FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

*Disclaimer* All Location, Names and Characters are © Jordan P. Unless Otherwise Noted

The Retalian race and original concept is © Tom M.

December 2004 *Disclaimer*

Authors Note: This is the first chapter of of a story series, I don't know how long the series is going to be but any feedback would be very appreciated or if you see any mistakes or misuse of words. And yes I realize that there are no Anthro's in the first chapter but I am introducing the main characters in their own chapters, the next chapter will be introducing the other main character which is Reptilian. Also if you would like to beta read or proofread the next or following chapters just send me an email. Expect the next chapter in a few days.

*Edit January '05* Fixed Minor spelling, punctuation and sentence flow errors.

Chapter 1

Friday July 13, 2009 A.D.

Clino, Acacia - The Forest planet

Jack, at 18 years of age, sat in front of a computer monitor surfing the net. He'd been in front of a computer most of his life on the planet Acacia. His eyes darted quickly back and forth across the screen, searching for any interesting news on the Universal News Source, or U.N.S. No more than 5'8" he was rather stout for his lifestyle, no thanks in part to his father. His dirty blonde hair hung loosely on his head, some stray strands dangling past his eyebrows unnoticed. Normally he wasn't ever interested in the news, but this was different.

For the past week the majority of the populace on Acacia was constantly searching for any scrap of news about the suddenly bright light that lit the night sky to daylight status. It was estimated that the explosion occurred two light years from Acacia. So the explosion really happened two years ago and it wasn't until a week earlier that Acacia had been affected by the blast. Probes capable of faster-than-light travel were sent with video streaming and recording capabilities to investigate the explosion and were bound to arrive at the site any day, or any hour.

Acacia was situated approximately two and a half lights years from the edge of the Milky Way galaxy and any other beyond. So the sudden catastrophic explosion, which the government swears it had nothing to do with, could be of alien origin; which would explain Acacia's fears.

As Jack's eyes darted across the varying ads and flashing banners he finally saw something that caught his eye. A news ticker near the top of the page scrolled silently by in plain black text; 'Deep space probes have picked up imagery from the site of an apparently catastrophic explosion for those involved. Images not yet released show a massive ship spilt completely in half from what is assumed to be the explosion that was seen a week ago. Many smaller vessels have been photographed and appear to have been flash burned by the immense explosion while others seem to have been part of a chain reaction. However, the significance of these images is proof of another intelligent species in a galaxy next door.'

Another species? The thought was insane! For the longest time man had been looking to the stars for other species or intelligent beings and finally all those efforts were for nothing as 'they' had drawn us to themselves. Jack copied the message that was now scrolling by once more and posted it on a forum he frequented and waited. It wasn't long before he received replies of people who were ecstatic about the discovery and others who figured the aliens were hostile.

Over the course of the next few days people posted ideas and descriptions of what the aliens would look or be like. Some even posted rather wild or inventive doodles or artworks. Jack, after reading the pages upon pages of replies, finally brought it all down to one question and spoke aloud as he typed the words meticulously so as to make no mistake.

"The real question is," Jack spoke aloud,"are they friendly or hostile?" He tapped the enter key on his keyboard and locked the topic he had been posting in for the past few days so people would ponder the idea instead of posting stupid comments. Jack leaned back in his chair and spun around. "Are they friendly or hostile?"

*******

"I still don't get it," the man standing in front of Jack said. Jack sighed and slouched back against the car's black hood.

"What's there to get? So no more UFO's have showed up in three months, whoop-de-fuckin' do," Jack said seriously. Three months ago the mysterious causer of the massive explosion that turned night to day for many Acacian's was discovered to be a vessel of alien origin. In that short period of three months thousands of technicians and scientists had pored over the inside and outside of the ship studying the interiors and construction of the vessel. The strangest part of the work was that no remains of the aliens were left behind; just hollow passageways and living quarters. Nor was there any sign of what their culture was like or of what they looked like. The only real assumption that could be proved through evidence was that the creatures might be bipedal and have either a tail or some other appendage because all of the cockpit seats and chairs about the ships had holes in the bends of them. Jack's friend leaned against the car alongside of Jack and flipped his long, brown hair out of his eyes.

"Doesn't it seem weird to you that after one of their ships scuttled itself with no crew that they would send a team to find the ships? Or why we haven't left our galaxy to go find them?" Jack's friend ended with a deep breath and an exasperated look on his face.

"Where should I start? Politics, money, conspiracy theorists, take your pick. Besides Rob," Jack spoke looking over to his friend, "I'm sure we'll be seeing more of these 'intelligent, bipedal beings,' as the news would say." Rob flicked his wrist and looked down at his watch, checking the time. Looking back to the slowly sinking sun he pulled away from the car and walked to the driver's side door.

"Well we can talk later; I have to go to my job unlike some people. And last word of advice," Rob began but stopping to make sure Jack was listening. "Don't ever work a graveyard shift!"

Rob opened the car door and got inside. He started the engine and began to pull out of the long drive way, waving out the window as he left. Once the vehicle was no longer in view Jack turned and walked back up to the small house he lived in with his mother and younger 15 year old sister. The battered front door squealed as it was opened and once more as Jack pulled it shut.

"Are you ever going to fix that door," Jack heard his mother call from somewhere in the house.

"One of these days," Jack replied walking into his room and shutting the door behind him. He dropped down into his chair and went back to his usual slouched position and went to the UNS's website, as part of his daily ritual, to check up on the latest news on the recovery process of the alien vessels. Nothing new besides the usual rant on the technology of the aliens being superior in laser and plasma weaponry but reports of discovered weapons caches showed that they were equipped largely with ballistic weaponry. Plasma and laser weapon systems seemed to be largely ship based defenses. But there was a new option on the site. It seemed that the live feeds from the probes that were situated around the wreckage were now open for public viewing. Jack clicked the link to the video feed for Probe 36 in Quadrant 12. A new window popped up and the feed optimized and faded in revealing a wide view of the entire carcass of the massive behemoth. Jack watched the various Human ships drifting around the larger alien vessels. Ten minutes passed and boredom was setting in. Jack was just about to close the window when a blue aura began to enlarge and brighten off to the left edge of the probes viewing range. Quickly Jack set to finding a better view and found one that was perfectly situated. Probe 18 in Quadrant 3. He could see part of the scuttled vessel and the strange aura that was developing a good distance from the various activities around the destroyed ship.

The blue-white light pulsed as it swirled clockwise in on itself. Suddenly in a blindingly bright flash of intense white light another frigate materialized. The frigate was the same size as the one that was ripped in half. Suddenly Jack had a bad feeling about the sudden appearance of another of these alien vessels so close to the graveyard of the first.

As the frigate moved through the vacuum of space more of the blue auras began to form all around the first vessel. More intense flashes of light were the precursor to the appearance of five more frigates just as large as the previous. Thousands more, but much smaller, auras spawned around the six frigates and thousands of fighter craft and other unknown ships began to appear all around the frigates.

The first and forward most frigate appeared to be slowing its forward motion. The ship's bow began to glow, changing from a deep purple to a light blue and slowly through the spectrum of color until it stopped on white. With no sound what so ever the ship released the built up energy and in less than a second the bolt of pure, white light tore through the wrecked vessel and continued on. The beam passed completely through the largest human ship at the site which was half the size of the frigate. The beam of light tore through the ship from bow to stern. The ship listed backwards and erupted in a ball of super heated plasma as the antimatter drive was destroyed. The metal of the ship melted from the antimatter explosion and the white hot beam that put a hole through the ship. There were no survivors.

Jack stared wide eyed at the image. He had just watched a single beam of light annihilate a ship almost instantaneously. The now enemy frigate continued its journey forward as the fighters that surrounded it destroyed the entire human fleet of recovery ships. Finally another of the alien frigates sent a beam of white light into the scuttled frigate. The battle, if it could even be called such a thing, lasted little more than four minutes from the moment the ships materialized to the moment they put a white bolt of light through one of their fallen.

Suddenly Jack noticed that the site was registering probes as being 'offline due to equipment malfunction.' He looked back to the stream he was watching in time to see a small sliver of white light come straight into the camera on the probe. The stream turned into a haze of static and the same message came up as the static cut away to black. "Oh my god," Jack muttered to himself. He had his question answered with a flash of white light. These aliens, this species, didn't like Humans.

The thought of war and the genocide of the Human race set into Jack's mind. Jack left his chair and walked over to his closet and slid the heavy wooden door along its track to reveal a six foot tall, four foot deep jet black safe. The safe stood ominously alone in the closet. Jack quickly spun in the memorized combination, 6-66-6. His father, who had originally owned the safe, had always had a dark sense of humor.

An almost inaudible click echoed inside the massive safe as the last number fell into its resting place. Jack grasped the silver handle and pushed it down gently. Slowly the door began to swing open from its own weight and with the help of Jack. Inside the safe was a huge array of weaponry and ammo, enough to make any Special Forces operative piss themselves. The majority of the guns were assault rifles and sidearms.

Jack had been shooting all varieties of guns since he was a mere 7 years old. His father had been in a very small, elite Special Forces group that saw action on four different planets. Quelling uprisings in the local population and thwarting the efforts of terrorists to collapse the newly founded governments on the fledgling planets. While his father had been in the service he had fought in over one-hundred and twenty battles, ranging from quick skirmishes to full scale wars. He had been fighting for over 20 years but was finally shot and killed on his last mission three years ago.

After his father had died the military called his family to a meeting to go over his will and to see what was to be left to whom. His father had left Jack an account with over four thousand dollars and the safe with its own stockpile of weapons and ammo. The contents of the safe easily breaking the million dollar mark in its worth. The account had a note that it was only to be used on 'the purchase of ammunition and the upkeep of weapons.' Jack was left one of the oddest things; a small oak wood box little larger than the palm of his hand. Inside the carved box was a cheap cell phone and a small yellow stained piece of paper with a phone number and a note saying 'For emergency use only.

Jack reached inside the safe and lifted the wooden box from its resting place on a shelf. The dust that had settled on top of the wood fell from it as the box opened silently. Jack took the piece of paper and cell phone from the box and closed it then put it back into its previous location on the shelf. Carefully Jack dialed the number exactly as it was on the paper and put the phone to his ear. As the phone rung Jack hoped that some of his father's old SF buddies were still in the business.