FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Revealed: Chapter 16

The inside of the station was dark. Darker than it should have been. Our headlights turned on automatically and illuminated the now airless halls. I had expected a flurry of bullets to meet us as the defenders tried to force us out, but that didn't happen.

"Fourth team is in." Mathews called out over the radio. "This part of the station appears abandoned." We all continued towards the center of the station. There were no blueprints or handily placed maps to guide us. We were going in blind with the sole objective to capture Louis Jostens. Everything else was secondary and would be dealt with accordingly afterwards.

"Roger that." Teresa huffed. "It's the same here. Not looking good."

"Dido." Krauss also answered. "How about you team one?"

"This is Major Becotte, we've got positive contacts and are meeting heavy resistance." He was breathing hard and that made his French accent barely understandable. "Must have punched through where they least expect it. Some of them weren't able to get their helmets on in time. Ugly bastards they are."

"All teams keep moving forward. Team two, see if you can't find the Major and assist him." Being the highest ranking officer, Mathews was clearly in charge of everyone else.

"Copy that." Krauss answered.

"All teams switch to group frequency and report in only if there is a new development."

With a few presses of a button on my wrist, I was linked to the radio frequency that would serve only this team.

I was plunged into silence. There was just corridor after corridor of empty halls. There were signs that there were people here before they left. Scattered bits of papers and even a cup of coffee that was spilt. It was starting to look like the Eurasia. All that was missing was the hordes of ferals.

We continued on this path until we began to come across sealed doors. They were airlocks that could be closed to seal off different parts of the station in case of decompression. Since we were no in an airless environment, cutting through the doors was not an option. We couldn't risk emptying the entire station of air. A few sectors decompressed during the initial breach was inevitable, doing that to an entire station, although effective, was overkill and brutal.

"Thompson!" Mathews barked over the radio. One of the twenty featureless soldiers immediately straightened up and went to the front.

"Yes sir." He said emotionlessly.

"I want this door open without killing everyone." Mathews banged on the door, but I couldn't hear anything due to the lack of sound.

Thompson pulled out a device with two wires from one of the many pouches that were attached to his armor and then pulled the cover off of the command console next to the door. After plunging the two wires into the exposed console, the device came on and gave of a blue light. Thompson busied himself with that and the rest of us waited.

"This doesn't feel right sir." One of the soldiers spoke up as we waited for the doors.

"Elaborate."

"This whole place is empty. I mean shouldn't there have been security of some sort?" It was what I was feeling too. This wasn't right. Major Becotte was facing stiff resistance, why weren't we?

"Don't know son and I don't..." The General shined his light down the corridor behind us as if he saw something. We all looked down. Our lights couldn't pierce the airless blackness that surrounded us.

"What did you see?" I asked. My heart was racing again, this was all too familiar.

"I'm not sure." He answered questioningly. "I want everyone on full alert and Thompson! Hurry up with that door."

Thompson quickened his pace and we all bunched up. There was only one way to get to us and that was straight down the corridor. All of our eyes were focused on the blackness.

"Contact!" I jumped and so did several others. It was Krauss.

"Report." Mathews demanded.

"We're not alo..." The radio turned to static. The buzzing of it filled m helmet and I quickly turned it back to the squad frequency. A red signal came up on my hud.

"We're being jammed." One of the soldiers had a backpack with a large antennae coming out of it. He had taken it off and was now turning various knobs on it, trying to reconnect. "No good."

Great. Another thing that was like the Eurasia.

"Stay focused." Mathews went back to Thompson and bugged him some more.

I stared into the black. Krauss was going to say that we weren't alone. But, what was out there? More soldiers that stayed behind to flank us, or something worse? We were about to find out.

"I've got something coming in hot on short range radar... Scratch that, lots of contacts." This man was holding a large screen with a handle out in front of him. There was a mass of dots coming at us. There were too many for clunky soldiers, especially in the tight confines of the station. It was something worse, much worse.

The first one came into the light. It looked like some sort of hairless dog. That was at first glance, before Crane shot it right through the left eye. As it tumbled, I saw that it had human hands and feet. I shivered internally before opening up as well because it was not alone.

The corridor lit up like some disco ball as super-heated metal ammunition was shot at supersonic speeds into the mass of flesh that was coming at us. There were so many of them that my bad aim was now rendered null. Each bullet went right into what seemed to be a writhing and pulsing wall of bodies that was slowly coming at us despite our best efforts.

Poor Thompson. His fingers were tapping madly at his device as he tried to get the door open. He was yelling and cursing, but so was everyone else. No matter how much discipline a person had, there was nothing that could prepare you for this ungodly sight. Even General Mathews was spewing out a string of pretty vile banter.

With each second, the wall moved closer. Each one that was killed seemed to be shoved to the back and was immediately replaced by two more. It was utter madness.

"I got it." I somehow heard Thompson's fanatic yelling over everyone else's. My back was washed with glorious white light.

"Fall back." Mathews ordered and we slowly began to move back into the airlock. We kept up the hail of death. They were surging forward and only we were keeping them from simple washing us. It was like trying to beat back the waves of the ocean with a stick. I hitting the ocean with about twenty sticks at once at three hundred rpm counted for something.

As soon as the last man was in, the door shut. It wasn't a large airlock and we were shoulder to shoulder, but alive.

"Holy shit on a stick." A man cried out and then we all just started laughing. I don't know who was the first, but it was contagious. Though, it wasn't mirth in our laughter, it was fear. You know that kind of laugh you did when something really freaky just happened?

The sudden sound of scratching at the door shut us up real quick. The airlock was pressurizing again, letting us hear the noises from the other side.

"Sounds like an orgy."

"Not the kind you're thinking of." Crane threw back and we all stared for a bit, our imaginations running wild.

"Enough of this. I don't like close spaces." Mathews' voice got our attention. "Thompson, need you to open another door for us."

"With pleasure sir." Thompson squeezed his way past us and got to the door. He did the same thing, stabbing the two wires into the panel that he exposed.

It didn't take as long this time. He had the doors open, but we were met with another sight that wasn't favorable.

A single shot hit Thompson in the face plate and I saw a bit of blood and a tooth come out of the hole. He fell forward into the corridor that contained no less than thirty Jostens soldiers. Some had the digitigrade legs that gave away their mutated conditions, but there were some with normal legs as well.

Every one of us immediately had our guns raised. The people in the front were kneeling, allowing the people behind to aim over them.

"No hold on there." A Jostens solder who wasn't wearing a helmet stepped in front. No one lowered their guns. He had short blonde hair and a square chiseled face. "No one else needs to die, just had to get your attention." He smiled, the barrel of his gun still smoking.

"Who the hell are you?" Mathews slid his faceplate up. He was seething.

"You can call me Garry." He did a silly bow. "I'm the head of security for this fine establishment here."

"You're welcoming party was less than fine."

"Oh yes, the guard dogs. They are fascinating aren't they?" He pranced a bit. This was truly an odd man. "Genetic manipulation and cloning vats can do marvelous things. Those things don't even have to breathe, but they do have a rather ravenous appetite."

That would explain how they came at us back there.

"Now." His smile faded now that pleasantries were over. He raised his gun at us. "Surrender."

It was completely silent. The only thing I could hear was the breathing of everyone around me and some of the scratching form the door. It was up to General Mathews. Trying to fight back was suicide now that they had us cornered. I couldn't think of a way out.

An explosion from down the corridor which sent some of Garry's men flying broke the silence. Several of the Josten's soldiers turned around and started firing down there, away from us. It was all we needed.

Mathews fired first. The shot hit Gary in the side of his head as he looked down the corridor to see what was happening. It took the side of his head off and he went spinning, like a falling ballerina before he fell with a thud.

I opened fire into the filled corridor and so did everyone else. We began to move out of the airlock before the stunned and now leaderless Jostens soldiers could react. They began to fall like flies, but eventually they did return fire.

One of the people beside me fell, his arm gone with the side of his chest opened up. The Jostens used high caliber, semi-automatic rifles that easily tore through body armor. Luckily our weapons were designed with armor piercing in mind and they didn't fare so well either.

The fierce skirmish was over quickly, leaving all of them dead and six of ours dead as well, including Thompson.

Then came Teresa and her soldiers. They had caused the explosion that gave us the distraction we needed to get out of that mess.

"Someone order the cavalry." She hoisted he rifle onto her shoulder and struck a pose. Her armor was splattered with blood and she had significantly fewer soldiers with her than back on the Columbia.

"What happened, report?" Mathews got up. He had been assessing the dead and collecting their dog tags. Pocketing the tags, he regarded her with a look of relief that turned a bit cold when he saw her own losses.

"It's not pretty." She dropped the pose, getting more serious. "We were flanked when we were getting through a door. We couldn't fire fast enough and took some losses there. Then we heard a shot and came to investigate."

Mathews nodded. "Weird dog like creatures?"

Teresa nodded. "Crazy shit going on here, but my men are good to go now." In response her soldiers stood at attention and gave a "hurrah".

"Good, we need to get to Louis Jostens quickly and end this." The rest of the Spec Enforcers gathered around.

"We found a map and scanned it, I'll transfer the data over now." She did so and a map of the station appeared on all of our huds. "The old bastard is probably holed up in his office near the center." The center of the map lit up.

"All right then." Mathews announced. "Let's get moving."