better with you." I smiled. "Don't worry, Draco, I'll protect you from the nasty monsters." The dragon chuckled and ruffled my hair before settling down.

We slept soundly, and the human's lack of a working pineal system meant that I was up before Draco. Carefully I wormed out under his grasp, slipping on some new clothes and walking down the corridors to the Great Hall. No one was there except for a silent glower. The light rose as I entered, and the glower pulsed. "Hello, Alduin, how are you today?" "I am well, thank you, glower. Yourself?" "I have been thinking."

"It happens to the best of us, glower." I smiled, and the glower pulsed once in amusement. "Very good, Alduin. Be careful on this planet, for us?" "As always, glower. Do you sense something?" "I sense something, I cannot tell whether it is good or bad, just I sense something." This was important, and as the glower hovered out, I brooded on the glower's comments. You ignored what the glower said at your own peril, and as Silverine walked in I told him what the glower had said.

The Lupogriff nodded. "We need to all be careful, this is planet already torn by war." "Then, as the bullet proof one, shall I ping?" I asked, and the Lupogriff smiled. "I am more feared for my body, so yes, go ahead." Draco, Thomas and Javid came in, and I teleported with two minutes before six in the morning. I changed into bionics during the teleport, and landed roughly on some cobblestones. I was standing in a small alley, and the alley led to a firmer road. Suburban houses lined either side of the alley, and I could hear howling.

I jogged down the alley lightly, and found something slightly worrying, a group of canine like creatures, about my height, waving projectile weapons in one hand, torches in the other, and they were coming down the road towards me. There were blood stains on the road, and all the houses looked like they had been busted into. I threw the scanner behind me, and hid behind a dustbin as the dozen or so creatures ran past, howling in delight. They were not saying anything, just expressing their joy. I ran after them, keeping about a hundred yards behind at all times with my Colt M4 Carbine fully loaded on burst fire.

They kept a reasonable place, and as I ran I heard the bang that confirmed my fellows had arrived on the planet surface. I kept to one side of the road, and watched as they came to two houses that had not been busted. They ran up the steps of both houses, and I watched, getting closer but keeping cover. Then with a sudden move, the doors were broken down, and I heard gun shots. I charged towards the first house, and saw a set of French doors at the back. Without thinking I shoulder charged them, and hit them firmly, shattering glass everywhere,hearing the gunfire in the next room. There was a scream of a young husky, and it broke my heart to hear it.

"Mama!!!" the husky cried, and I charged into the next door, and this broke also. Oh god. This was the thing of nightmares. There were two dead huskies lying on the ground, one was still moving from falling over, and between them was a stunned young male husky, about six or seven years old. He was looking in shock at his parents, and behind him was another of these canine creatures, busily reloading his rifle. He looked up as I came to a halt and saw the spectacle, and he paled, trying to simultaneously lift his rifle and surrender.

I was faster, and a burst from my rifle caught him on the shoulder and upper chest. It wasn't fatal, but the creature dropped to the ground, howling in agony. I charged past the young husky, checking the corridor, and I saw three others in the corridor, all carrying guns, and all turning to look at me. I'd rather not go into the details of those next few seconds, but after those few seconds all of them were lying on the floor, I turned back to the young husky. He was naturally looking very scared at me, and he kept looking at his parents.

I shouldered the rifle and got down, checking for a pulse on either of the kid's parents, but as I did, I realised they had no chance of surviving. I felt the life force drain from the female, and I looked up at the young child, unable to say the words he was dreading to hear. I didn't need too. The child took one look at my expression and spoke. "You can't save them too?" he was mournful, and I shook my head. He looked down, and I gently moved to him.

He hugged me around my chest while I was on my knees, crying into my side, and I began to rub his back with one arm. This poor kid had had both his parents murdered in front of him, and as the gunfire continued outside, I began to get really, really angry. The young child began to whine and sob, and I gently kissed the top of his head, between his ears. Silverine entered. "Oh my god, what the hell happened in here?" he demanded in Centralite, and I looked up at him, looking upset and furious.

"They killed this boy's parents." I said in a surprisingly calm voice, and Silverine got down on his knees next to me. "What's your name, son?" he enquired gently. The male husky looked up in slight fear for a second, and then spoke. "I-I'm Seiji, Seiji Hashimotto. Who are you?" "My name is Silverine. Can you tell me what happened here?" The young husky paused, and Silverine's eyes widened a bit. "You are telepathic, Seiji?" Seiji nodded, and the two of them began to sit there quietly. I stood up and walked straight outside the room, to the front door.

Outside there was distant and not so distant gunfire, and I checked in with everyone to see how everyone was going. Draco spoke first."Alduin, I seem to have found out something from one of the huskies I found hiding." "All ears." "These canine creatures are marauders, or invaders, one or the other, and they are slaughtering anyone they find here."

I looked angrily at a wall. "Well, that makes two of us. Where are all these creatures then?" "Well, there seems to be a good thousand of them assembling around the main hall in the centre of the town, but there's..." the sentence ended up in a howl of pain from the dragon, and instinct took over. A voice command located Draco's beacon, and as soon as I was transformed the Raptor flew in a straight line towards the dragon's position. He was in another alley, under a sort of glass veranda, and as I got closer, I saw everything.

Seiji's traumatic moment had made me angry, the sight of my dragon lying on the ground with two canines on top of him made me so livid it wasn't funny. I dived straight into the glass, and the Raptor pierced the veranda roof and sent more shards spiralling over everyone, distracting the two canines. I changed rapidly, landing in my bionic form and bringing up my rifle. I fired at one canine until the hammer clicked on an empty magazine, and as the second tried to bring up his own weapon, I charged, catching the canine under the muzzle, and dumping him in a heap.

Now my attention turned to Draco, and I bent down next to the dragon. "Draco, talk to me." I noticed a bullet wound through his wing and his shoulder, they must have hit him from behind. The dragon didn't try to move, but he looked at me. "Alduin, what the hell hit me?" "Someone shot you through the shoulder, it doesn't look fatal." I began ruffling through my backpack for my swiss army knife. I pulled it out and opened up the tweezers, the bullet had not left the dragon's shoulder.

Draco looked a little apprehensive, but as I helped him into a sitting position, he took hold of his knee with his one good arm. "Do it." With extreme delicacy I inserted my tweezers into the wound, and moved them down slowly until I touched the bullet with the tweezers. I opened up the tweezers, and tried to push down around the bullet so I could grab it. Draco flamed, howling. "Oh dear GOD! That hurt!" I casually had moved to one side, and put my weight on one leg as I pushed a little deeper.

Draco's pain was intense, and each cry added to my own anger. After a few howls from the dragon, I had got the bullet in my tweezers, and I slowly began to extract the round. It had gone in between scales, which made this slightly easier to do, and after half a minute I had pulled out a regular sized slug. Draco took it, surveying it, while I took out a roll of bandage. I wrapped the bandage around the wound, because I had only one Hellbrew, and Draco's wing was more important than his shoulder.

Draco caught the look, and he moaned when he saw his wing was run through. He wrapped himself in a ball, his wing out like a good patient, he knew this was going to be really painful. I gave him the leather strap of my rifle to bite into, held one hand against the hole in the wing, and then poured the hellbrew onto the other side, the liquid pooling in my hand on the wound. Draco begin to make sobbing noises as the wing mended, and I had to force feed the dragon the second half of the potion.

The dragon coughed and swallowed, and as I let go, he turned and buried his fist into the plaster wall, crying and shaking. I decided the dragon needed some alone time, and scouted the rest of the street. I had reloaded the rifle, but for the close quarters I had drawn both G18's and was using my X-ray to look for any more soldiers, I saw many huskies in the houses, mostly crouching, but none carrying any weapons. Street thus secure, I spoke on my link.

"Simba, when you've got a minute, Draco needs a hell brew for a shoulder wound." "What? Draco got shot? Why didn't...." "I'm telling you now, Simba. I just used mine on his wing. Draco can explain when you get here, but I have some business to deal with." "Alduin, please don't go spare,we don't know what..." "I am past caring."

Silverine came on to our link. "Alduin, I can't and won't stop you, but before you get into a gunfight with the entire canine army, at least be sensible in your approach." I nodded."How's Seiji holding up?" There was a short pause." Well, I've asked Kodey, and after some discussion, we intend to look after him." "You're adopting him, Silverine?" "Yes. No one that old should have to go through what he just did."

I agreed silently. I didn't expect that Silverine wanted a child, but that little husky must have impressed himself on Silverine in some way.I headed towards the centre of town, following the quiet roars of delight and the scanner. I went into a building, climbed several stories and leapt to another building's roof, lying down on it and overlooking the town square.

It was a large square. Judging by how many canines fitted into this place, I'd say about half a kilometre square with a huge fountain in the middle. The fountain was damaged by mortar rounds, and currently a commanding officer was standing on the lip of the fountain, a helicopter having landed next to it. He was praising his soldiers on the work they had done in 'liberating' the city, and as he did so, I opened my communicator.

"Draco, how would you love to blow some stuff up?" "What kind of stuff, and what with?" "Your rocket launcher, against a very pretty helicopter in the town square. And I Hate pretty." Draco paused, and announced he was coming. I continued to watch the canine rant on and on, stirring the creatures into a frenzy, until the reptile came up onto the roof in his bionic form. He saw the situation, and smiled.

"You were right, it was a nice helicopter." "Was?" Simba asked on our headset, just as Draco loaded his rocket launcher and took aim. "Was." Silverine confirmed. There was a dull thump as the rocket erupted from the gun, and I could feel the heat of the explosion on my legs. The missile headed towards the helicopter at startling rapidity, but both of us had a second to savour the looks on the faces of those turning to see what the noise were.

The chopper went bye-bye. The round caught it squarely in the side, and there was a deafening twin explosion as the chopper decided to throw it's components as far and wide as it could in this situation. Bits of blade shot out from the expanding fireball like bullets, and shards of metal were launched high into the air before falling back to ground like a sharp rain. The tail rotor spun off and embedded itself in a wall.

The canines around the explosion were bowled backwards, while the entire field effectively ducked. A couple of them got bodily struck by bits of the disintegrated chopper, and a few more hit one another in their panic. The general was blown off the fountain and landed on a cluster of N.C.O's. Very few were killed by the explosion, but there was mass panic, and into that panic rode me and Draco.

The dragon, at a nod, picked me up and dropped down the side of the building, landing just behind the edge of the canines. He drew out his huge machine gun, holding it like a toy, while I drew both my machine pistols, and we advanced over and through the ranks of prone canines, some of which were getting to their feet. Then we became the centre of attention.

A bullet came at Draco, and zinged off his metal scales, going skywards, and it dawned on the superiors that we were both bullet proof, in the middle of their force, and very angular. "Cease fire!" One of them shouted, as we split up slightly. Draco headed over to the wrecked chopper site, while I advanced on the general. He was backing away, drawing his pistol and surrounded by officers, but that mattered not.

Draco crouched down by the chopper, his wings furled, examining portions of the debris, clearly interested in what the rocket round had done. I folded my arms, still holding my pistols, and subjected the general to a five hundred watt stare. "Well?" "Well what?"

I shot one of the canine officers in the leg, he howled and went down like a stone. The general backed away further. "This is a war zone! What are you, and why are you here?" "See that dragon over there. Your army shot him. Last time that happened, the village he was in got thermo nuked off the face of the planet. Don't you dare question me again. I get the answers I like, or we both open fire, right here, right now."

The general, unwittingly, lifted both arms in surrender, testingly. "You can put them down. Now what is going on here?" the general put both his arms down, and looked angrily at the cobblestones. "That's too long of a story to tell right now." he yelped as I lifted both pistols."No! We're in a war with these creatures, I presume you've met them." "That presumption is fair, although I wouldn't call it a war,as killing civilians isn't war, it's genocide." There was a pause, and an uncomfortable shuffling.

There was a whistling noise, and the fountain exploded from a mortar round. Draco flinched and ducked his head, while I dived for the ground, pistols raised. "Enemy mortars! Take cover!" the general shouted, and ran towards a building with several officers. I got up and chased after them, while Draco casually walked towards a building. I got through the door with more explosions close behind, and opened my comlink.

"Silverine, if you're still on this planet, get Kodey and Seiji the hell off it!" "We're leaving as we speak."Silverine replied." Just don't kill everyone." "That rather depends." I replied, as I caught up with the general. He looked scared, and was more so as he was grabbed by the shoulder and dragged into a bedroom by it. "Alright, now you aren't the only one who's tried to kill me, what the hell is going on, and be brief."

I looked around and saw a foot long shard of rotor blade sticking through the wall, and I grabbed it, putting it in my bag.The general sat down heavily on the bed, probably wondering how he could have avoided death for the umpteenth time. "It's difficult to be so brief." he muttered. I was still looking outside, as explosions went off. "If you don't make it short, slave, I will rape you." the general yelped and stood against the wall.

"No, please don't! We've had fifteen years of ceasefire and war constantly because of each other's religious views!" "Religious? And don't editorialize or I will rape you anyway." "We have different religions, and it started when one of our guys and one of theirs got involved in a religious..."discussion." "This is why I'm an atheist." I commented drily.

"Atheist?" the canine asked. "I don't believe in any deity, nor do I care." "Hmmm, heretic." the canine scowled, and then yelped as I folded my arms holding my pistols. "You got a problem with my religious beliefs, bucko?" I said in a level tone, a couple of explosions backing up my statement. "If you were of this planet, you would be executed for your comments." "But I'm not, and I'm the one that has skin that reflects personal arms fire, so learn your place."

This was about the moment the wall exploded. Me and my big mouth. Several tons of collapsing and exploding wall came flying at me, and the next thing I was aware of was being covered in rubble, everything hurting, and Simba talking calmly into my headset. "Draco, don't panic. He's taken a nasty knock, but he's in his bionics. Alduin, can you hear me?" "Wstfgl?" I responded intelligently, as the world slowly slid back into focus.I was trapped under several layers of walls and debris, there was a stabbing pain in my chest, and I could only move one arm.

Simba spoke into my headset again as I moved my head. "Alduin, I presume you're conscious, please speak to me in a language I recognize." "Uhhh, Simba? What the hell happened?" "Well, do you want to know the detailed version or the shortened debrief?" "Judging by the immense weight, it'll take a while to get me out, I can take the long story." I winced, trying to bend my head and look at my chest.

"The house was hit by a mortar bomb or an airstrike, and it folded up like a house of cards. You appear to be in the basement with about ten metres of debris on top of you. Any injuries?" "I'm not one hundred percent sure this skin is proof against everything, I think something's broken the skin in my chest. Can you check for me, I can barely move." "The debris is interfering with my scanner, not to mention the fact your position is getting hammered by mortar fire still. I can't get close enough."

There was a muffled explosion somewhere above. "Simba, what about the others in here?" "I am picking up additional life signs. I believe your friend you were arguing with on the subject of religion is alive and kicking within five metres, although you probably can't hear him." "I just got a mortar bomb to the face, I'm delightfully surprised I can hear anything."

"That would be your explosive good fortune with the robots DNA." "Puns are not getting me out of here, Simba. Can you secure the area and get me free?" "Well, I imagine we could with the right armament and tools. The problem is this is a war zone, we'd get bombed to oblivion." "Then we're going to have to resort to a show of strength and contact both sides."

"What, are you going to tell them to ceasefire while we get you out of there?" "Yes, under the threat of Central joining the war and obliterating both of them. That seems to work all too well normally." "Fair point. I'll try and tap into their communications."

Silverine came onto our line as the lion spoke. "Alduin, are you alright down there?" "I think I'm going into shock. Do me a favour, and get me out of here." I asked politely. The Lupogriff paused. "Alduin, just relax, I promise we're going to get you out as soon as possible." "I'm not panicking, yet." I admitted." I am a little cramped and in pain though."

There was another pair of explosions up above my head, and a few globs of dust rained down on my face. I managed voice activation on my night vision setting on my glasses, and my vision went green. Several steel supports and plaster boards were right in my face, pinning me very neatly against several floor panels.I voice activated my X-ray function in parallel with my thermal, and that's when I got the terrible shock.

One sharp metal girder, propelled by the powerful explosion had run straight through the middle of my chest. As I twisted my neck forwards as far as possible, somehow it had managed to miss three vital organs and only just clipped my spine. This would explain the lack of excruciating pain, I had lost all feeling in the chest down because of my damaged spine.

"Simba, I've been crippled."I said as calmly as I could manage, letting my head fall back against the rubble. "What's happened?" "Some kind of support beam has impaled me straight through, and damaged my spine. My lower body is completely immobile." "Ahh...."It was not a nice sound. It was a "oh fuck" sort of sound.

Silverine growled. "Alright, this stops now. Abigail, ready the scorpions and the attack helicopter. Blake, I require the frequencies of both canine armies, we are going to have a short talk with these creatures." "Silverine, may I listen in?" I asked weakly. :"Alduin, you're the whole reason we're coming out with the big guns, I'll keep an open channel with you." the wolf hybrid replied.

Blake, professional that he is, announced that he had both the frequently used frequencies of both command structures, and Silverine ordered that they be brought into a group chat with the Centralites.

The war summit had begun...