FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Life on a ship never held much excitement for the infantry who were stationed on it. It was no different with this flagship or its officers like Captain Calvin Redding. This ship was massive with very little crewmembers aboard it but it was not built for luxury. It had no holograph decks, no clubs with music, nor any type of entertainment. Even though Drach'n Fury did have an abundance of exercise rooms from gyms to zero-G rooms, Calvin rarely visited them. Instead, he found himself drawn toward the hangars.

Leaning against the railing, several decks high over the hangar, he watched the crew and pilots mingle with the dozens of ships below. He gazed upon the Immunities, similar to the ones that escorted him onto the ship except these ones were equipped with more advanced shield and weapon systems. The reflective hulls of these single fighters made it nearly impossible to see their true design. For every three Immunities, there was a dropship, either Moth or Antibody classification. The Moths were all roughly shaped like short vertical "V". When deployed the wings would open upward providing cover for the deploying infantry. Its weapons were lined near the top of the "V" shape, designed to clear the path of all enemy infantry or small vehicles. The Antibodies were a reflective wing-shaped ship, similar to the Immunities but designed for boarding dormant or enemy spacecraft's.

There was maybe two hundred pilots onboard the Fury, but only a dozen or so were in this hangar. Ten dropships were in this hangar, accompanied by thirty Immunities; one hangar out of six. A couple dozen maintenance crewmembers were on the hangar, each inspecting the ships or the hangar itself or mingling with the pilots. Although each of them were trained under the original construction crew, the crew chief issued the order for them to familiarize themselves. Calvin wondered how rare it'd be for the crew to do that once their true missions began.

Calvin's tailed flicked back and forth while he watched, high on the catwalk that connected a couple identical corridors. He wished the blast doors for the hangar were open so he'd at least be able to view the stars. The stars would be moving slowly across the bow, while the ship was cruising toward the edge of the system. Maybe they were already outside of their system but it'd be near a month before they reached the edge of the charts.

"Captain," Gale's voice drifted to Calvin's ears.

Glancing to his left, he saw the cougar stepping closer to him before he leaned against the railing and looked over the hangar too. His tail stopped twitching.

"The Commander was curious about where you spend your time," Gale continued, staring at the pilots far below him. "She's been mingling a lot with the crew now that we're cruising. The Admiral is always with her but hardly mingles at all. He's very serious for such a young kit." He sighed and remained silent for a couple minutes.

Gale wasn't briefed on why they were personally onboard this ship. A sniper had little value on a ship like this, and he's expressed that concern several times already.

When they arrived at the ribcage shipyard, Gale was immediately shown to their sniper's quarters but the Vice Admiral escorted Calvin straight to Admiral Alexander's personal office. Once he was left in there, neither the female panther from Intelligence or the Vice Admiral was seen or heard from again. Alone in the room, Calvin surveyed the room that was surprisingly bare. He didn't know what to expect from Admiral Alexander since he never even heard the name before.

After nearly an hour of waiting, Calvin was surprised when a fox kit walked in wearing an Admiral's robe. Rumors of a child prodigy were true after all. On his heels walked in a female meerkat, much taller and older. Almost the same age as Captain Redding.

"Good Morning Captain," the kit greeted him. "I'm Admiral Alexander, commander of this vessel and the battle group to come. This is my first commanding officer, Commander Yelena. I apologize for interrupting your last assignment but I specifically requested you to be on my crew. I've read your profile Captain, I know your skills, weaknesses and handicaps but I believe a soldier with your reputation will grant my infantry and research teams a significant morale boost."

The Admiral stood behind a wooden desk but did not seat himself. A wooden desk was very rare to find, and this one undoubtedly belonged to one of the infamous Fell Trees; grown on a space station for the purpose of building wooden product. This harvesting would impact no environment but it made the material extremely expensive to find. Seeing an entire wooden desk in person was a first in Calvin's lifetime.

The Admiral sighed while the meerkat stood at his flank guard. "That is your official mission Captain Redding. You are more or less our morale officer and to provide support for our infantry if required. However, having you on this ship for that goal alone would be a vast waste of resources. What I am about to tell you is classified tier two, do you understand?"

Calvin nodded. A tier two classification never goes on record and is never spoken, only second to those things that technically don't exist.

"We have a Ghost onboard with us," said the Admiral, his young face looking extremely serious. Ghost was the unofficial term for Canideran Intelligence Field Agents, which are almost as myth as a real ghost is. "If you weren't informed by now, we are investigating planetary bodies beyond the Black Line that the Intelligence believes is occupied by intelligent alien life. You will take your orders from this Ghost to do specialized missions that I'm not informed of. While our research and exploration teams will conduct the official missions, you will be following other leads that may or may not lead you into contact with hostile alien races. These missions are high-risk, classified tier-two and by no means will you compromise our diplomatic relations with alien races. Is that understood Captain?"

Captain Redding stood and saluted with a curt nod.

"Make no mistake in assuming that you were chosen because you're mute. I know that you are quite successful communicating with others, especially your spotter. Now Yelena," the Admiral passed the briefing over to his first officer.

"Captain Redding," Yelena spoke, stepping forward. "You will only report to me or Admiral Alexander. Any other orders you receive are irrelevant unless accompanied by a keyword that the Ghost will send to you every morning to your PawPad. It will change every morning, and neither the Admiral nor me will know it. If a mission contradicts one given to you by me or the Admiral, you only need to wag your tail in our presence and we'll belay all our orders."

The briefing continued with the officers urging the secrecy and importance of his job for another few minutes before Yelena led Calvin Redding to his bunk where Gale was unpacking his things into a drawer. The ship set off on its voyage not long afterward but by that time both the Captain and his spotter got lost far more times than they cared to count wandering the corridors.

Eventually they learned to navigate through the halls after several days, found the mess room, a couple of the pools, gyms, the hangars, barracks and even a few of the control rooms. When Calvin first spotted the ship, he knew it was massive but the corridors never ended once inside. With the lack of luxuries, the gyms and pools were often occupied by at least a few crewmembers. Calvin found more privacy high above the hangar decks so that's where he went when not in his bunk.

"Have you checked your PawPad lately?" asked Gale, breaking the silence on the high catwalk. "The Commander was insisting that you check it. She or the Admiral probably want you chat with you about something."

Captain Redding stepped back from the railing, nodded in gratitude to Gale and headed back for his bunk. It's been a week since they departed from the dockyard, and the Ghost already had a mission for him. Leaving his spotter behind, Redding pulled his PawPad from a pocket, and read the text that immediately appeared on the screen.

Captain Redding...

...Secured Link...

...Paw and Retinal Identity Confirmed...

...Isolation Confirmed...

Captain Calvin Redding, Report to Hangar 6C immediately. Further instructions await. Message End.

...Message Erased...

The hangar was on the other side of the ship, but the Captain knew how to get to it. Entering the corridors from the catwalk, they were surprisingly empty while Calvin made his way toward the hangar. It took nearly an hour before he arrived on one of the launching pads to find only one ship there, an Antibody. Stepping from the passenger bay was a springhare dressed in black operations uniform.

"Captain Redding," said the springhare. "Please get onboard." He gestured to the passenger bay.

Redding obliged and stepped onto the ship, having the blast door close immediately behind him. The springhare wandered toward the cockpit of the ship but turned back to Captain Redding before he went behind the door.

"You have been updated on the situation," he said. "My name is Nishant Shukla. I was hired by our common friend to be your pilot. Admiral Alexander's orders are to fly in reinforcements if required, but we both know our real orders don't come directly from the Admiral." Nishant turned back toward the cockpit, his bushy black-tipped tail disappearing through the doorway. Once the door shut, the springhare's voice came over the intercom. "The trip will be about an hour so relax and make sure you read the briefing on your PawPad.

The engines hummed to life, and before Captain Redding could sit down, the ship accelerated out of the hangar and into the stars. Thrown off his balance for a moment, Calvin braced himself against the bulk before sitting down. He activated his PawPad again and waited for the device to confirm that no wandering eyes were in the area.

After reading the report, Captain Redding wasn't all that surprised. A ship named Bridging Albatross was attacked by a hostile alien race. Shuttles evacuated and sent out a distress call, which the Drach'n Fury would be sending rescue, teams out. The Albatross, which is believed to have been stolen and fitted with illegal weapons, self destructed after being boarded but the anterior portion remained intact roughly after suffering critical damage. It was Redding's job to investigate the ship before the rescue teams arrived.

He had orders to eliminate all alien contacts, and subdue and tag any surviving crew to be later picked up by the rescue teams. He had two hours to finish his mission, capture the body of an alien contact and destroy all other evidence of the alien race ever being on that ship or attacking it.

His equipment was already in the storage locker beside him. Once finished reading the message, it automatically erased itself. A sniper being ordered into a close-combat situation was unusual but Calvin doubted that even the Ghost suspected to come across evidence of an alien contact so soon. He assumed his usual missions would have taken place planet side.

While waiting on the approach, Captain Redding inspected the gear that was provided for him. A full Shell suit, wolf-class, was stored in with the rest, one of the most advanced standard armors provided to infantry. Fully undressed, it took the naked wolf nearly an hour to haul on the suit by himself. He finally managed to get it working correctly, in which the dull metallic armor covered his entire body including his tail, ears and paws. All of his other equipment was rather basic, from his weapon to tools to cut or hack through doors.

Before he closed the locker door that held his equipment, Calvin noticed a small vial on the top shelf within the locker. Picking it up he inspected it more closely. It was filled with a clear and thick fluid separated from a very light blue thick fluid also in the vial. Liquid plasma is what it is commonly called. A very dangerous substance, that uses a form of fission to incinerate anything it touches but also causes a lot of radiation. If ill-used, it can easily destroy a small spacecraft. The Captain pocketed the vial and closed the locker door.

"Captain," announced Nishant over Calvin's suit speakers. "We'll be arriving at the scene in a few minutes. My scans reveal that most the atmosphere has been burned up or vented out already so there's no way I can dock. I'll have to seal the passenger's bay, depressurize and you'll have to find a way into the ship yourself. Are you suited?"

Captain Redding clicked an acknowledgement back and held his sniper rifle in his paws. Although the suit's visor was narrow and tinted blue, Calvin saw everything around him perfectly. The stars through the narrow windows didn't even look like they were moving but he could see dust floating by the dropship.

"Depressurizing in two... one," announced the pilot. The passenger's compartment hissed while the air was sucked out of it. Captain Redding now depended solely on his suit's life support systems. The ship slowed and maneuvered at strange angles until the gravity smoothed out. "I'm going to open the hatch. There'll be an opening directly ahead of you."

The floor jumped suddenly and then slowly started to open, forming a ramp leading into nothing. All gravity that there was from the rotation was lost, so Calvin had to float toward the exit. Once at the edge, Calvin saw the lifeless ship floating in front of him with trails of debris orbiting it with the dropship. Nishant wasn't kidding when he said there would be an opening, the ship was torn and half with several corridors open for the Captain. The ship wasn't all that big but it was all Captain Redding could see with his dropship so close.

With a push from his hindpaws, Captain Redding drifted toward the destroyed stolen ship. He was in the void of space for only a few seconds before he made contact with the remains of the Albatross. Landing on an opening in a large corridor, the walls were sheared away from the original blast.

There was a little gravity since the ship was spinning slowly but Calvin still had more or less float into the corridor. His rifle remained steady in front of him in one paw while he used his other paw to navigate down the corridor. The floodlights from the dropship soon disappeared behind Calvin, forcing him to activate his light on the gun and helmet. The entire corridor was open to the void, only a few blast doors were closed sealing off insignificant compartments.

In complete darkness, Calvin started to notice the first bodies. They were loosely lying in the corners of the corridors, many severely burned and their bodies mutilated by the blast. Calvin doubted that anyone would still be alive. The further he wandered inside the vessel, the darkness consumed everything hardly giving way to the light from the Captain's gear. Slowly, he dragged himself along the wall deeper into the ship.

Finally he came across the first corridor that was sealed off by blast doors. Turning and to make sure nothing was behind him, Captain Redding focused on the door controls. The power was out but there was a manual release button. Calvin pressed it and the doors didn't move. He placed his armored paw in the crease of the door and try to pull it open. It slowly budged but after a few tugs and pulls, there was enough room for the armored wolf to squeeze through. There was no pressure in this corridor either.

It wasn't long before the wolf came across another set of blast doors but these ones were badly damaged and already partially opened. These doors did not open as easily but after several centimeters the wolf managed to squeeze through with his armor scraping against the jagged door edges. Once through, he was gazing upon another hangar, this one a fraction of the size of Fury's hangar.

"Captain Redding," Neshant's voice said. "I've been searching the hull and I've found some interesting points of impact." Captain Redding clicked an acknowledgement. "Nothing breached the hull but it whatever collided with this ship looks organic. About a meter from the impact point it looks like something cut the hull open to enter the ship. Be careful, the alien's might have some sort of suit to help them survive the vacuum."

Captain Redding clicked again. The hangar was in rough shape with a shuttle crashed to the side. After investigating the ship and finding all on board dead, he continued exploring. Nearly an hour of first arriving, he arrived on the bridge without finding a single alien contact. Only about a dozen dead were found and no survivors. Nothing significant would be learned from this mission.

In complete darkness, Redding was attempting to restore partial power to one of the computers. In the silence while he worked, a slight vibration was felt through his hindpaws. The suit translated it into a metallic sound of two objects colliding behind him. He turned around, gun at the ready and the flashlight sweeping the bridge but he couldn't see anything besides the dead. He returned to his work, back to the dead. It made him feel uneasy.

"Captain!" Neshant's voice shouted over the com. "We have company. Return to the ship immediately!"

Clicking an acknowledgement, Calvin disengaged the computer terminal and stored away his hacking equipment. He turned directly into the face of one of the dead crewmembers. He inhaled sharply and jumped back, the lack of gravity carrying him to the fall wall. Gun up, he watched the dead crewmember who was standing on the bridge slowly turn toward him. The dull dead eyes stared at Calvin, freezing the wolf in his suit.

There is no atmosphere in here, how can this thing be alive? It has several burn marks and open wounds all over its body. Confused, Calvin slowly crawled his way toward the exit, his eyes and gun never losing sight of the walking dead crewmember. Arriving at the exit, he backed out of the hangar but something blocked his path. Taking his eyes off of the crew member, another one was there blocking his path but failing to act.

"What the hell?" questioned Neshant who must have been watching the live feed from Calvin's helmet. "Get out of there. I'm coming to the second hangar. Meet me there."

Heart racing and breathing heavily from fear, the Captain acknowledged and pushed by the dead. In the pitch darkness's the fear of the dead hiding beyond his light gripped Calvin's chest tightly. He passed a few more dead to his discontent but they only attempted to draw closer to Redding for whatever reason.

Reaching the hangar, there was two occupants wandering around aimlessly but the dropship's floodlights lighted up the room.

"Hurry up," urged Neshant. "Another vessel is fast approaching."

Kicking off the deck, Captain Redding headed for the opening in the blast doors where they failed to shut completely. Passing over one of the wandering dead, Calvin got a closer look at this one. Its burns covered most of its body but worms of some type seemed to be crawling out of those burn marks. Reaching the opening, Calvin braced himself against the edge while he watched the dropship position itself and open its bay door. Crouching to push off the hull, sharp impacts jolted off of the Captain's armor. He turned toward the source, gun up. Some six limbed creature on the far side, hidden by shadows, raised a weapon and fired again. The armor deflected the rounds but not without suffering dents and scratches.

Flashes from behind Redding, and the four-legged creature disappeared behind shattering metal and exploding rounds. The dropship's fire collapsed the catwalk and nearby corridor. The Captain turned back toward the dropship, which was still firing one of its guns, and jumped for it. Once inside, the door sealed off and the ship accelerated away. With gravity restored, Calvin walked into the cockpit searching for answers.

"It's there," said Neshant pointing to a screen that showed an alien exotic ship, very sleek in design approaching the destroyed section of the hull. They both watched while it fired some type of missile at the ship. It impacted, exploded in a bright light but continued to burn. Rather than debris exploding away from the blast, more and more of the ship was drawn in being consumed by the fire. The alien ship then veered off and blinked out of existence. "Thank goodness you got off that ship. Two alien contacts, and several undead contacts. Our Ghost will have a lot to ponder over."