FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Vines had overgrown the ship almost as if it's been dormant in the forest for a thousand years. It, like the past dozen, floated by without noticing the stealth ship. Yuri watched it pass with the rest of his team in silence. One infection would easily ruin their mission and probably mean all of their deaths, but it did little to bristle their fur. When they were passing the main wave of several thousand infected ships.

The infected ship disappeared in the darkness, leaving only the stars to gaze upon. Not one of them said a word, or even twitched a tail. Their secrecy and stealth was necessary for their survival; if their ship was disable behind the main Creeper wave, there'd be no way they'd get back. They'd have to be rescued, if they were able to survive.

Yuri thought on the message they received from Captain Redding. He was there when the Admiral killed the Velmarian hatchling after he was infected. The idea of him surviving, and being infected was disturbing enough but the thought of the infected hatchling speaking is a startling thought.

Unfortunately the Captain's recording equipment malfunctioned once he entered the city on that strange planet. There was no way to confirm such a creature existed or if the red wolf happened to come across some survivor and there was some misunderstanding somehow.

The ride had lasted several hours already, with the five wolves remaining in silence and not moving a muscle. With one of the stars bright, Alex moved for the first time by waving his armored paw. They were nearly there.

Through the windshield, a circular trade station was orbiting a bright blue planet. Two large warships were docked but they were dormant. Luckily there was no sign of infection but the wolves knew that the Creepers attacked the station.

If no one has seen the Creeper infection yet, they wouldn't have seen any form of infection but instead it would look a little overgrown with foliage. A plant growing on a space station was strange enough to rouse suspicion to any intelligent being though.

Docking with the station passed in silence as well but they began to prepare for the assault. Yuri loaded his weapon and checked the sights calibrations. He knew that there would be fighting involved, he just hoped it wouldn't be too severe before they boarded the destroyer that's currently docked there. It was there mission to upload autopilot coordinates and return it to UDAS controlled space. If one of their ships were to be controlled by the Creepers, it'd cause serious damage before they could destroy it.

With a blue tint from the lights, it was confirmed that they were finally docked with the station. Alex and A.J. climbed out of the pilots' seats and took point leaving out of their stealth ship. The hatch quickly opened, revealing the poorly lit corridor into the trading station.

It was empty but there were roots growing to the walls. The station had been infested more thoroughly than the other infestations Yuri has seen so far.

Alex led the team into the corridor with his team fanned out. No one had any lights on to attract unwanted attention so they had to depend on their visual enhancements. Through the corridors, they searched nearby rooms, lounges and restaurants.

This station was built by the UDAS as the first intergalactic trading post in the history of UDAS. The four-legged aliens, that Drach'n Fury first established a trading agreement with, were the primary race that the traders were dealing with. No one knew what happened to their planet when the Creeper wave advanced to the Black Line, but it was only a few solar systems away. Yuri had heard rumors that an elite squad was sent to investigate and aid but those were only rumors.

The team reached the market without any disturbances but among the shops, a few of inhabitants were found, alive. Crude projectiles immediately hit Alex but did little more than scratch his armor.

"Hold your fire!" he shouted at the entrenched survivors. "Wolves, lower your weapons."

Yuri obeyed, even if he was the rear guard. Instead he focused on shutting the door connecting the corridor and marketplace. Through his enhanced speakers, he could hear the survivors mumbling to each other before one finally stepped out to greet them.

"You're not infected?" questioned the survivor. She was obviously shocked. "We weren't even able to send out a distress call. What're you doing here?"

"Good thing you didn't," said A.J. He stepped close to the survivor and removed his helmet. "The Creepers would have learned that survivors are still on this station and came back for you all."

"We're here to reclaim the destroyer docked at the main docks," answered Alex. The leader of the pack left his helmet on, but Yuri didn't blame him since he was shot at just now. "How long have you been stranded here? Where are the Creepers?"

Several other survivors, and their pets emerged from their barricaded shop. Many held small weapons but most of those weapons were blunt objects that they've found around the station. Only a few had pistols in their paws.

"We've been here since the attack," answered the same squirrel who first approached them. "I don't know how long it's been. It's been a week or two. As for the parasite, most of them left the station after the initial attack. We were able to hide and we're lucky they didn't stay to search for us."

"Have there been any reports on Velon?" asked one of the four-legged creatures that Yuri thought was a pet.

"Who's Velon?" asked Alex. If he was shocked like Yuri, he hid his signs of surprise well.

"Velon is our home planet," replied the alien.

"We haven't heard anything from behind the Creeper wave," replied Alex. He turned back to the team and looked at the entrances of the marketplace. "We need to find the destroyer. How many survivors are there?"

"There's seventeen of us left now," answered the squirrel. She looked gloom. Yuri wondered how many of her friends she had to kill because they became infected.

"That's too many," Kaitlin told their leader. "They'll have to stay here until we clear the destroyer. It'd be too risky to try to bring them all with us."

"Can you all hold out for another hour?" asked Alex.

A.J. put his helmet back on and pulled something from his pack.

"We've held out for a week, we can hold out for another hour," answered the squirrel.

"Here's a radio so you can stay in touch with us," A.J. said, giving them the object he pulled from his armored pack. "Don't use it unless absolutely necessary. The Creepers are drawn toward the source of radio transmissions."

"Yes sir," said squirrel, she turned back to the survivors and gestured for them to get back into the barricaded shop. "Be careful trying to get to the ship. We've tried to escape more times than I'm willing to admit but the Creepers seem to have the same idea."

"Did they make it into the destroyer?" asked A.J.

"Last time we tried, they looked like they were just guarding the doors. Maybe they were having trouble getting through."

"Wolves, let's move out," said Alex. He headed for the opposite side of the marketplace, followed closely behind his team to leave the survivors in their barricade.

Through one of the smaller corridors, Yuri caught sight of the first Creeper they've come across while on the station. It was in one of the many rooms, staring up a flickering light.

"Contact."

The teams stopped and returned the doorway that led into the entrance. At the moment the Creeper didn't notice them, or simply ignored them. The roots, veins and leaves that sprouted from the creature made it almost impossible to tell what species it was before infection. The creature looked more like a statue that was overgrown by years of neglect, the same way the ships and station that were also infected.

"Seal the door," whispered Alex, his voice hardly audible through their armor. "Killing it might attract more of them."

Kaitlin pressed the nearby button and the door slid shut almost silently. She them pried open the casing around the button, cut one of the wires and gave them an acknowledgement that the doors were sealed. Without any further delays, they continued their way to the docks.

The second infected creature they came across was of the alien race in the corridor. A.J. easily severed the plant's control over the body's nervous system and cut several of the vines inside its flesh with his blade.

Three dead later, the team finally found the docks that had crates of supplies stacked everywhere. Many of the plastic crates were tipped over and ravaged but it was obvious that the dozen Creepers walking from light source to light source were not the ones to have done it.

"Where's the dock connecting the destroyer?" asked Alex quietly since the team still hasn't been noticed.

"Door Kappa 3," answered Kaitlin after checking her schematic readout of the station. "It's that door, about twenty meters from here." She point with her armored glove. It wasn't across the docks but there were at least two Creepers in their way.

"A.J., Kaitlin," Alex said turning to each of them. "Go back and escort the survivors. Mary, Yuir and I will have the docks secured by the time you get back. We'll all move onto the destroyer at once and secure it from the station before we search and clear the destroyer."

"Yes sir," Kaitlin and A.J. said in unison. They turned and went back down the corridor that they all just came from.

"No one knows where the weak spot is yet but aim for their hearts and heads," ordered Alex turning to Yuri and Mary now. "It is believed that they feed off of the flesh of their hosts but if we take away their hosts vital functions then maybe it'll slow them down at least."

"Yes sir," answered the remaining two wolves.

"On my mark." The wolves leaned out from the crates they were hiding behind. "Ready. Mark."

Several silent shots pierced through the nearby infected creatures and they fell to the ground. More shots hit their targets from across the docks but as soon as those fell, Yuri witnessed the nearby ones struggle to stand. They now knew the wolves were there.

Alex growled. "Take out their legs and arms. Aim for their joints. Make sure they don't get up again."

In the flickering light, limbs and vines started to fly off their host's bodies. While the nearest Creepers were easily dismembered, the further Creepers required more precise shooting that took a few more shots to hit the mark.

With the last Creeper's limbs missing, Alex moved forward, flanked by his two pack mates. With a few more plasma rounds into whatever Creeper still twitched, they stood in the middle of the docks.

"Mary, gather the Creeper's body parts on the far side and bring them to Kappa Door 1," Alex ordered, his helmet visor looking at the bodies. "Yuri do the same here. Be extra careful. If you think one can still move enough to control the body, then put a few extra rounds in it. I'm going to find a way into the destroyer and make sure it's not infected."

Without another word, Alex went to the Kappa Door 3 and entered in a code he had received from the intelligence that assigned this mission. Meanwhile Yuri started throwing in the torsos and limbs of the Creepers into a nearby empty crate. Only a few still blinked their dead eyes at him, but with a few fresh wounds in their head the Creepers were unable to look at him anymore.

Fifteen minutes passed with Mary and Yuri busy with their gruesome work before Alex returned. He made sure to shut the door behind him and lock it before approaching the two wolves at the first door.

"Send them through the airlock," Alex ordered. He opened the first door and helped push the crates full of the dead through. With the crates inside, the wolves stepped out and locked the door before launching the dead into space. "The destroyer doesn't appeared to be infected but I didn't venture far enough in to make sure yet. I found a good holdout spot for the survivors while we finish searching the ship. Let's finish securing the other entrances to these docks."

Before they could finish securing the docks, the survivors arrived with A.J. and Kaitlin guarding them. They were all led onto the destroyer and secured in the cafeteria of the ship while Mary destroyed Kappa Door 3 and the air dock that led into the destroyer.

Searching the ship was a welcome relief when they found no other signs of infection and the survivors were led to the bridge. With the program uploaded, the ship came to life and quickly detached itself from the docks before running a diagnostics on all its systems to ensure there was no infection on the ship. Once it was confirmed, Alex allowed the survivors to go find food and rest but he had A.J. stay with them.

"Kaitlin, can you try to find out the status of the battle?" Alex requested with his helmet removed while he stood on the bridge.

"Sure," she replied. She had also removed her helmet. "It shouldn't be hard." A few moments went by but it quickly became apparent that she was become frustrated. "Something's blocking me and I can't tell what it is. It might take me a little longer than I thought."

"How long?"

"An hour... wait," she said, her attention focused on the screen. "Alex, who gave you that program to upload?"

"I don't know," said Alex. "It was delivered to me. Why?"

"The CI must have sent it, it was an AI," Kaitlin said. "The smart kind, like on Drach'n Fury."

Fury was the only AI in existence; creating another would have been extremely costly and very risky to send it out this far behind enemy lines.

"We underestimated your hacking abilities," a female voice said over the speakers. "You're not supposed to know of my existence but it makes little difference. How'd you expect to get back without someone qualified operating this ship?"

"Who are you?" Alex asked, his tone leaking some of his irritation.

"That doesn't matter," said the AI. "We must get this ship back to UDAS controlled space as fast as possible. Please keep the survivors from making any transmissions that the Creepers would pick up on. If this ship becomes infested, I must self-destruct the ship."

"Why weren't we told we were carrying an AI?"

"It's a need to know basis," the AI answered. "Wait... I'm picking up a transmission from the battle."

The wolves waited patiently but Alex's quickly grew frustrated. He knew, just like all of them, that there was something on this ship that the Intelligence wanted retrieved. Whatever it was, it was secretive enough that they couldn't even tell the wolves what their true mission was.

"Well?" Alex asked, his patience spent.

"The creature called a Klienestov is there," answered the AI. "The one that the Guardian, Velsh'nark, called Aggressor. The Guardian fleet is surprised and confused because the Drach'n Fleet has reported the appearance of a second Klienestov."