FSE

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"Alright, today is the last day on the teat, today, you get to grow up, you get to have a job." The sergaent called out to us. I along many others took a long, deep breath. We had been living in this wall for the last 16 years or so, eating, breathing, sleeping in the place. The Wall is home, and today, we all get to take the plunge into adulthood. Some of us are quite happy with this fact, other are a bit apprehensive. I may be nervous, but I am very excited.

I had always been attracted to combat. As kids, we all had a choice to start learning about various fields within the wall. Walking along the wall, making sure nobody tries to get out or do something stupid. Now and again, we hear gunfire and shouting when we are going through the upper levels of the wall. They tell us that the main reason we are here is to keep everyone in The Wets safe from the things in the Jungle. As a kid, I'd climb my way to the top of the Wall during leave, and look out over the tree tops and see what kind of shapes I could see, and watch as they changed and shifted.

"Now we get to see where you belong." Although we each get to choose and test into our jobs, we are all trained in combat. Everyone in the wall, save the children, can pick up a rifle and fire it with at least decent accuracy. Everyone can defend themselves in CQC at age 6, we fire our first rifle at age 12, and we are all combat ready at age 16. After that, we can choose to branch out into advanced combat, engineering, sciences, cooking, construction, etc, etc. 5% of the Wall's population are master combatants, 60% are specialists, 75% are combat ready, and 90% are able to defend themselves to some degree. I like those numbers, it means that whoever, or whatever decides to mess with this wall, would have one hell of a fight ahead of them.

The drill instructor started to call out names, and one by one, my friends and colleagues walked through a set of doors to their future. finally, my name was called and I too walked through those doors. The test seemed to go on for days, most of it was at the obstacle courses and firing range, it finished with a quick little written test. Looking back, the test wasn't all that bad, waiting for the results was what really took for ever. Later, some of the instructors told me that the tests are quite an accurate assessment of someone's resolve, the stress of having to earn your stay in the place you want to be, is usually accurate enough to what the stress would be in a combat situation.

The instructor called out our names once more, and handed us an envelope containing our test results, our future. Shakedly, I opened mine up and started reading the page in my hand. there were a bunch of categories with numbers next to them, I didn't exactly pay attention to them, there was a singular bold and circled number at the bottom. It read 98. My heart stopped for a moment, I had rated in the top 2 percent of the entire population who took the test, all across the board. I was in, I was to train more in the art of combat, both close quarters, and at range. Hell, any job in the field, I could say I want, and I'd get it.

"Holey shit! you fucking made it! you did it!" I felt a rough pat on my back followed by a mass of arms wrapping around me and picking me up off of my paws, and pushing me along the crowd of people. I saw that they had also hauled up a few of my closer friends they were laughing and smiling, and cheering, I guess I was too.

We all had a week on leave to celebrate our success, or study and see where we would better be stationed. I decided that for the first night, I'd watch over the Jungle, like when I did when I was a kid.

"Hey, Criss, good job today.." I turned to my right to see Rick, holding two bottles of beer. He smiled and cracked them both open and handed one to me.

"Yeah, you too..." I said with a smile. We lifted our bottles in unison in silent cheers. I took a long swig of my bottle, as did he. He then wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in tight against him.

"I saw your score, top 2%? really? Come on, couldn't you have held back a bit, brought down the curve for everyone else a bit there?" He teased.

I retorted and punched his arm playfully "Shut up brainiac, I saw your score, and I'd say there's like 10 people in history smarter than you are"

He chuckled and threw up his arms "Hey, what can I say?" he said with a wry grin and took another sip of his beer.

"You know, I Still remember when you made the mistake of asking where babies come from." He shuddered and rubbed his arms.

"Don't remind me... I think I'm still sore from that..."

I playfully pushed him away and took another drink from my beer as well, looking out over the tree tops. It had always amazed me how these plants move as they do. I heard that they all gained attributes of some of the more animated species. I don't why they fascinate me so much, it's not like I've ever seen them not move, at least in the "wild" that is. All of the agriculture we have in the wall is stationary. Most of the others think that the plants we grow in the Wall is weird for not moving. Perhaps I'm the odd one out, like Jason, a human.

"You know, because you'll be actively pursuing combat, you won't be able to get your own place untill you graduate..." I nodded to his words.

"I know, but don't worry about it, it's not like anyone can't say that I wasn't borne for this..." He chuckled and shook his head.

"yeah, top of your class, and damned near history... if any one's going to kick ass up here, it's going to be you." I smiled and shook my head.

"Hey, after my time, I'll come and take you to the bar, 'k?" He chuckled and turned around, leaning over the edge and stretching out a bit.

"I'll hold you to your word on that one." I looked over to him and started to walk away. He grunted a little and lifted up, and looked over at me before he took a long pull from his bottle and walked over to follow me.

"So, what are your plans from here, Rick?" I looked over at him and finished off my beer, holding on to it until we got to a recycling can. He quickly Drained the rest of his and coughed a bit.

"Don't die on me now"

He coughed a reply of "No promises!"

I giggles a bit and pat his back and helped him back up on his paws "Breath the air, not the brew"

"Fuck you..." he retorted with a groan and tossed his empty bottle. "I'm going to miss you while you are on duty..."

I looked up at the sky, half black from the wets, but the stars were out. "You know, I will miss you too..."

"You have any idea what you'll do after your tour?" I looked over at Rick and thought a moment. I hadn't really thought about it really, after my mandatory 5 years in active duty, I get to take on another job around the place, but, my heart had been so set on combat, that I hadn't really taken that into consideration. Be a chef? Get into entertainment? Work at a bar? Hell, I could even take on another vocation if I wanted to, like engineering.

"I duno Rick, I never really thought about it. I was thinking I'd become a specialist or something like that. I know they encourage us all to branch out and diversify, but as long as we stick with our refresher camps, we should be good if shit hits the fan. I think I'm going to play it by ear. See where things go, see where life takes me." He nodded and sighed.

"Yeah, I guess that's about as much of a plan as any, It's a little easier for me, going into engineering and such, I'm not going to have to worry about an after, not unless I want one." I nodded and walked into the stairwell.

"Well, I'll get enough of an allowance off of my tour to keep me going untill I make up my mind, if I make up my mind." He wrapped his arm around me and squeezed a bit.

"Well, whatever it is you do, I'll be cheering you on" I smiled and hugged him back.

"Thanks"

We continued on and went to one of the leave living quarters and checked into a room. We decided to share a room, seeing as we had been sleeping with others in the room since we could remember. When we got to our room, I flopped on one of the beds.

"Holy shit! I've forgotten what a bed feels like!" Rick chuckled and shook his head, slipping out of his shirt.

"Don't get too comfy, because you'll be sleeping in a cott again in a week" I threw a pillow at his grinning face.

"Shhhhh, don't ruin the ending!" I teased him. "Now gimme back my pillow."

He rolled his eyes and tossed it back to me "Yes, your highness."

I smiled at him and took a deep breath thinking about what the future could hold for me. Like he said, he had it easy, his field is already a non-combative role, so he doesn't have to think about life after combat. Hell, even a combat role isn't even combative, most of the time it's fighting an invasion of trees, or some ballsie birds. Sometimes we get someone trying to climb the Wall, but really any combat we see is to apprehend someone getting out of hand in the Wall. I guess I could become police, then I'd stay in a combat role.

"Hey, stop thinking about it so much" I blinked a bit and shook my head.

"Was it that obvious?" I asked him. He just chuckled and laid down next to me on the bed.

"I've been your friend long enough to know what that face means." I smiled and sat up, slipping my own shirt off and kicking off my pants, wearing only my underwear now. "You ever thought about going into entertainment after your tour? I know a few guys who'd pay to see you." I smacked him in the face with a pillow.

"Shut the fuck up, Rick." I climbed back onto the bed and slid up to the headboard so I could sit up easier. "You ever think about where you wana live?" I asked, turning to look at him. he sat up as well and leaned his head back, looking up at the cieling for a bit.

"I duno, there's really only three places to be, inside, outside, center. The center's alright, there's no real view except for the interior of the Wall, it's nice and safe. The inside's facing the Wets, soooo, unless I'm a little closer to the base, not much going on there, and the outside's facing the Jungle, I guess that's nice, you get to see the trees... move... and you get sunlight. Fuck if I know, it isn't like one place is inherently better than-"

"Shut up and stop over-analyzing every little thing..." I playfully shouldered into him. "You'll burn up your brain doing that, save it for your job."

He rolled his eyes at me "You know I can't help it..."

"Just go with your gut, what does your gut say?" He looked down at his belly and patted it a bit.

"It says we should check for room service..." You know, I was also starting to get a little hungry. I leaned over him and opened the drawer to find a menu to flip through.

"Ooooh! they have some salmon! I'm getting that, what about you?" I asked rick. He was leaning over my shoulder to look at the menu while making idle 'pt, pt' noises with his mouth.

"Ummmm... fuck... uhhhh..."

I blinked slowly at him. "Some time today Rick."

He huffed a bit. "Fine, fine, a steak..."

"Alright, steak it is..." I said and grabbed the phone and dialed in our orders. I stretched out on the bed with a sigh, looking up at the ciellng. "You know, at this point we could have just gotten a single bed..."

"Yeah, but then their'd be rumors going around that we..." he made a fist moved it back and fourth in front of his mouth, pushing his tongue into his cheek in a lewd fassion.

"So that's your fantacy! I knew it!"

"Hey, not my fault other's think that way, just saying..."

I shook my head. "And why do you even care about what others think about us? it's not like people don't go out with their friends ever." I could see his ears starting to turn read and he cleared his throat.

"Um.... well..."

I looked at him and headbutted his shoulder. "Relax, okay? let's have fun on leave while we still can, yeah?" He nodded and leaned back against the headboard.

We just relaxed untill our food arived I opened the door and the poor girl on the other side just about turned red right there, or so Rick says, I wasn't exactly paying much attention, she had food in her paws. He could have said she was completely naked and hitting on me and I wouldn't have know one way or the other. She had salmon, and my belly wanted salmon, and I was going to eat my salmon. And I did, and it was good.

"Jesus, Criss! Did you taste it?" I leaned back and nodded.

"I think so at least." He rolled his eyes and continued to eat his steak, my tail swaying over the bed content with my meal. You know, I guess I could go into entertainment, or at least try. I know that I'm fortunate with my particular body shape, could go into adult dancing. Could be fun, it'd be a change of pace. Not to mention, it'd pay well, quite well I hear. There's an old saying: sex sells, and I believe it. Hell, some even litterally sell sex, there's a few brothals in The Wall, I could sign in to one of them. But something about having sex with coultless guys, or girls, or herms, doesn't exactly appeal to me.

"Wow, now that was a good steak..." I turned to face Rick.

"You know, you never did tell me what your plans were after this..."

He sighed and put his plate on the tray and climbed back onto the bed. "That's because I don't really have a plan after this... other than to do my job as best as I can."

I nodded "Fair enough I guess." I sighed. I don't know why I thought that'd help, it didn't. It isn't like I'm at the same caliber as Rick is, at least not in his field. I will never see the kinds of opportunities he will, and honestly, in a combat role, nothing really exciting ever happens, we don't make ground breaking discoveries, or come up with a way to expant The Wall, or a better way to cure desieses (which we usually just deal with it, we have an immune system for a reason after all) or broken bones, or whatever the case may be. We just walk along the top, armed and ready for the 'what if?' Hell, even the police have a prety lazy job, people don't usually get that far out of line.

"Still thinking about what to do after your tour?"

I nodded and sighed.

"Listen, you know how people think of those who never leave a combat role... I know that we are all trained for a reason. But that reason is a 'what if' kinda thing. You know as well as I do that we are generation 50, and that nothing has happened..." I nodded to his words and sighed. I don't want to be seen as lazy, or childish, but I am meant for combat, my score could tell you that much. I still wonder what else is out there, but we are all glued to The Wall, nobody comes in, nobody goes out.

I felt Rick's paw on my thigh "Hey, you'll figure it out, okay? You never know what tomorrow will bring.." I wish I could believe that, I really do. But the truth is, nothing happens here, we all just go about our lives and do our job. Nothing changes, nothing happens, the Wets are wet and the Jungle moves. Sure every now and then someone gets a little out of hand, or someone snaps ans tries to do something stupid like open fire on people, but when everyone around you is trained in combat, you are fucked if you try something. I think the last time someone successfully shot someone in here was 150 years ago, I'm not even sure if the victim even died.

Rick pulled me close to him and brought the covers over us. I rested my head against his chest with a sigh and closed my eyes. I felt him rub my back and run his fingers through my hair. It felt nice and soothing. Shit, look at me, I'm suposed to be some kind of super independant and ass-kicking commando, and here I am cuddling with my best friend llike some kind of little kid, or a weak little girl or some shit like that. I don't mind it though, I've got a week to toughen up and be a bad-ass again. For now, I think I'm just going to enjoy this moment...

The sun streamed in through the window and hit me in the face like and angry Drill Seargent. "God damned it! why the fuck did we pick a room facing the Jungle?!" I groaned out and rolled over. I heard Rick chuckle close by.

"Come on, time for your coffee..." I heard the coffee maker hiss and burp, then the lovely smell of coffee came to my snout and I sighed. I couldn't stay in bed with a pot brewing. I got up and walked on over into the vanity and poored myself a cup when it was ready. I took a deep sniff from the cup and then a long drink of the hot liquid. Rick looked at me and shook his head.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Seriously, what is it?"

"I have no idea how you do that..." he finally said as he poored some cream in his cup and dropped in an ice cube. I shrugged and took another drink.

"Not my fault you are a pansy..." I retorted. Everyone gives eachother shit, combatants took the easy route, engineeres are pansies, janiters didn't make the cut, things like that. It helps us all be coherent and unified. We all grew up together, trained together, eat together, and we all give each other shit here and there.

Rick just chuckled and shook his head. "I like to taste my coffee thank you verry much."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure." I retorted and took another drink from my cup.

Sudenly, I heard a loud bang, followed by shouting and distant gunfire, then the sirines started to blare overhead.

"What the fuck?" I was already throwing on my holster and my vest. I hit the gun locker and slung a rifle over my shoulder, grabbing 5 mags and clipping them in to my vest, along with another 5 mags for my pistol. I looked over my shoulder and tossed Rick a rifle as well.

"Come on and get your gear on, I'll see you at the top." I was already out the door and sprinting down the hall to the nearest airlock. I slipped inside and sealed it, opening the floor, making sure to close it behind me as I effortlessly slipped into the water and dashed up to the surface at the top of the wall.

When I breached, I soared 3 meters into the air. I've gotten higher when not wearing any gear, and I didn't have to worry about landing, perks of being a shark I guess. I landed and rolled to my feet, rifle drawn, safty off, eyes down the sight. I had to stop for a moment and take some slow breaths to slow down my heartrate and calm my nerves a bit.

The others on the wall were all pointing their weapons into the clouds in The Wets. I stepped over to the Jungle side and aimed down the wall, but still aiming into the cloud. I could see a spot in the cloud that was all whispy and turbulent. So it seems we have something in the air. It must have gone into the clouds to loose us... it'll be dropping down on us... I looked up into the sky and could see a disturbance in the cloud, then sudenly, something came out. It was large, say, about 20 meters long with as much a wing span, big claws, reptilian head, long tail. This thing was a fucking dragon, a thing of legend, well, I guess not any more at least.

The dragon scanned the wall quickly and started to dive. It's looking right at me, no, that can't be it, it's just empty here, it wants to land... yeah, that must be it. Now, why the hell would a dragon want to land... to talk, why else? It has the upper hand, it's smart, powerfull, I don't see any corpses, it isn't burning anything.

I stepped back and called out "Back up! Let it land! Hold your fire!" The dragon flared out and landed damned near on my tiger-stripped ass and lowered its head about a meter from my own. I stood my ground and tensed up reflexively. He sniffed me and and pulled his head back a bit.

"You, are the one I've been looking for..." He spoke to me. Or, I think he's a he, otherwise that's one hell of a deep voiced femoid.

"Holy fuck, it's a dragon!" God damned it Rick...

"No shit Rick, just don't shot at it... you'll probably miss anyway..." I nearly whispered that last bit. The dragon chuffed a little and blew my hair back in a puff.

"I come to give you an opportunity."

"what kind of opportunity?"

"One that will allow you to see the world, to leave this wall, to explore and discover, to become a Dragoon..."

"What's the catch?"

"Chances of returning are slim, you will become and instrument of war... a war of the survival of my race..."

An instrument of war. I know what war is on paper, it's a fight, it's combat, it's what I've been training for my entire life. To be the best, to be the most accurate, the most effective. I've risen to the top of my class, and damned near history, if anyone was borne to take on this challenge, it was me.

"Dude, Criss, come on, don't do it, you could get yourself killed!" I fealt Rick's paw on my choulder.

"Rick, we could have gotten killed right now, besides, if I don't do this, the what the fuck is the point of being one of the best in history? Huh? I've been training so I don't get myself killed..."

"But what about your mom and dad?"

"Rick, there's 47,000 combat ready personel in this wall, they can afford to loose me." I turned to face the dragon once more. "But it is interesting that you singled me out, you must want me prety bad."

The dragon stared flat in my eyes and spoke "You stared a dragon in the face wearing nothing more than panties and a vest..."

"Can't argue that one... Alright, I'm in..." I fealt Rick tug on my shoulder to spin me around. He looked pathetic, choking back tears, his grip was strong and firm. I could feel the massive creature spin around behind me.

"Cristiene, please..."

"What? you're comming with."

I swear I heard his brain pop, all he could say was a baffled "...What?" I grabbed him by his vest and hauled him up onto the dragon's back. I slipped up to the dragon's neck and wrapped my arms around it and called back to Rick.

"Hold on tight!"

"No shit!" He cried back at me as the dragon took off into the sky and into my (and Rick's) future.