FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Assassin!

Chaos broke over its levies and flooded the bridge but Fury focused on Yukiomaru the moment he staggered back. With his eyes wide, Yukiomaru clutched his chest just before his legs buckled and he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Assassin! Kill it.

Using the holographic projectors, Fury immediately created dozens of decoys. Captain Redding is on the bridge and should be able to take the assassin down. Using his own methods, he attempted to track the Stealth but the moment he found it, it sprang out of the bridge. Immediately Fury sealed all access points to any means of escape, but then he saw Velsh'nark following it almost as if he could see it perfectly.

"Medical group Alpha, hurry to the bridge! Priority one!" Fury's voice echoed through the medical wing of the ship, including the medical crews quarters.

Am I dead? Fury wondered, looking over Yukiomaru's body. The thought almost didn't seem his, but who was he if Yukiomaru was gone?

"Fury, what's going on?" A distant voice questioned. It's Tang; she's in the officer's lounge.

What is she doing?!

"Tang, get to the bridge, now!"

"What's going on?" she demanded but not without moving. She ran down the corridor, cluttered with others reacting to the alarm and hurried to the bridge. With part of his attention focusing on Yukiomaru's status, Fury began using the external cameras to search for the Stealth's ship. All the camera's eyes only revealed stars, or Drachn's Breath several ten thousand kilometers away. On the starboard side, Fury detected anomalies when he tested releasing some air and it was reflected back by the nothing. He found the ship.

Before he could do anything about the ship, Yelena demanded: "Where's the medical team?!" Fury focused more of his attention on the bridge scene, and noticed Tang just arrived.

"On their way," Fury responded. "I found Tang closer. She has some medical experience."

"It's been years Fury," objected Tang but she didn't refuse examining the Admiral.

Please, Tang, help me.

Fury ignored her and marked the location of the Stealth ship in his database for later reference. Following Velsh'nark, they were near the general living quarters, trashing rooms and leaving blood trails wherever he went and engaged the Stealth.

When the medical crew arrived and took the Admiral, he felt relieved somehow knowing that he'll be just fine. He instructed them to stay away from the scene where the Stealth was fighting with Velsh'nark before Yelena ordered for him to destroy the Stealth ship.

That's a blunt decision Yelena.

Obeying, Fury used a single missile to destroy the ship off of their starboard hull. The blast and debris reflected off of their hologram shield but the Stealth ship was half blown to pieces. There'd be no way to salvage the wreck.

Severely distracted, Fury focused most of his attention on the Admiral's progress in the medical wing. His blood was cloned and being restored in his body, the wound cleaned and bandaged up to heal on its own.

I'll live.

Despite his distraction, he did notice Tang returning walking directly toward the fight between Velsh'nark and the Stealth.

"Tang, where are you going?" he asked urgently.

"To wash up," was the reply she gave. She didn't notice the disaster they have been leaving in their wake. Without much warning, Velsh'nark flew back into the corridor and slammed against the corridor in a rough way. Plunging back into the roomright in front of the pine marten.

Why isn't she moving?

"Tang!"

The Stealth headed straight for her, but went around. Velsh'nark followed and pushed Tang out of the way, although not excessively hard, his lethal claws easily found skin and sliced her flank open. On the ground she stayed, out of their way while Velsh'nark slammed the Stealth into a nearby wall repeatedly until finally the fight was over.

"Yelena, the Stealth has been captured," Fury informed the new commander of the vessel. "Velsh'nark claims it still lives but it looks close to death."

"Make sure it doesn't die," Yelena instructed, focusing on several reports and doing her best to ignore the crew cleaning the Admiral's blood from the floor. "I want to interrogate it myself. Is it awake now?"

"No, it's unconscious and bleeding pretty heavily," answered Fury, watching through the cameras the Stealth being taken to the brig under heavy escort. Most of its armor was already stripped away, to the medics' objections.

With the scene finally calming down, Fury sensed that something was still distracting him but he couldn't place it. Instead, he focused on bringing the ship down from its high alert and while he was doing that he noticed a squad of soldiers still searching the ship but they didn't belong on the ship.

"The infiltrator has been apprehended," Fury informed them through their suits' internal speakers. "This is A.I. Fury, what are you doing aboard this ship?"

"We're here under specific orders," one of them replied after hesitation. "We need to see the Admiral or someone called Tang Fa."

Send them to Tang.

The thought wasn't his but he felt he should oblige. "Why do you need to see these two individuals?" he asked.

They exchanged a few words among themselves, deactivating their microphone leaving the corridor microphones to pick up the conversation. It wasn't distinguishable so Fury waited for the answer.

"We have a package to deliver to either the Admiral himself or the scientist," the same soldier responded.

"Very well," Fury submitted and directed the team to the laboratory. They continued chatting without their suit microphones activated but some of them seem disappointed somehow.

The attack remained fresh in Fury's literal memory but the few hours following the attack didn't stick in his memory. Fury was perplexed on how the image of the initial couldn't be put aside despite him having no emotions or literal mind.

Despite a constant distraction from within, Fury operated normally and kept a specifically close eye on the areas surrounding the Admiral, and the captured Stealth. In addition he worked on trying to crack the Admiral's PawPad to find out more about these soldiers, wolf pups, and their mission. Every now and then he checked in on Tang Fa, and her notes regarding the supposed database the young team retrieved.

When Tang finished examining the "package", Natasha appeared out of nowhere and began speaking to her. Very quickly Fury realized that Natasha had been contacting the fleet and been offering suggestions of her own while the Admiral was incapacitated. He felt almost angry over the fact that she jumped on the opportunity that the Admiral's assassination presented.

By the time Tang went to sleep, Fury had given up on hacking the Admiral's PawPad, and followed Natasha's movement. After her mysterious visit in the lab, she made few messages back to the fleets and kept her usual disguise by going to the bar with some of the other soldiers.

After hours of being immobile, the Stealth finally stirred.

It's waking up. Alert Yelena.

She had very little sleep but once she heard the news, her lack of sleep did little to slow her down. The Commander hurried out of her office and brought armed guards with her to the brig, taking long and aggressive strides. She requested Velsh'nark to accompany her as well.

While she was making her way toward the brig, Fury watched the Stealth, recording it's behavior. It was the first time that they'd seen a Stealth without it's light-bending armor that made them practically invisible. Obviously it was panicked once it was awake enough to realize where it was, but also panicked when it realized it was visible. Scurrying along the wall, it looked for an escape before it began searching the room for something else but the room was practically bare. Nothing posed a threat to the Stealth, even if it decided to take its own life.

By the time the armed guards with Yelena and Velsh'nark reached the brig, the Stealth had calmed down and settled on pacing. When he realized he was no longer alone, he stood in one spot and stared out the holographic prison wall.

"How'd you get on this ship?" Yelena immediately asked, her eyes squinted. It was obvious that she would have rather killed the creature.

It replied in an alien race and didn't sound like it wanted to be diplomatic. Immediately the translator recorded the phrase and attempted to translate it.

"The last assassin could speak our language, I'm not convinced that you cannot," continued Yelena. "Your armor has been disassembled and we know that you don't have a translator inside it either. Now speak!"

"I am not accustomed to answering on command," replied the alien, stepping closer to the wall. It's voice was a hoarse as the last one, and raspy. "Why have you not killed me? Their race is accustomed to killing us on sight, or feeding us to the parasite!" It gestured toward Velsh'nark.

"I'm not here to answer your questions," snapped Yelena. "You're here to answer mine. Twice we've been boarded by your kind, and I want to know how."

"I'm not about to give away secrets of my techniques," answered the Stealth, smug now. "It is I who infiltrated your defenses both times, although I do admit it wasn't easy."

"If you tried to assassinate our guest, then why did you come back for our commander?"

"He was only a warning," the Stealth replied. "After your actions on our planet, you won't be so easily ignored by our fleet anymore."

"What actions are you referring to?" Yelena demanded, folding her arms.

"You know what you did! You assisted the enemy by making it possible to detonate their bomb directly over the volcano!"

"Two of our soldiers were killed in that blast," Yelena replied coldly. "We would not risk our soldiers lives so recklessly."

"Over three hundred million of our citizens were killed as a result of that blast."

Silence followed. In the seconds, Fury sent the recorded data to Jun Fa for him to study and interpret.

"Our mission to your planet was to learn how the parasite invades a system," Yelena informed. "Our ambassador here, Velsh'nark, tells us they invade by infecting rocks or vessels but we need to see how they can survive such an impact, and also be capable of repelling any assault on their crash site. What happened to your planet?"

"Why don't you ask him? Velsh'nark?"

Yelena glanced at the taller alien beside her before turning her gaze back on the Stealth. "Why should I? I'm asking you."

"He stood by and watched our planet be ravaged," the Stealth declared, staring directly at Velsh'nark. "It was vulnerable when we detected it approaching our system. Cold and hungry. But as it grew closer to our planet, it fed on the star's light and by the time it was in range of our defenses, it was too strong for us to hold off. This is a civilian world, they have minimal defenses but they could have been saved. 'Velsh'nark' had been trailing it for cycles and cycles but never once attacked it. That is why I shot down his ship. When I learned that he was saved, I again tried to take his life. But now, there's no way it'd compare to the lives lost so recently."

"It was an infected vessel, one of the weakest parasites to travel among the stars," Velsh'nark replied in his own language.

"It was not," answered the Stealth in Velsh'nark's language too. "It was a Klienestov."

"Klienestov don't travel inside vessels!" snapped Velsh'nark, baring his sharp teeth.

"What is a Klienestov?" Yelena demanded, rather agitated. She could only understand through the translations being replayed through the speakers.

"You didn't tell them about the Klienestov?"

"It's a collection of the parasite that form one mind," answered Velsh'nark turning to Yelena. "It's very smart, and very hard to kill. If one of them lands on a planet, the planet is lost. There is no way one was on their planet otherwise their defenses would have folded an hour after the invasion."

"It was weaker than usual because it was hiding in a vessel," the Stealth claimed now speaking so Yelena could understand. "Once it landed, we bombarded the scene which nearly set off an eruption. It went underground where it was warm and we couldn't risk any larger explosions until we evacuated our civilians. That's when this ship became involved."

"So you targeted our commander to serve as a warning?" Yelena asked, sounding disgusted with the very thought.

"My intention as not to take his life," the Stealth declared. "He is, what you'd call, a youngling, so I may have accidentally killed him but yes, he was a warning. Your vessels have been marked as hostile and we will keep you out of our territory."

"He is young," Yelena nearly growled. "You invaded our vessel, assaulted our commanding officer and have admitted to previously infiltrating this ship and attempting the life on an alien ambassador. Your life is forfeit but I cannot make that decision. Admiral Yukiomaru Alexander will once he recovers."

"So he lives," commented the Stealth, surprised by the news.

"Leave it here," Yelena continued, turning her back to it and walking away. "Velshnark, if you would please follow me."

The alien did, and they all left the Stealth to pace around the small cell he had. Velsh'nark and Yelena were walking down the corridors now without an escort, and chatting quietly among themselves but Fury was able to pick up their conversation through the speakers placed throughout the ship.

"What was your mission before you were shot down?" Yelena had asked.

"For quite some time now, we've been monitoring invasions, alien defenses and military power and the movements of the survivors," answered Velsh'nark, looking down at the Commander. "This case was no different than the other missions. The goal is to find a more effective method in stopping invasions before too many more fall victim to the parasite."

"Where did the Creepers come from?"

Velsh'nark sighed but didn't answer and continued walking. After a long minute of silence, he replied with: "They're gaining territory. We have only slowed their progress with millions of lives and generations lost."

Before the conversation could continue, they entered the medical wing where Yukiomaru was. They didn't enter the room but looked through clear walls at him, lying on the table.

"So I suppose no matter how late we arrived, we would still have to fight against their parasite," commented Yelena, looking at the young Admiral slowly breathe.

"The more the races fight among themselves, the stronger the parasite grows," Velsh'nark replied before turning and leaving.

Fury watched her look over the Admiral for a moment before she muttered something too low for the microphones to pick up and leave. Scanning through the diagnostics information, he was updated on the progress of the healing wound and was confident that the Admiral was well on his way to recovering.

"Is that the whole interrogation?" came a muffled voice. Fury refocused his attention and found Jun watching the interrogation on his PawPad in his room.

"Yes," Fury replied.

"There's not much for me to go on," Jun replied. "Obviously Velshnark is hiding something but that is to be expected. The Stealth is angry but isn't irrational. If what he says about his threat, then that simply means we're at war but I doubt they'd make any offensive moves outside of their territory boundaries under the current conditions. The threat of the Creeper is hitting close to their home."

"What about the planet? How important was it to them?"

"Like he said, it was just a small colonized planet," remarked Jun, setting his PawPad aside and walking out the corridor. "But it still was a significant loss to them. I doubt they'd have very many other planets that have colonized so successfully."

"Where you going?"

"I'm hungry. Is there anything else you want to know about the Stealth? Like I said, there's not much to go on."

"The Admiral will probably want to debrief you personally when he wakes up so I can wait until then," answered Fury. Again he was distracted though by a message sent directly to him, and the commanding officer of the vessel.

For: Commanding Officers of Drach'n Fury and Drach'n Breath

From: Canideran Intelligence

Effective immediately, the commanding officer of the Drach'n fleet is directed to return to the enemy planet recently destroyed. Objectives are to find the key items to access the alien database currently on board Drach'n Fury. Full use of all weapons on paw is permitted. Shoot on sight.

C.I.

Message End