FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

CHAPTER 11 The Blue Comet: Part I

"Perimeter reached. Get ready to be brought in..." A voice echoed from the main panel of the D.E Explorer Vessel, Pioneer001, as well as the three Wolf500 Fighters. Within the darkness of space, a massive disc shaped structure slowly made itself present. It was hard to tell how big it was or what distance it had from our location. The massive Battle Cruiser R105 slowly filled our vision field. Not even a fraction of Canis Major in size, but still with its 20 kilometers in diameter it was not short of colossal.

Minutes before, the team and I had left the D.E cruiser to start Phase 2 of the previously planed mission to the comet.

As we got closer to the Retcan R Cruiser, a slight vibration followed by an indicator in our panels, indicated us that we were being hauled into R105 by the hangar operators.

"Engines at idle, D.E Team..." The same voice from minutes ago indicated us.

I rapidly took the accelerator knob into idle position and disengaged the engine's power from the propulsion system. "I'll take it from here." The voice once again indicated.

On our screens, R105 was now barely visible since it now covered almost our entire field of vision; the highly advanced light absorbent black finish made it even harder to see. I switched to the visual enhance mode just like I did a few days ago when we crossed the asteroid field so the altered contrast could make the massive ship visible; once I did, a massive wall appeared in front of me.

A few more minutes after, when we were even closer, a blue horizontal line of light suddenly dissected a very large area across R105. This line seemed to be opening itself more as we got closer. Before we knew it, we crossed that blue glare of light and the interior of R105's main hangar made itself present. We where in...

"Once your ships are docked, feel free to leave them. Welcome to R105..." The voice once again informed through our ship's speakers.

Not two minutes passed and our ships were finally in rest mode next to other Retcan ships.

As I safely got out of my Wolf500, I noticed something strange; the blue light at the hangar was impressive, yet difficult to explain. It made everything so clear and bright, but at the same time it didn't felt bright enough to hurt our eyes. It was like if it didn't illuminated the place, but only enhanced one's vision of it, coloring everything in the most beautiful blue hue. It was also very odd that it almost didn't produce any shadows and it was hard to tell where it came from.

As I carefully inspected my surroundings, Fx suddenly appeared next to me. "This is beautiful, don't you think?" He said amazed by the sights and sounds.

"Certainly far more impressive than I thought it would be." I replied.

Indeed it was the first time that we set paw in R105. Only K9 and another few Evos have had the pleasure of visiting the Retcan ship. We had seen images of it, but being there was something else.

As we looked around, Andy joined us. He didn't say much. There were simply too many things to see at the same time.

We noticed the huge gate of almost 100 meters long that we came in from, as it was closing down slowly not making the slightest sound. What got my attention is that the room was pressurized although the gate that led to space was opened. A careful examination made it obvious that there was some sort of energy field separating the vacuum from the pressurized environment that we were in.

Soon enough, the Dingoes and K9 joined us. They were far from our location since Pioneer001 was placed together with bigger ships.

"You look dazed, team." K9 said. "I have to confess that although it's not my first time here, I am still very impressed..."

"This ship is overwhelming. I always thought that Canis Major looked incredible after the remodeling when comparing it with images of the old one, and that the D.E cruiser was impressive, but this is in a different level." Kala confessed. She and her brother were walking around in circles admiring the place.

"You could only imagine how the Retcan's home world would look like..." Zulu added as he stared at the ceiling that stood almost eighty meters from our head. Just like in Canis Major's hangars.

"Lusceonis is not as impressive as these ships, I'm afraid..." A voice made itself audible from a distance.

As we looked to where that voice came from, we saw a Retcan approaching.

"It's actually quite boring if you compare it with this... but there is nothing like it." The male Retcan smiled as he finally stood next to us. "Greetings, Evos. My name is Shadow. Welcome to R105."

_ _A brown furred Retcan with white markings smiled and bowed at us. His light green eyes expressed wisdom.

"Shadow, I do remember you. I'm so glad to see you again." K9 said. Apparently he knew him from his previous visits to R105.

"And I'm glad to see you again, Kalem. And you brought a couple of friends with you." He smiled at us.

"...Kalem?" I whispered to myself.

"Yes. I do have quite a small team, but you have no idea how helpful these youngsters have been. This is Husky, his brother Fx, Kala and Zulu..."

"Twins... cute." Shadow said smiling.

"Yes... And the big guy here is Anubis." K9 presented us.

"You can call me Andy. Everybody does." Andy interrupted.

"Very well, D.E team. You know what they say; 'Quality is better than quantity', and I see quality in this small team. I'm glad you decided to do this, my friends." Once again the Retcan smiled friendly. "Come with me, please."

We followed Shadow inside the ship. He walked at a very relaxed pace with his arms behind him all the time as he talked about the ship and answered all the questions that we threw at him. Occasionally we would stop to meet with various Retcans that were passing by and were pleased with our sudden visit.

I felt so happy. Being around our friends the Retcans was such a beautiful experience. They are so much like us, to the point were it felt like if we belonged to the same species. The chemistry between us was beautiful. This was the first time I was actually in front of so many Retcans.

"We are here, my friends. This is the Engineering Bay. You've been informed by the Captain that you will be given environmental armor suits so you can join us in the exploration mission."

"Yes, Shadow. Captain Silver informed us a few days ago. I spoke with Titan and he told me that the armors were ready."

"Indeed they are. Which reminds me, Commander Titan will be here in a moment. If you excuse me...I..."

It was strange. Shadow started to grunt a bit, and I could see pain in his eyes. He immediately sat down in a bench and started gasping. It really worried us.

"Shadow, what's wrong?" K9 said very worried. It was not only the friendship that we felt for them, but the fact that he's a medic made him react that way.

"It's fine... Don't worry about me." He said, panting a bit. "I'm ok... Even though many decades have passed after what happened to me in the Invasion War of Lusceonis, I still feel the effects now and then... It's very discomforting sometimes." Shadow confessed as he wiggled his paw toes.

"May I ask what happened?" K9 asked concerned.

"I don't know if you would want to hear it. It's not pleasant at all."

K9 sat down next to Shadow and placed is arm around him. We also sat with him.

"Ok... I'll tell you." He finally accepted after K9 insisted. "I used to be a Retcan warrior... high rank officer. Many of the Retcan warriors that you see here, even their leader were once trained by me and under my command. Unfortunately I suffered an injury that almost took my life. I was attacked by one of our enemies, and he... he cut both of my legs..."

I was shocked. I almost felt my heart sink when hearing this. The Retcans are almost like our brothers and to imagine one of them suffering something like that broke my heart.

"Left one above the knee; right one below."

I couldn't understand. I was seeing his paw toes and they seemed to be of flesh and bone. Shadow rolled up his pant sleeves and there was nothing that made it evident that something was missing. It was so strange.

"I'm fine now. It took almost a month for the medics to regenerate them, not counting the time that it takes to do a full cell mapping and DNA programming in the Stem Cell Regenerator... But I don't know..." He sighed. "I sometimes feel the bone shattering pain again..."

"But are you ok, Shadow? Have you received treatment?" K9 asked very concerned as he noticed a tear building up in Shadow's eye.

"It's nothing physical, I'm afraid. Besides the weakness of my lower limbs, I'm fine. It's my brain and nervous system that took a hard hit when that happened."

After what seemed to be a spontaneous period of pain, Shadow stood up like if nothing had happened.

"I'm fine, my friends. Sorry if I worried you."

"Are you sure?" K9 asked.

"Yes... As fast as it comes, it then disappears. So where were we? Oh, yes. Titan should be here at any time. I have to head back. I'm Head Chief in Hangar Operations and today it will be a very busy day."

Shocked as we still were, Shadow left the place. He did looked fine and seemed to be in control of his problem, so we tried not to worry anymore.

Soon after that we walked through the Engineering Bay, we heard someone yell at us from behind.

"Evos!" Two Retcans approached us. One had light beige fur with very light blue eyes and the other one was an entirely black Retcan with a white mark in the head and yellow eyes.

"Finally you made it! I was waiting for you." The male beige Retcan greeted us. I noticed a different badge in his uniform shirt, like if he was someone very important in R105.

"Commander Titan." K9 saluted him. "We came as fast as we could."

"And I'm glad you did." He replied with a very elegant deep tone of voice.

"Where are my manners? Titan, this is my crew: Husky, Fx, Kala, Zulu and Anubis." K9 presented us.

"It's a pleasure, my friends. I'm Titan. I am Captain Silver's brother, second in charge of R105 and Chief Engineering Scientist." Titan courteously bowed his head.

"The honor is ours, Commander." I replied. I guess I spoke for everyone.

As he offered me his handpaws to greet me in a more friendly matter, I somehow felt like Titan and I would have more stories to tell in the future. I really don't know why, but I just felt it. Didn't know him, but I felt so much fascination for him. Being the Chief Engineering Scientist in a massive ship like R105 meant that he knew many things that I would love to learn.

"This is Storm. He will be serving you some company while you descent to the Comet. Please, come with me."

We started walking until we got to a room where many armors and devices were being displayed.

"I know we agreed that you were going to be doing the second entry by yourselves again, but I need to gather some information in the way in. Storm is one of the best pilots in R105 and he is in charge of ship maintenance and tuning. If you need to know anything about any ship, then Storm is the one that you need to ask."

"It will be a pleasure to work with you, my friends." The black furred Retcan replied. He seemed very young, and although he was mentioned to be the best pilot in R105, he didn't carry the badge that fighter pilots did.

We finally stopped. In front of us, six armor suits stood.

"Here we are D.E crew. These are your new pressurized armor suits." Titan indicated.

I was again very impressed for what I saw. These were nothing like the PX500LD that we were wearing. The first thing I noticed was that the entire suit was made out of metal plates. I assumed it was Lantracit.

"This is the L3000E2. It's a pressurized environmental armor suit made to withstand any harsh environment where life wouldn't be possible. It not only serves as a life support suit, but has the same capabilities of the PX500LD. Obviously, this is much heavier and it takes a few hours to get accustomed with, so it's only reserved for special uses like the one that we are giving it in a few minutes. Please step forward and take off your PX500LD armor, but leave the inner PX overall suit on."

Titan helped us to put on the armors as he and Storm also did. The armor suit had a matte dark titanium blue finish with some dark grey accents, very different from the dark brown of the PX500LD.

"First thing that you will notice is that this armor covers you body entirely. You might think that because it has such a snug fit, it would be difficult to move, but although the mobility isn't as free as with the defense armor suits, it is incredibly flexible. This is thanks to a series of Lantracit meshes in the joints. Also, each plate is separated in various sections that slide between each other, enabling them to act at the same movement of your muscles." Titan explained as we finished putting on the armor.

"Please press the activation button." He directed us.

We pressed the button that he said, and all the armor started moving in almost hundreds of different places, at the same time that it was closing into an even snugger fit against our bodies.

"Please feel free to walk around to get accustomed. You'll be wearing this armor for at least a couple of hours from now on."

They were indeed heavy, but not as much as they looked. What surprised me the most was the fact that I could bend all my limbs without any effort, even though everything was made out of metal.

"You have all the same basic controls in one of you arms that you have in the PX500LD. The only difference is that everything will be also displayed inside your full helmets." Titan said, as he showed us a couple of helmets that were part of the armor.

This was the part that had the most difference when comparing with the Retcan version of the armor, since it was made to accommodate a longer muzzle.

"Inside, the display works the same way than with the ships. A 180 degree image of the outside will be projected inside the helmet. Also, you will be able to see a pressure gauge and oxygen gauge. Other gauges like energy and structural damage are optional and you can bring them up under demand. There will be a direct link to your ComPods just like with your PX500LD, and information like a radar, map or status on your teammates will be displayed via the ComPod directly through the visor. There are six internal speakers so small that fit in your ear area. These will provide a 360 degree audio range of your surroundings, including real-time voice location from your teammates."

Everything else worked the same way than with the PX500LD. It had the same LED diodes of variable intensity, but this armor included a thermal and night vision mode also.

"We will be leaving R105 in a few minutes." Titan informed. "Husky, Fx, Anubis will leave first. Storm will join your formation. The rest of us will be in the comet in twenty minutes. Please be ready."

My hand-paws felt moist from the nervousness, since that's the only place were we perspire from. My stomach was once again pressed against my insides from the adrenaline. This was it, and there was no turning back.

Everything happened so fast, from being in Canis Major living the happy worry-free life, and now I was in R105's hangar opening the hatch of my Wolf500 to embark ourselves into one magnificent experience that we would treasure for the rest of our lives.

"Clear the launch area immediately." Shadow's voice echoed through the hangar.

"Ready team. Followed as planned." Titan indicated us, nodding at Storm after that.

I felt even more nervous as K9, the twins and Titan cleared the area.

"Good luck, team. I believe in you." K9 said as he was walking away.

It was only Storm, Andy, my brother and I.

"You have been informed of the plan, Evos. Do not worry, I will be leading the way and I will be by your sides you all the time." Storm directed to us as he grabbed his helmet and placed it on. We did the same.

For a second, nothing was visible, but then just like in the ships, an image of our surroundings appeared. The helmet wasn't uncomfortable at all, and it actually sharpened our vision.

One by one we got in our ships and followed the activation procedure. The time had come.

"Hangar sub-gate B2 is ready when you are, pilots." Shadow's voice was heard from our helmet speakers.

"Roger that, my old friend." Storm replied_._ "Lets do this, team." He then directed to us.

Again we were out in space, on our way to the mysterious Blue Comet. This time it wouldn't be a sightseeing trip; this will be a landing maneuver in unknown terrain. Not only that, but we would set paw on it being the first time for the Evocanis to walk on foreign solid ground...