FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Their engines rumbled gently as the shiny aircrafts flew through the corners of space slowly. The pilots could see the orange glow in the distance, the giant Z-shaped nebula fully visible to them all. The dogs knew it was risky, being so close to Venom. They knew constructing a base in the middle of a sector so dangerous was near impossible, almost suicidal. But that's exactly why it was there. Everyone knew there was nothing cleverer than hiding in plain sight, than spying on the enemy while being so close to them that they could tell whenever someone on Venom scratched their nose. It all seemed perfect.

"Laurence here. No problems," said the canine.

Laurence winced after hearing his partner scream over the comms channel. "Roger that! Heading over to patrol Sector C!"

Laurence closed his eyes and sighed. "You don't gotta shout, Togen. We can hear you just fine over the headsets."

"Gotcha!"

The golden retriever sighed. He tilted the flight stick towards the left, heading for the floating base that had a few ships flying out of it. It wasn't large or anything complex--the base was mostly a series of giant floating facilities connected with various bridges. The main section of the base was a massive rectangular area with two small bridges connecting to the armory and the control room. Various debris floating around the sector were used to set up satellites and antennas, along with other communication devices they used to monitor chatter over Venom's frequencies. A few spike-like protrusions jutted out of the base, the spikes giving off faint blue lights periodically. Laurence glanced around the barren sector of space and looked at the floating generators, giant spherical-like objects that glowed purple and gave off energy. Everything seemed normal so far, up until the retriever looked at his radar and noticed a few strange blips.

"Hey, Togen. You seeing this?"

"Yeah! Looks like a few bogeys! Wanna take 'em out?"

Laurence sighed. "Just get more planes out here. They might be wanderers or pirates--no need to escalate this any--"

Laurence froze when he saw another small blip on the radar. He looked ahead and noticed a volley of missiles heading right for him, and the base. The canine shouted and swiftly jerked the flight stick down, dipping his starfighter fast enough before the missiles hit. All the explosive projectiles stopped in mid-space, either slamming into debris or exploding once their timers ran out. Laurence started to pant and immediately got back onto his comms channel.

"Alert! Alert! Alert! This is Laurence; we're under fire! Activate the generators; shut all the gates now!"

All the starfighters started to head straight for the base, attacking any of the Cornerian pilots in sight. Laurence found himself heading straight for some of the fighters, firing off a few laser shots as he tried to hit the dark blue and black striped aircrafts. The retriever started to pant, feeling sweat running down his face as he chased after one of the starfighters. He could hear various pilots chattering over the comms channel; some of them were shouting to get the gates shut, while others were trying to protect the generators. Laurence tuned them all out, only focusing on the target in front of him. He tightened his grip on the flight stick as he tilted his ship forward, still hitting the boost and firing his laser. One of the warning lights was going off, alerting him that his ship's engines were beginning to overheat. Laurence grumbled and stopped boosting, listening to his engine winding down as the exhaust began to cool. The retriever swore when the fighter began to fly away, only for another one to show up coming straight for him. The dog yelped and fired off several laser shots at the exact same time as the enemy.

Laurence shut his eyes and turned away when the ship exploded and he flew right through the wreckage. But he could hear a few alarms going off again and knew his starfighter was partially damaged. The canine thought about heading back into the base up until he spotted one of the generators being attacked. Three ships were circling around the generator, flying straight towards them before swerving under or over them, unleashing all their laser power into the machine. The generator whirred and activated its self-defense mechanism, delivering a massive blue bolt of electricity that incinerated one of the ships instantly. The other two pilots could see what the generator was doing and retreated, heading right for Laurence. The golden retriever grinned as he charged up his laser cannon and fired, watching as the green ball of energy soared through the air, hitting one of the ships. One of them exploded, while the other one was so close to the blast that the ship caught on fire and began to dip. Laurence exhaled before he started looking for more targets and witnessed more ships being destroyed.

"Togen! Where the heck are you?! All the generators are under attack!"

Laurence kept looking around for his teammates and evaded enemy fire when he could. And while all that was happening, a grayish-brown coyote was sitting idly by in his orange starfighter, watching all the carnage commence. Damien blinked as he and the other four Fireflies hung back at a distance, their ships gently hovering in the air releasing exhaust. The coyote could hear enemy and friendly chatter over the comms channel; he even watched as a few of the primates' faces showed up on screen. But none of that was relevant. The coyote sniffed and tapped a few fingers on the console, blinking and waiting, examining all the small explosions near the base. He listened as one of his Fireflies sighed heavily over the comms channel.

"Can we please go out there and do sssssomething?!" asked Viper.

Damien shook his head. "No. Just follow the plan."

Sally found herself cracking her knuckles and snorting. "I'm with Viper, Boss. We gotta do something other than sittin' over here letting our butts get sore. 'Sides, we'll save more of Andrew's soldiers this way."

"Which is exactly why we're not going to help them. Not until the generators go down."

Viper groaned loudly again as he leaned back in his seat, only to hear someone sneeze behind him. The snake shut his eyes and sighed heavily again.

"That was very close to my head, Donald."

The chimpanzee sniffled. "Sorry man. Not my fault I'm crammed in the back seat of this thing. What's all this crusty stuff back here anyway? Did you shed your skin in here and not bother cleaning it out?"

Viper shook his head and ignored the chimp as he kept barking in his ear. The coyote disregarded his team's chatter and remained silent, still monitoring the chatter until he heard something valuable. Seconds turned to minutes, and the explosions in the distance became grander and grander. At one point the coyote saw one of the generators explode into two giant chunks, the floating debris emitting several blue sparks and bolts of electricity before the device crumbled into fiery pieces. Damien kept staring, listening, paying attention to everyone saying they were injured or requested assistance. He listened to ruffians screaming moments before their ships exploded. A small smile appeared on the canine's face when he saw another explosion in the distance, followed by laser fire. Some starfighters were spiraling out of control; others slammed into the base, disappearing in a huge fireball. Damien sighed, and then glanced down as he heard a scruffy monkey contact him.

"Sir, all the generators are down! The gates are open; this base is a sitting duck!"

Damien shut off his comms unit and grasped the flight stick. "Time to move."

Sally exhaled. "Finally!"

The Fireflies activated their boost and rushed forward, heading straight for the base. Somewhere near the floating center, Laurence was panting heavily, his ship damaged from battle. Smoke was filling up his ship, causing him to slowly suffocate as the fumes blinded him. His ship slowly moved forward, spewing sparks as Laurence tried to head back inside the base. He heard a strange scraping noise, like metal being bent or crushed. And then everything went black when his flight suit was bifurcated, along with his spine, his skull, his abdomen, groin, and neck. Lance tilted his ship back to its normal position after slicing through Laurence's aircraft with his ship's deadly right wing. And then Laurence's starfighter exploded, blowing apart the machine that had been cleaved in two. They all took too long to react. The few Cornerian pilots still alive were busy trying to head back to the base for repairs, only to be swiftly cut down by the Fireflies. Leo King launched one of his bombs, blasting away two ships that were missing both of their wings, while Sally and Viper only had to fire off a few shots from their dual laser cannons, the blue beams of energy turning the damaged starfighters into small, flaming debris.

It only took a few minutes before the Cornerian starfighters were decimated, at which point the Fireflies all headed straight for the base's entrance. Damien gathered up what was left of the ruffians accompanying him and got back on his comms channel.

"Remember: take out all the soldiers. We can't leave any witnesses or this whole mission is a failure. Everyone understand?"

Everyone replied loudly, including the other four Fireflies.

"Good. All units, attack!"

The Fireflies and what was left of the ruffians all zoomed into the base's main docking bay. They came into the base blasting, shooting off as much laser fire as possible to take out all the beasts on the floor. Several of them were blown apart by the lasers while others lost a limb or two and found themselves lying on the floor slowly bleeding to death. One Cornerian soldier acquired a homing launcher and immediately aimed for the invading starfighters. He fired a heat-guided rocket at a dark blue starfighter, hitting it on the left wing. An explosion blew a hole inside the fighter, causing it to descend until it slammed into the floor, shattering and spewing out smoke. Damien and the other Fireflies began to land, their starships whooshing gently as their ships landed within the docking bay. The coyote acted fast; he panted as he grabbed his blaster and machine gun, punching the large blue button that raised his ship's canopy. The second the canopy opened, Damien shouted and ducked down. Various gunshots and laser fire came his way; Damien swore as he continued to hide. The coyote heard fierce commotion and a few soldiers shouting or groaning as Damien held his weapons and waited.

The canine heard someone climbing onto his plane and snarled. He pointed his machine gun at the Cornerian soldier and fired, watching as the beast screamed and toppled back onto the floor. Damien noticed the soldiers stopped firing at his starfighter and quickly hopped out the plane. The second he landed on the floor Damien nearly covered his ears. Another rocket was fired, severely damaging one of the ruffians' starfighters and setting a fire within the hanger. Damien crouched down and took cover beside his plane, firing off a few shots from his blaster and hitting two of the soldiers running faster him.

"GET DOWN!"

Viper hopped out of his plane shooting, rolling around the floor before sprinting over towards a metal crate. Donald Laddon followed after him, panting as he jumped on top of a soldier and snapped his neck. The primate stole his grenades and weapon, tossing one of them far down the docking bay towards a few more soldiers. Damien joined up with the snake, side-stepping as he gunned down more soldiers and rolled along the floor twice. The coyote slid beside Viper and Donald and crouched down, wincing when two bullets whizzed by.

"Where's Leo and the others!?" Damien shouted.

"The--" Donald shouted when another volley of bullets was fired his way. The chimp quickly lifted his head to see who was firing, only to duck again when a long green laser blast almost took off one of his ears. "Gah, FORGET ABOUT 'EM; JUST START SHOOTING!"

Donald and Viper waited for most of the fire to stop before they both stood up and began to fire into the crowd. The deafening sound of laser fire and machine gun bullets soaring back and forth filled everyone's ears. A few Cornerian soldiers started to fall, drilled with holes from Viper's gunfire, while other enemies were falling down with ravaged bodies or giant holes in their chests. Damien heard a fearsome bang, a cross between laser fire and a small grenade exploding. He glanced to his right and saw Lance Skinner slowly walking forward, carrying a custom-designed shotgun in his hands that fired multiple streams of laser energy with each shot. The red alligator pulled the trigger twice, the lasers blasting through a soldier's stomach before the next round of lasers nearly took off another soldier's arm. He screamed and dropped his weapon, his arm only hanging on by the skin, the muscles, flesh and bone all exposed. The Cornerian canine still tried to pick up his fallen gun, ignoring all the blood gushing from his wound. But then Lance walked towards him and blasted him in the face, taking off his jaw in the process.

Damien stopped firing from his machine gun and took out his blaster, charging it up. He quickly stood up and aimed for one of the turrets on the wall, releasing his charged shot and destroying the turret with ease. He was about to stand up again when sniper fire nearly took his head off.

"SALLY! WE GOT A SNIPER!"

The lemur nodded. "On it!"

Stripes was already out of her ship, blasting away at her foes with her gun while carrying the rifle on her back. She crouched down near three metal crates and set the rifle down, panting as she looked around in the upper left corner of the docking bay. The lemur shouted when another laser beam soared through the air, almost cutting through her body. She ducked and crawled towards her left, changing her position as she took cover. Sally heard three loud clunks, followed by an explosion that forced her to cover her ears and eyes. The primate panted for a moment before hearing a meaty thud and feeling steam around her body. She opened her eyes back up and scowled, disturbed by the steaming ruffian soldier who was missing half of his face. Sally turned away and put her rifle back up on the crates, trying to calm her nerves. The lemur aimed at the same location, grinning now that her new vantage point gave her a perfect view of the sniper. She fired, and the red stream of laser energy sliced through the air--and the sniper's head, melting it right off his shoulders.

Sally ducked and began to crawl around the crates again, the sound of all the gunfire and laser beams gradually dying down. All her teammates were still alive and they still had a good amount of ruffian soldiers on their side. They just needed to make sure Donald got through it all alive or the whole mission would be voided. Sally stopped moving once a few bullets were fired her way. She took out her blaster and fired blindly over the containers, hearing a few grunts and knowing at least one soldier fell. The lemur rolled from her hiding spot, tumbling around the metal floor before she sprinted beside one of the docked starfighters. She hid behind the large aircraft, panting as she stood near Lance. Sally peeked around the corner of the starfighter, looking for more foes to shoot at. She crouched down with the rifle in hand, letting the air flow from her lungs, before she pulled the trigger on her rifle, hitting another soldier through the chest.

"Gimme that."

Sally stuttered when the rifle was jerked from her hands. Lance held the rifle firmly before he ran towards the crates and placed the sniper on top of them. He spotted one soldier trying to retreat, running backwards all while emptying the clip from his machine gun. Lance pressed down on the trigger--and hit the fleeing feline in the kneecap. The alligator watched as the spotted creature howled in pain and fell down on his back. He could see the feline's leg through the scope--steam was coming out of his kneecap, showing off the exposed bone and sizzling flesh. The feline tried to get up by only standing on his other leg. He wound up stumbling, panting as he grasped his wound. One of the feline's allies tried to help him, boldly running out into the open as he tried to pick up the feline. Lance responded by shooting the ally in the face, blowing a hole through his right eye socket. Another soldier attempted to haul the spotted feline over his body, carrying him over the shoulder. Lance blinked before he fired again, hitting the other soldier in the back, the laser leaving a hole that split his spine in two. Both creatures fell to the floor, with the wounded feline shouting once he landed on his leg again. And suddenly, all the laser fire, explosions, and gunfire stopped. Leo King panted as he peeked around the corner of the large column he was hiding behind and blinked.

"I think we're clear!" he shouted.

The remaining ruffians and Fireflies all met up in the middle of the hanger bay. Lance shoved Sally's rifle back in her face before he calmly walked over to the feline lying on the floor and pointed his shotgun at him. The soldier barely had time to raise his hand for mercy before Lance turned his skull into mush.

"Now we're clear," said the reptile.

Leo huffed and rolled his eyes. "How much time?"

Donald looked at his watch and blinked. "'Bout twenty minutes."

"Good. Okay, you, Viper, and Damien head through Gate B. Take some mercs with you--you're gonna need the backup. Lance, Sally and I will take the rest and head down through Gate D. We'll take out the communications there while you guys deal with the bulk of the remaining forces. We'll all meet up in the server room later, get the Intel, and leave."

"But not before we demolish this place," Damien added. "No point in leaving a base this secret out in the open any longer. It's a gnat buzzing around our heads; let's kill it now before it starts laying any eggs."

Leo raised an eyebrow after listening to the coyote, but shrugged nonetheless. "All right then. Move out!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Damien led the first team through Gate B. The ruffians and Fireflies all found themselves walking through a corridor with some of the alarms blaring, shining red lights around the halls. The coyote spotted a camera in the corner of the ceiling and shot at it before Damien heard footsteps in the distance. He held up a hand, signaling his men to freeze, before he scurried over towards the corner of the wall. Damien took out a knife and held it firmly, waiting until the sound of footsteps grew louder and louder. Thinking quickly, the coyote jerked his arm around and thrust forward, stabbing a soldier in the chest. The soldier shouted moments before Damien jerked him into the same corridor and proceeded to slash his throat. The soldier gurgled as he slid to the floor and bled out. Damien looked at the ruffians and exhaled.

"Get ready," he said.

One of the yellow monkeys snickered. "Oh yes. It is time for us to become a flyswatter, destroy all these gnats before they lay more eggs. Eh, Damien?"

The coyote flared his nostrils and blinked, staring at the primate with a stern gaze. He ignored him and turned around the corner, taking out his machine gun and aiming forward. That's when the canine heard a loud whir and looked up. His eyes grew wide once he saw the giant turret coming down from the ceiling, aiming at all of them. Damien was on the floor before he could shout "DOWN!" The turret whirred loudly as it released a hailstorm of bullets. Viper and Donald retreated around the corner of the wall while two ruffians were cut down, their bodies releasing red mist into the air. The coyote gritted his teeth as he lied beneath the turret, holding his blaster and charging it up. He waited for a few seconds before releasing the shot, only to find more soldiers appearing from up ahead. Damien got up and fired a few rounds before he threw himself into one of the bathrooms. The coyote panted as he got to his feet and saw one of the soldiers rushing inside. He blasted the soldier in the chest a few times before another soldier with a knife pounced on him. Damien's eyes grew wide when the dog got on top of him before he could fire.

Back in the hallway the ruffians were still taking cover and firing, with both sides suffering casualties. Viper and Donald found themselves shooting straight ahead, watching as the Cornerian soldiers kept falling. But once the number of hostiles began to dwindle, the soldiers wised up and took to the vents. One of the primates heard strange metallic banging and looked around, but found nothing. But then the brown beast grunted when a large amount of bullets tore through the ventilation shaft and struck him across the midriff and face. Donald and Viper both hit the floor, shouting incoherently as they shot at the air vent hoping to find the soldier. While all that was happening, Damien was still inside the bathroom, grunting as he tried to fight off the soldier. Both of them had their knives out now and were wildly swiping them at each other, their blades clinking as they made contact. The soldier lifted his arm; Damien reached up and grabbed the soldier's wrist before he head-butted the beast. The soldier shouted and dropped his weapon, giving Damien enough time to stab him in the torso. He was about to finish him off when another, larger Cornerian soldier stormed inside and attacked as well.

Damien found himself off his feet as the soldier lifted him up and casually tossed him over against the wall. The coyote shouted after his body broke a few tiles and he found himself lying on his stomach. Damien snarled and started to crawl for the knife as the heavyset mastiff charged for the same weapon. The weakened soldier slowly slid on the floor, wincing and grasping his side, having trouble standing. Damien and the large soldier both acquired the knife, their giant hands both tussling over the weapon. The coyote swiftly took one hand away and pressed his thumb into the large beast's eye socket, gritting his teeth as he moved his thumb further in. Eventually the large beast screamed and let go of the knife, giving Damien enough time to grab it and thrust the blade into the large creature's throat. He collapsed to his knees, grasping his throat as he choked on his own blood. The coyote left him alone before he slowly walked towards the wounded soldier and crouched down. He blinked and casually stuck the blade into his forehead, listening to the metal as it squished softly and penetrated the skull. Then Damien exhaled and removed the blade, standing up as he made his way out into the hallway again.

"We're clear, Boss!" said Viper.

"No," said the coyote firmly. "Surely they have more defenses than this."

The yellow primate standing beside Donald groaned after holding his shoulder. "I hope not! We don't have many more men left. Just you, me, Viper, Donald, and...that other guy."

"Opie!" shouted a gray lizard.

Damien nodded. "Don't worry. I know exactly what to do."

Damien led the other four men down the corridor and turned left, where they came across a set of double sliding doors. The coyote flicked his eyes at the yellow-haired primate and snorted.

"Go through those doors. Hold your hands up and say you surrender."

The primate snickered. "You're joking, right? They're gonna cut me to shreds!"

"These are Cornerian soldiers, not pirates or barbarians. They're going to take you prisoner, interrogate you."

"You mean torture me. What good is that gonna do any of us?!"

Damien pressed his hand on the monkey's back and shoved him around the corner. The yellow beast glared at Damien, just in time for the canine to point his machine gun at him.

"Move," he snarled.

The yellow primate didn't feel like getting his head blown off, so he huffed and started walking toward the doors. They whooshed open once the monkey was close enough, at which point the monkey was greeted to at least a dozen soldiers with their guns all pointed at him.

"Whoa! Hey, HEY! I surrender, all right?!"

"Shoot him," barked a soldier.

"No, no--IT'S TRUE! It...I-I can tell you where the others are! C'mon now, let's be civil about this! Why don't we all sit down and talk this out over a cup of tea and crumpets...or biscuits...whatever you dogs eat."

One of the soldiers noticed a strange glow from the primate's back and blinked. He slowly walked behind the yellow primate and swore once he saw the explosive.

"Oh, crud! BOMB!"

The yellow monkey raised an eyebrow with confusion before he reached behind and rubbed his back. And then he felt the sticky grenade.

"WHAT! NONONONO--"

Damien activated the sticky grenade before he could finish while the lizard, snake and chimp covered their ears. The explosion was so violent and massive that it blew out some of the lights in the room, along with various tables and chairs. Damien heard a few faint screams moments before the grenade went off. Smoke and debris was blown across the hall, showering the floor with all the gritty material. None of them could see inside the room just yet, but they knew everyone inside had to be dead. The smoke quickly filled the hallways, spreading around and making the survivors cough a couple times. They waited for most of the smoke to clear before they slowly turned and walked inside the room. A small fire had broken out, debris was scattered everywhere, and one of the light fixtures was creaking as it hung from the ceiling. Viper heard one soldier moaning, trying to crawl towards his weapon. The snake watched as the legless feline continued to move, dragging his body along the floor. He aimed for the cat's head and put him out of his misery, whilst Donald and Opie covered their noses and scowled.

"Still ain't used to the smell, are ya?" asked Damien.

Donald looked down and groaned once he heard a squish and realized he stepped on someone's exposed stomach lining. The chimp couldn't help but notice the soldier who had been crushed beneath a table, or the beast who was missing the left half of his face with some of his skull and teeth scattered across the floor.

"Urgh...no. I like the smell of fried bacon, not--"

"Hot dogsssss?" Viper interrupted.

The chimp frowned as he looked at the grinning snake. "Yeah, that."

Damien kicked a sizzling corpse aside before he spoke into the communications device on his arm. "Leo, what's your status?"

"We're in a bit of a tight spot over here. "Nothin' we can't handle though!"

"Fine. Just hurry it up. The sooner we finish here, the better."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Leo and his soldiers were crouched down, their backs glued to the wall. Lance stared at all the ruffians and snorted, trying to see which one he should pick.

"So whatcha think? Turret or soldiers? Or maybe this hall's clear?" asked a ruffian.

"I haven't heard any chatter or footsteps. Probably another turret," suggested Leo.

Lance looked down at the short monkey who spoke up first and stepped behind him. "Only one way to find out."

The ruffian shouted once Lance grabbed him from behind and shoved him out into the open. The primate didn't have a chance to stand up before an automated turret cut him down, putting so many holes in his body that someone could see through them. The red alligator blinked as he set his back against the wall.

"Turret."

The burly lion growled. "Was that really necessary?"

Lance flared his nostrils as he took out a grenade and responded deeply. "No. Only humorous."

Lance threw the grenade down the hall. Before the turret had time to register what it was, the grenade exploded, blowing the turret apart. Leo, Lance, Sally, and the other ruffians all sprinted down the hallway. The double-doors whooshed open the second Lance got close, at which point the group arrived in a mess hall filled with more soldiers. Leo and Lance immediately ducked for cover as one of the ruffians beside them took a bullet to the forehead. Sally and the other monkeys ran to their right, with the lemur heading straight for one of the soldiers hiding behind a tiled column. The lemur rushed over to the soldier just as she peeked around the corner to fire. The soldier grunted as Sally punched her in the face and quickly swiped the gun from her hands. Before she had the time to fight back, Sally was shooting her several times with the blaster. The lemur started to rush out for cover, ducking and dodging any of the laser or bullets that were fired her way. One of the soldiers grabbed her from behind and knocked the blaster from her hands; Sally retaliated by jerking her head backwards and hitting the feline in the chin. She spun around and kicked him in the stomach before taking out two knives and stabbing him in the throat.

Sally snatched one of the grenades from the dead creature's trousers and tossed it, crouching down after the grenade exploded and sent debris flying. The lemur quickly got back up and sprinted forward, slicing at one soldier's stomach as he coughed, blinded by the smoke. Then she jerked her arm backwards and threw her knife at a canine chasing after her, only to grunt when another smacked her knife to the floor. Leo and Lance were trying to work together, taking turns as they unleashed their blasters and machine gun fire at their Cornerian foes. The bulky lion looked at one of the tipped-over tables and started to fire erratically. He heard a few screams and saw a few bodies fall, but the soldiers wised up and used the same tactic against him. Leon shouted and found himself on the floor, dragging his body towards one of the columns as a soldier carrying a shotgun began to pump out laser fire into the table. The lion scurried behind a column before Lance cocked his shotgun and started to shoot back. The other soldier carrying the heavy weapon grunted after Lance took a chunk off his abdomen. Lance cocked his shotgun again.

And grunted when someone shot him twice in the chest. The alligator quickly jerked around and fired in the same direction before he threw himself behind a column. The giant beast winced shrilly as he reached down and groped his wound. His body armor managed to keep the lasers from getting through, but he could still feel the burns around his chest. The alligator glanced to his right and saw one of the ruffians still trying to fire at their foes as he crouched down beside him. He blindsided the monkey, grabbed him by his neck and groin, and snarled as he threw him out into the open. The ruffian grunted after landing on his side, only to yelp when he realized everyone had a clear view on him. Having no other option, the monkey quickly grabbed the nearest soldier beside him and put him in a chokehold, using the beast as a shield. The Cornerian soldier grunted and gasped as he tried to wiggle free.

"Sh-SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!"

The ruffian snickered as he dragged the beast to his right. "Don't think that's gonna happen--not with me standin' behind ya!"

The soldier snarled. "JUST SHOOT!"

One of the other soldiers didn't hesitate and fired his machine gun at the canine being held hostage. The dog shouted as the bullets tore through his body--and went straight into the ruffian's body as well. Both creatures were dead before they hit the floor. Leo peeked around the corner of his column and shot one of the soldiers in the chest before he sprinted for cover and crouched down. He noticed a wounded ruffian grunting as he tried to slide his body backwards towards a more secure form of concealment. Leo took a few breaths before he gave the baboon cover fire, haphazardly emptying his machine gun near the table where a trio of felines was firing at the ruffian. They all ducked, giving Leo enough time to sprint to the baboon and quickly drag his body to safety.

"You got any grenades?!" the lion roared.

The baboon nodded and pulled one from his trousers. Leo snatched it from him, activated it, and tossed the explosive. One of the spotted felines jumped to safety while the other two were blown apart by the explosive. The second the soldier got to her feet, she found herself facing Sally as she came for her with her knives. Sally kicked the soldier in the kneecap before knocking the gun from her hand. She slashed at her neck twice before shoving her down and throwing one of the knives into another soldier's forehead. The lemur shouted when one of the soldiers rolled from the kitchen and swiped at her legs with his own knife. Sally hopped up and kicked at the beast, only for him to veer his head backwards and come at her with the knife. She quickly jerked her right arm around and parried his attack before she found herself backing away, her knife constantly clinking against the soldier's serrated blade. Sally panted as she examined the beast's movements and watched his legwork, all the while making sure she didn't falter. Another explosion rocked the mess hall; Sally used the brief distraction to crouch down and stab the soldier in his midriff and under his right arm.

The soldier groaned and grasped his side, at which point Sally tackled him down. The lemur mumbled when the soldier pressed his hand against her face, slowly moving her body upwards off of him. Sally grunted when the soldier took his hand away and used it to punch her in the face instead. She toppled off the soldier and found herself lying on the floor, with the wolf reaching for his knife. Just as he was about to react, Sally gasped and quickly jerked her arm around, stabbing the wolf in the neck twice before he could do anything else. The lemur noticed that most of the gun and laser fire had stopped. She took a few deep breaths before she exhaled and gradually got to her feet. Sally looked around the ravaged mess hall, watching as sparks and smoke spewed from the ceiling. Every inch of the hall was riddled with bullet holes or had been damaged with the lasers; the whole place reeked of burnt flesh, metal, plastic, and plaster. The lemur blinked as she saw Lance, Leo, and a few other ruffians slowly walking towards the center of the hall, checking their weapons to make sure nothing was damaged.

"We clear?"

Leo gazed at all of the bodies that had been mangled by grenades, bullets, or laser fire. "Seems like it. Let's all rest for a moment before we hit the communications center. Last thing--"

"No," barked Lance.

Sally frowned. "You got shot in the chest twice. Don't you wanna--"

"I'm fine, Sally. They got cameras around here; they see us standing here pickin' our noses, they're gonna send reinforcements as soon as possible. None of us wants that, so let's go ahead and finish this now instead of later."

"Wh...what about me, guys? I got--" The baboon Leo rescued early grunted as he held his stomach. "I got blasted in the stomach! Ain't this serious?!"

Lance pointed his shotgun at the baboon's head and fired, mangling a majority of his face as the lasers ripped through his flesh and part of his skull. Sally and Leo stared at the baboon's fallen body with wide eyes while the remaining ruffians backed away from Lance, trying their hardest not to whimper. The red alligator blinked moments before he turned and stared at the other primates.

"Does anyone else have a serious injury? I'd be happy to help patch you up."

The rest of the primates stayed quiet or shook their heads. Lance flared his nostrils and nodded.

"Good."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

It took them less time than they thought. The server room, although guarded by soldiers and more turrets, was nothing worse than what the ruffians and Fireflies encountered in the docking bay. The second all the Cornerian soldiers were dead, the Fireflies and Donald regrouped at the server room as planned. All of the ruffians accompanying them perished along the way, and Lance wound up getting shot a third time. Once the Fireflies reached the server room, they all started to gaze around at the various gray and black racks with several servers mounted on them. All the creatures started to sweat after spending a few minutes inside, even with all the air conditioning blasting around the room. There were security cameras mounted in the corners of the ceiling, amongst other defenses, but with nearly all the soldiers dead, it was all pointless. Donald and Viper blinked as they murmured to themselves, looking at the bright flashing lights from the monitors and the hundreds of servers holding a vast amount of information regarding the base and the Cornerian Army altogether.

"How much time?" asked Damien.

The chimpanzee looked at his watch and blinked. "'Bout five minutes. You guys disabled the communications anyway; if we're a few minutes over, no big deal."

"The longer we wait, the easier it'll be for them to figure out this base is under attack due to lack of response. Last thing we need is to try and escape with a giant battleship hovering in front of us."

Donald chuckled. "You guys are the Fireflies! Since when are you afraid of measly battleships?"

"Just start downloading," Lance growled.

"All right, all right! Geez, take that stick out of your butthole, Lance."

Donald walked over to one of the central servers and pulled out one of the shelves. He booted up the computer inside the rack quickly, waiting until the system arrived at the login screen. Viper hissed loudly as he leaned against one of the racks and looked around.

"So what's the plan, Damien? What do we need all this info for?"

"Investments."

The coral snake raised an eyebrow. "Investments?"

"There are mercs back in Venom who have no idea what's hidden in these servers. It's a present, Viper. All those fools back home have spent days, weeks ignoring these priceless secrets, using up their time following that blowhard ape Andrew instead of accessing crucial information."

"That 'ape' you refer to is my leader, Damien," said Donald as he finished hacking past the login screen. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't mock him behind his back."

Leo shrugged. "Duly noted. So once we acquire all this Intel, we show it to Andrew, get on his good side again."

"I didn't say that. But we certainly are going to use it to Corneria's disadvantage," Damien pointed out.

The Fireflies watched Donald as he stuck a flash drive into the server. Then he began to type and click around on the monitor, uncovering data as he broke through various firewalls and began to decrypt several folders and files about Corneria's army, their allies' defenses, new weapons schematics, and even a few rough blueprints of the CCC before the massive base was built. Lance stepped close behind Donald and snorted on the back of his head. The chimp closed his eyes and sighed, but he didn't let Lance's lack of personal space stop him from working.

"You can back up now, Lance. Don't need you breathing against my skull like that."

"I'm not breathing, Donald. Just thinking. Haven't tasted monkey brains in a while...heard they're a good source of fat."

"I've also heard that consuming nerve tissue is very dangerous. Maybe we'll get lucky and you'll get prion. Or choke to death. Either one works for me."

Leo huffed. "Don't start, Lance. Donald, hurry up and finish downloading and decrypting everything!"

"I've already got a lot of stuff here--what else do you guys need? It's not like--"

Donald heard a deep beep and the screen turned red. The chimp frowned and stopped moving his fingers.

"Oh, crud."

"What happened?"

Donald sighed heavily as he removed the flash drive from the server and tossed it over to Viper. The primate rubbed his head shortly before mumbling.

"Firewall. I must've screwed up while I was trying to decode something; it must've recognized me as an intruder and locked the system down."

"Can't you break through it?" asked Sally.

"Yeah, if I had all my equipment with me. And another hour, sure."

"We don't have an hour, Donny. We gotta get outta here as soon as possible!"

"I realize that."

Viper scratched his head. "I could help you out, buddy. The two of ussss could--"

"Even if we both worked on trying to break through this, that'd minimize the time to thirty minutes."

"That's still too long," said Lance.

Donald huffed as he turned around and shoved the shelf back inside. "I downloaded what I could, I decrypted what I could. It's all on that flash drive--that should be more than enough, honestly. You guys should be lucky--these servers could've easily activated a self-deletion program, wiped off all the data from the flash drive. At least we got something!"

Damien stared at Donald. "So you're telling me there's no way to break through that firewall?"

"Not in less than a half-hour, no."

"And you can't get us more information?"

"Nah. I'm done here."

Damien and Lance flicked their eyes at each other. Donald saw it a second too late. His eyes grew wide as he began to put up his hand, thinking they would stop. But Lance pointed his shotgun at him and shot the chimp in the chest, causing the primate to shout and collapse to the floor. Viper stared at the chimp's body with wide eyes while Sally and Leo started to scowl at Lance.

"What are you doing?!" bellowed Leo.

Lance shrugged. "Killing a chimp."

"What the heck for?! He got us the information we wanted; you act as if he just pulled a blaster on you!"

"Exactly. He got the Intel. What use is he to us now?"

"So what, we just kill everyone we come across after they cease to hold any value?" asked Sally in a snide voice.

"I thought Damien made that very clear once we started our mission?"

Viper closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. "You didn't have to kill him..." he said softly.

"Yes, he did," said Damien. "Donald was a loose end. If we want this plan to succeed without folly, we can't have anyone who even suspects what we're up to stay alive. Donald saw what we needed; he would've started asking questions. He would've gone to Andrew. Sooner or later, Andrew would've picked it all apart. And there are no other ruffians still alive here, so this whole conversation remains between us. Is that clear?"

Sally huffed and threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, whatever. We're clear."

"You could've told us what you were going to do to Donald beforehand. We could've persuaded him to keep his mouth shut; there was no need for this. ...But yes. We're clear, Damien," said Leo.

The coyote walked over to the multi-colored snake and snorted. "Are we clear, Viper?"

Viper shot a fierce gaze over at the coyote, and the two mercenaries stared at each other for a moment. But then the snake slowly smiled and hissed in his leader's face.

"Of coursssse we're clear, Boss! He was...expendable. We didn't need him anyways."

"Good. Now let's move out before reinforcements show up."

Damien and Lance started to head towards the exit while Sally and Leo flicked their eyes at each other, wondering what the two creatures were planning. They followed them towards the exit nonetheless, ready to head back to base. Viper stood where he was though, staring at the floor solemnly. He turned and looked at Donald's body, the chimp still slouched over, his chest still releasing a small amount of steam, his abdomen and midriff ravaged by Lance's shotgun. He thought about saying something, even a simple "goodbye" to the primate. But in the end he turned away and rejoined his team, telling himself to forget about what happened.