FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Heart of Iron

Chapter 13: Duty

Life without sense of duty, in fact, has no value... -Anonymous

Feral growled as he ducked behind a burning car and fired a salvo of rounds at a group of large reptilians crouched behind a makeshift barricade of stone and metal. All around him the sounds of combat raged with the cries of the civilian populace as they sought to get out of the way of the colossal gun battle being waged in the front of the Enforcer's Headquarters. It looked as if one of the villains finally had the balls to outright attack the place of power in the city...and things were not looking good.

Feral looked to his left and saw a body sprawled against the wreck of the car; its dust covered form was wearing a grey and blue outfit. Feral sighed heavily and shook his aged muzzle sadly. Any solemnity for the occasion was denied as he was forced to crouch lower as a barrage clattered against the car he was using as cover. "GODDAMN MONSTERS!" He roared and thrust his muzzle up, lining the sight of his sidearm with a reptilian snout and pulling the trigger.

A puff or red mist and it flew backwards, dropping its rifle to the floor in a dull clatter. A small part of him felt better after that and he ducked back down. To his left and right, other Enforcer officers were holding their ground, but it was tough. The reptilians were everywhere and Feral could see countless more climbing up out of the sewer grate in the middle of the broken street. It looked like that was how they had managed to get so close without being discovered, but that knowledge was useless at this point. The fight was in dire straits, the Enforcer tanks were clogged up in the motor pool and he couldn't get the airfield on the radio, something was jamming the signal. The fight was down to the officers against these saurian beasts.

Suddenly, there a rumble and the whole ground shook with tremendous force. Feral fell to his knees and looked out to the street to see what was happening. Without warning, the middle of the road exploded in a shower of debris, cars, bodies, asphalt as they were thrown across the field. From out of the hole, three hulking shapes emerged, massive bulky reptilians with heavy assault weapons grafted onto their arms. These creatures were titanic, at least fifteen feet tall. All three were covered in thick dark purple scales, which were reinforced by black armor that looked to be welded onto their bodies. The lead monster bellowed deafeningly and its left cannon belched out a stream of high velocity rounds that tore up the surrounding street and sent the officers running.

Feral trembled uncontrollably at the sight of the behemoths; there was no way they could hope to take those out without chopper backup, or tank support. One of the creatures turned its snout in Feral's direction and let loose a rumbling growl and sighted its massive cannon on the Commander. It would have fired if it hadn't been distracted by a loud sound coming from the air. A pair of jets, one stark black, the other black and red, soared towards the scene.

With a new target in sight, the creature roared a challenge and adjusted its aim to the new threats and fired a line of tracer rounds into the afternoon sky.

Feral saw who it was, and for once, was damn glad to see them, even if he would never admit it to himself.

Callie had raced after Commander Feral, and was forced to quickly run away when she saw what was happening outside. The street in front of the HQ was embroiled in a fearsome conflict, in which it looked like the Enforcers were steadily being outmatched. Instead of staying out there, she took cover inside the lobby of the building and watched as the battle progressed.

As a stray round flew past her perch behind a desk and collided with the wall she began to rethink the intelligence of such a decision. Perhaps it would have been wiser to stay behind with Manx where it was safer. But she could not let herself do that, for some odd reason she felt compelled to stay, as she always did when something was happening. Even though she was not a fighter, she could not run away from the fight. And perhaps that was foolish, but she would stick around all the same.

While she hid, she heard a familiar noise ring through the air and she looked up to see a pair of objects closing in on the scene. The sight made the female feline grined widely despite the seriousness of the situation. Her savior was here!

A yellow cab pulled up at the outskirts of the zone, where a few enforcers stood, making sure none of the civilians were caught in the crossfire. Feline rushed out of the cab, flinging a handful of bills at the driver as she ran for the perimeter.

One of the guards tried to stop her, but after seeing who she was, let her in. The feline weaved through the small group of officers that were entering the zone and got a good look at the fight.

"Holy smokes Razor, Feral and the Enforcers are getting creamed!" T-bone exclaimed worriedly as the Turbokat glided over the battlefield.

"Yeah, and it looks like Dark Kat got some more goons, watch out!" Razor warned as he took in the sight of the reptilian hybrids.

T-bone flipped the Turbokat and the bullets grazed past them with a screech. "If those hit us once, I don't want to think of what they could do to the Turbokat." Razor muttered. "Keep us high up."

"Alright, but how are we going to help Feral if we can't reach 'em?" The tawny feline pilot asked his friend.

"I don't know. Give me a second to think." Razor replied and rubbed his furred chin as he tried to puzzle out a plan.

Six, who was flying low next to the Turbokat, took in the battle zone and frowned. It looked like Dark Kat made his move earlier than the spartan had anticipated. If he managed to negate the power of the Enforcers with this attack, then it wouldn't matter if he received the weapon shipment or not. There would be little to nothing stopping him from rolling over what was left and taking the city. And that was something the spartan could not allow. He had sworn an oath to defend this metropolis.

The spartan ran a plan of attack through his mind, far faster than Razor could have. His augmented body could process and dissimilate information at an incredible speed. First thing would be to alleviate the pressure that these ravagers and their new heavy infantry were putting on the Enforcers. If he could do that, then the Enforcers would be able to rally and provide a much more formidable defense.

The spartan linked his HUD with the Sabers weapons system and pushed down on the stick, sending the combat jet into a rapid nosedive.

The Swatkats saw what he was doing and Razor spoke into the radio. "Six, what are you doing?"

"Just follow my lead and target the large hostiles on the left." The spartan growled in response as his combat mode kicked in.

"Alright, sure thing, pal..." T-bone answered as he maneuvered the Turbokat alongside the spartan's Saber, a little off put by the soldier's transition.

The three large creatures growled at the approaching jets loud enough that they could hear it in their cockpits. The lead beast, larger than its companions by several feet, fired at the planes, shortly followed after by its comrades.

The spartan easily weaved through the wall of fire and locked a pair of Medusa missiles onto the leader and pressed the button glowing red control atop the joystick. His Saber shuddered as the pair of rockets thundered out from underneath and slammed into the monster in a deafening explosion. A thick geyser of gore showered the surrounding area from what was left of the creature after the missiles struck, and Six began to pull up. But he didn't emerge unscathed as the shields on his Sabre crackled and then burst as the high velocity shells from the two surviving creatures raked across the underside of the hull. A few shells got through and burrowed deep into the chassis of the jet, chewing through Titanium-A Battleplate. But otherwise were harmless. His shields would recharge in a minute or so.

"Got a lock?" T-bone asked over his shoulder as they came in after Six.

"Yeah, I think the cement launcher ought' a do the trick." Razor said with a grin as his paws deftly danced across the controls. Moments later, a small compartment opened under the Turbokat and a multi-barreled turret extended out. It slowly spun as it charged and a stream of greyish material splattered all over the two surviving creatures and hardened, effectively trapping them where they stood.

T-bone whooped and yelled. "Great job Razor...that should hold them!"

Six pulled his Saber back around and saw what the two vigilantes had done. He frowned underneath his black visor at the non-lethal method, it was never wise to let your enemies live. They tended to come back for revenge. It didn't matter; he would finish the job for them.

The spartan began to close in with the targets when something bad happened.

The Turbokat was in the middle of flying away when both of the saurian behemoths broke free from their cement confinement. The Swatkats were oblivious to their imminent danger and likely would have been shot down if not for Six.

The spartan gunned the throttle of his Saber and raced across the sky. He locked onto the two reptilians and pressed the missile button...and nothing happened. With a growl he glanced down to the monitors and noticed that they were flashing red and a warning tone blared in the small confines. The missile bay doors were nonfunctional. The likely conclusion was that the doors had been warped by enemy's fire and now could not open. His cannons would not be able to kill the creatures in time and the only thing he could rely on was the Saber's speed. Knowing this, the spartan made a decision.

Jake and Razor, still celebrating their small victory, were surprised to see the spartan's jet roar past them. They were even more surprised to see that the two saurians had broken free of the cement and were planning on shooting them down. Yet the spartan's jet maneuvered into the way at the last second.

Six felt his Saber shudder as the high caliber shells crashed into his shields and splintered them in only a flash of golden energy. Now unshielded, the shells began to dig into the ship itself. The spartan noticed that the Swatkats had pulled away and out of danger, so he was in the process of doing the same when he felt a series of high intensity impacts slam into his breastplate, pushing him into his seat violently. His armor's shield bar flatlined instantly and began to emit a harsh high pitched droning whine as the spartan felt a sudden intense, almost debilitating pain in his abdomen.

He looked down and saw a deep gouge in his armor, just below the center of his breastplate. Shards of titanium alloy were scattered across the cockpit and he found that the controls were now completely unresponsive. The spartan took a second to access the situation and realized that a few of the rounds had bored past the canopy and made it into the cockpit. And a few craters in the dashboard answered why the controls would not work.

Now without steering or power, the Saber began an uncontrolled nosedive. Six did the only thing he could and locked his armor, pumping the gel layer to maximum just before the jet smashed against the battered street and dug a deep crater across the ruined asphalt in a shower of sparks before finally coming to a violent stop when it rammed into the Enforcer's Headquarters, deep inside the battle zone.

"Six!" Razor cried out in shock as he watched the spartan's jet careen into the building with a thunderous boom. "Goddamn it!" He hissed in frustration and slammed a brown paw into the console in front of him. "T-bone, Six is down!"

The tawny stripped kat looked down at the downed jet as the wisps of smoke began to fade. The cockpit was inside the building and only the rear half stuck out. It looked to be mostly undamaged, but that was just on the surface. "Crud! We can't do anything for him right now!" T-bone reluctantly exclaimed as he dodged a blast from the two remaining larger saurians. The fight was still begin waged, and the smaller ravagers were still in huge numbers.

They needed to take out those two beasts now. That should give the enforcers an opening and help the fight end faster. Then they could see to their friend.

"Give those two lizard meatheads a taste of the shredder missiles, Razor!" T-bone growled furiously.

"Sure thing, pal." Razor was quick to agree and set loose a pair of the chainsaw tipped rockets. Usually such lethal methods were not sought, but this time was an exception. The two missiles slammed into the reptilian monsters and made violent mincemeat out of them in short order. It was a brutal and unpleasant sight but it did the job. All that was left to deal with was a whole truck load of nasty ravagers.

Fighting them in the air would be hard to accomplish since the fighting was so local, thus T-bone moved the Turbokat a ways back and prepared to land it at a safe distance.

Callie watched in horror as her protector's jet slammed into the building she was in, forcing her to dive for cover as a wave of debris was kicked up in its thunderous wake. Almost before the dust settled, she leaped out from her spot and rushed towards the crashed jet, coughing as the particles of rubble filled the air and scratched at her throat.

She scrambled atop the nose of the jet and towards the canopy. Callie looked inside the murky black glass and saw the spartan, unmoving inside the cockpit. Dread welled up inside her as she tried to find a way to open it and get inside. She felt around the edge of the canopy and felt a bar of metal. She looked over it and saw a yellow bar with thick black lines slashed across it.

Emergency Release.

The tawny kat wrapped her delicate paws on the jutting handle and tugged as hard as she could. She groaned in effort and after one last good pull, meowed in surprise as it suddenly popped open, sending her tumbling backwards to the debris strewn floor.

Callie picked herself up off the dusty ground and climbed back onto the jet hastily. She now got a better look inside. What she saw made her mewl and tear up.

The spartan was still, and his armor was rent, a circular depression was punched into the center of his chest. His helmet dipped down to the left and he was slumped into the pilot's seat, gauntlets slightly clenched.

"Six, Six, SIX!" She called out frightfully, her triangular ears were pulled back on her head and tears flowed down her muzzle as she pulled on his armored shoulders. "Wake up, wake up damn it!" She whined desperately.

Six awoke to a soft tugging on his shoulders and painfully opened his eyes. His vision met his lap where he saw a couple of mushroomed rounds piled up. A section of his HUD displayed his skeletal structure and several locations were highlighted either yellow, for bruised, or red, for cracked. Three of his ribs were bruised; one was cracked as was his sternum. A few vertebras in his neck were bathed in yellow and his suit was giving him painkillers to dull his aches. Additionally, he was suffering from a wide range of muscle tears and a mild concussion. The HUD listed that his breastplate had suffered a class-1 rupture and that there was deep muscular trauma in his chest. It also advised that he should seek medical attention as soon as possible.

In other words, he was still functional.

Six held back a pain filled groan as he lifted his head. The spartan was not often surprised or startled, but when he saw who was trying to wake him, it became one of the very few times he was.

Callie was sitting at the edge of the cockpit and was desperately trying to get him out. It was a futile effort, but he appreciated the gesture all the same. What worried him was that she was there in the heart of a battle. He would have preferred that she be nowhere near a conflict of this scale or any at all.

"Callie." He coughed out dryly, making the feline flinch.

Her surprise only lasted for a second before she smiled brightly in relief and almost squealed. "SIX!" The female kat leaned into the cockpit and tightly wrapped her arms around his chest.

"Ow." The spartan muttered dully.

"Oh right, sorry, sorry." The tan furred feline muttered embarrassedly, blushing heartily. Callie backed up from the cockpit and Six unbuckled himself.

The spartan felt around the cockpit and was relieved to see that his gear was intact...or at least most of it was. His magnum was broken beyond repair, smashed into shards. He grabbed the functional equipment and climbed out of the fighter with a little difficulty, dusting the deflected shells to the ground.

He stood beside his wrecked jet and looked it over. Most of the damage was superficial, not counting the electronics in the cockpit. The Titanium hull armor protected it from most of the trauma of the crash. All it needed was some work and it would be able to become airborne again. But that was not on his list of priorities at the moment.

The sounds of warfare came in from the broken wall and lobby, and he knew that the fight was still going fiercely. He needed to get out there and do his part, but first...

"Are you okay?" He heard Callie ask worriedly from behind him.

The spartan turned to face the concerned feline and took in her appearance.

Her usual red outfit was in tatters and covered in a thick layer of grey powder. Her fur was matted chaotically and her hair was frizzed out in a tangled rat's nest with shards of debris clinking to the golden strands. But she thankfully was unharmed beyond a few scratches that he could see on her paws and forearms. The biggest emotion that the spartan felt at the moment was relief.

"I'll live." He responded stoically as he checked over his MA37, making sure that it would perform adequately when the time came.

"I....I was so worried." Callie murmured softly as she looked at him, tail gently weaving behind her as she wrung her paws and took a hesitant step towards him.

The spartan paused in his efforts and glanced up at her, allowing him to notice what he had not noted before. Wet tracks ran down the dust sprinkled fur around her cheeks. The kat had been crying.

"I'm...sorry to have worried you." Six apologized slowly.

"You...are sorry?" She asked in confusion. It was he who was the one that is injured.

"I...." The spartan hesitated, fiddling with his rifle in an awkward silence. Six was far out of his comfort zone. "...I care for your wellbeing." The words sounded forced out of his throat, but she could tell he meant what he said, and possibly more. The spartan sluggishly shook his helmet. "Stay here where it's safe." He ordered gruffly and marched away from her and towards the fighting.

Callie quietly watched him go.

Six stepped out of the demolished entrance of the building and dashed towards the nearest piece of cover, a mound of concrete that had been tossed up into the air. A few enforcer officers were using the same cover and turned to him in both awe and fear. A few raised their rifles and would have most likely fired upon the spartan. Thankfully, one of them intervened.

"Wait! That's the vigilante that helped at the R&D facility. He's friendly...I think." The feline officer added weakly as he looked to the massive warrior towering over them.

The spartan nodded his helmet and crouched to the side. "Today you can count me among your allies."

"That's a relief." The officer muttered and ducked as a round whizzed past his fuzzy ears.

"What's the situation? How many hostiles are there?" Six demanded as he reared up and pulled the trigger of his rifle once, entombing a bullet into a ravager's skull and dropping it to the ground.

"These creatures came out of nowhere and started attacking headquarters and I don't know how many there are, they seem to be popping up as fast as we can take em out. Whatever they are, they managed to get inside the apartment building across the street and they're using the high ground to keep us pinned down. Then there's the problem with the motor pool. The tanks are fine, but the enemy is keeping the door controls on lockdown. If we can get those doors open, we should be able to get some heavy armor up here. The bigger scaled bastards were taken out by you and the SwatKats. Hopefully those were the last of them. I don't fancy having to face them again." The officer cringed slightly.

The spartan nodded simply and pulled out a handful of the makeshift grenades he had made. They were not as effective at killing infantry as standard UNSC fragmentation grenades, but they had a bigger explosive radius, more like a superheated fireball. Six primed the half dozen tubes and looked towards the armored kats. "I'll draw their fire and take care of the building across the street. I need you to get to the motor pool and get those tanks rolling. Am I clear?" The spartan growled questioningly.

The kats nodded hastily and readied to move with his fellow officers.

Six waited a few seconds and then tossed the handful of explosives over the mound and waited a moment before charging out of cover with a low snarl. The brace of grenades scattered across the street and exploded, sending charred ravager corpses flying through the air. The spartan ran across the devastated road and sprinted towards the apartment building. Bullets tore by his helmet and deflected of his shields as he sprayed down anything not covered in fur.

One of the ravagers attempted to stop him, running at him with its rifle brandished high. Not slowing down, Six readied a closed gauntlet and smashed it into the reptilian's throat. The spartan's immense strength shattered its windpipe and punched through its scaled hide, showering his shields in crimson gore. He whipped his arm to the side and deposited the corpse roughly to the ground.

Utilizing his momentum, Six bulldozered up the steps and crashed through the door, scattering the ravagers on the other side. He gunned down their prone forms mercilessly and stepped over their cooling corpses. Systematically, he went floor by floor, purging the residential structure of any threat.

As the last reptilian dropped, leaking its greenish red lifeblood onto the carpeted floor, Six made his way back down the building and back into the street. He glanced to his left and saw the contested area in front of the motor pool. The enforcers were putting up a tenacious fight but they were terribly outnumbered. Six cocked the slide to his rifle and sprinted across the field towards the center of the conflict.

Feral fired a round from his sidearm and into the eye of an unlucky reptilian. The feline ducked back into cover and looked to his right, surprised to see more officers coming in. With their added fire, the nearby ravagers were finally taken out, giving Feral a much needed respite. He sighed heavily and leaned on the charred out taxi he had been using as cover.

"Report..."

The officer lead officer stepped up to Feral and saluted. "Commander, the apartment building has been cleared and a squad of kats are heading towards the motor pool control as we speak."

That surprised Feral. "How did you clear out the apartment building?" It looked to heavily fortified to take out without the help of their tanks.

"Well...." The kat looked over his shoulder. "We had some help with that."

"What are you talking about?" Feral demanded, turning in the direction the kat was looking. He was then rendered speechless as he watched a towering armored figure approach. It stood at seven feet and was clad entirely in a colossal suit of bulky obsidian plate. Any features it might have had were concealed behind a solid black visor. The armored figure smelt of war; bloodshed, violence, death, and destruction. This was who Callie had been seeing?

The figure stopped in front of Feral, looking down at him with that unforgiving reflective mask. "Are you Commander Feral?" It growled questioningly in a deep gravelly voice.

Feral found it hard to speak in the presence of such a deadly being but he still managed to clear his throat and respond. "Yes I am."

The male (for its voice could be nothing but), nodded its helm. "Good, you need to rally your force. I suspect that the enemy shall not let up just yet. More are undoubtedly on their way."

As much as he hated it, Feral could not find the words to argue with him. "How? My kats are scattered across the street, pinned down by the remaining creatures and I don't have the kat power to help them."

"Leave that to me. You just focus on getting the tanks out of the motor pool." The armored giant replied and turned to walk away.

Feral found his strength as he watched the man leave. "How can I trust you?"

The armored man stopped and looked over his shoulder, staring Feral down underneath his visor. "You don't have a choice...Commander." And with that he walked away.

"Sir...?"

Feral turned to the kats around him. "Looks like I don't...round up the officers and let's get the motor pool open. It's about damn time we had some armor."