FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this story are either the product of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. All characters are of legal and consenting age, likewise if you are reading this story, you should be of legal age in your respective country.

All characters are my own creation, any resemblance to existing characters is purely coincidental and not intentional, please do not use them without permission. If you would like to use them in a story, please feel free to send me a PM either as Inja on SoFurry or TheRealInja on FA. As always, I am open to new story ideas or situations with existing characters as well.

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Authors Note: I don’t normally write canon characters, but I have been playing this game a fair bit recently. There is so much potential for a story there that it itches at my writer’s mind that there isn’t more going on in the game, so the below is a scenario my mind came up with. This is not written with any consent or permission from the game’s developers, so if they request me to take it down, I will do so. There are also some character ideas listed after the story which I was going to work in somehow, but some of them didn’t make the cut, though there are hints about their existence.

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Things hadn’t been going well the last couple of months for the Global Reconnaissance Operations Weapons and Logistics or rather GROWL as they were more commonly known. The Desolate Legion had been digging up all sorts of fossils in Northern America and they still didn’t know why. The few low-level soldiers they had managed to capture weren’t informed enough of the operation to be of any real use. To top it off, GROWL had failed to stop the latest Desolate Legion transports travelling through the Ricky Mountains and then again when they were loading their cargo in Crescent Bay. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties after a tough battle, but it all seemed for naught as the Desolate Legion ship sailed off to parts unknown.

If it wasn’t for their plant inside the Legion, GROWL would not have had any info about where that ship was even going. Worse still, because of the destination now being classed as a protected climate zone, they were not allowed an all-out assault on the Legion’s base of operations there. GROWL was constantly being hamstrung by political red tape; they had to follow the rules and laws of the different countries which it was formed of; while the Desolate Legion just got to run roughshod across the world unchecked. It was the same in every war throughout history, the boots on the ground were at the mercy of the bureaucrats sitting in their comfortable offices, thousands of miles away from the fighting. They always seemed to be inoculated and indifferent to the suffering of their men and women sacrificing everything on the front lines. They were nothing but numbers on a spreadsheet, just statistics to be quoted offhand in meetings.

Permission to pursue the ship didn’t come through in time, in fact, it seemed as though the politicians took an unprecedented amount of time to finally allow GROWL permission to proceed. Even when permission was finally granted however, they were only granted limited permission and powers to launch an offensive. Without the ability to land a suitable sized force, GROWL handpicked a few of their top agents and a handful of supporting special forces members, a total of twenty personnel. By the time they were able to finally proceed with the operation, it had been a couple of months, so there was no telling what they were about to walk into.

Their forces had been split into two teams of ten members, each arriving in their own armoured hovercraft which made landfall on the frozen beach. There was evidence of enemy activity from the well concealed sniper’s nests and frozen bunkers, but they were all abandoned upon closer look. Undoubtedly, if the enemy had still had forces around, there would have been a difficult uphill battle for the GROWL forces to get off the beach and up onto the mainland of the frozen wasteland. Even then, there would have been another tough fight to make any sort of meaningful headway. Between the natural crevasse’s forming dangerous pitfalls, along with the trenches carved into the frozen ground, there were just too many spots for ambushes and bottlenecks. Thankfully there was still no sight of any enemies on the white expanse, but this was also worrying as well. If there was no one left to guard the place, was there anything even worth protecting left behind?

The GROWL forces found an unoccupied sniper’s nest which had some slight elevation, just enough to get a clear look over the potential battlefield; most importantly, it had a clear line of sight at their goal. Meanwhile, most of their small assault force was hunkered down in the trenches behind the lookout post and kept out of view of any potential enemy threats, at least until they were needed.

“See any movement yet, Fifi?” Jack asked as he scanned the road and surrounding landscape leading up to the Desolate Legion base a little over a click away with his high-powered rifle scope. So far there was no sign of any hidden dangers, even the tracks leading to the well-hidden enemy base were barely visible under the freshly fallen snow. Obviously, no one had entered or exited the place in a while, for all intents and purposes, it looked abandoned.

“No, nothing, it seems our informant was spot on about there being minimal armed resistance outside” Marquez replied as she peered through the compact spotter’s scope she had trained on the base entrance. “And I told you before, I’m not French…Grandma” the skunk sighed and rolled her eyes at the scruffy wolf beside her. He was forever referencing that damned kid’s cartoon, as if she were some silly love-drunk purple skunk. She was anything but, she was a mature and intelligent woman, one of, if not the top biochemist in the world for heaven’s sake. Even though they were about the same age, Jack constantly treated her like a kid.

“Will you two get a room already” Ryan chimed in with a smirk as he inspected his weapon again, for the thousandth time. The large bull looked almost comical in his puffy white winter jacket as he sat cross-legged on the ground behind them with his weapon field stripped and being reassembled in record time. He had done this so many times, Marquez guessed he could do it blindfolded by now, even with his fingers being a little stiff from the cold.

“Look Bub, you’re the only horny one ‘ere” Norman growled in annoyance as he lay back with his eyes closed and his arms folded behind his head. Even though they were in the middle of an active mission, he seemed far too calm and relaxed for being in enemy territory and without the possibility for extraction. Part of the deal for them even being allowed here was that if things went south, their countries would disavow them and deny all knowledge of them or their mission. Of course, this also meant they were on their own, there would be no backup and no rescue.

If not for the tip off, there was no way they ever would have found this location either, it was just too well hidden and blended into the landscape almost perfectly. They couldn’t even detect heat signatures as whatever heat that was needed to be vented, it just got sent down through the icecaps and into the ocean below through specially drilled tunnels. There was no energy signature either as the base worked off of thermal energy provided by an active undersea volcano, it was completely self-sustaining.

“Hongying, get ready, we’re about to make a move” Jack said as he keyed in his mic. They had waited long enough, there was no sign of any enemy activity on the surface, they had also been delayed far too long already, so there was no point in delaying entry into the base any longer.

“Oh good, so you’re going to go huff and puff our way in then?” the skunk mumbled, barely loud enough for Jack to hear. He didn’t respond however, at least not with anything more than a grin of acknowledgement.

“Roger!” came a rather cheery voice in reply barely a moment later.

“I hate her…how the hell is she still so cheery in this cold?” Marquez grumbled as she wrapped her arms about herself tighter and began to rub her upper arms to try get some warmth going. She definitely wasn’t made for the colder climates, but then again, neither was their lapine medic, yet somehow Hongying seemed completely unphased by the biting cold. Even with the break in the nearly constant storms which whipped the loose snow about like tiny razorblades, Marquez could feel the dull ache of the cold in her joints. It reminded her of her old man and how he used to complain every time a storm was on the way, his knees would hurt. She wasn’t even that old yet, but now she understood what he meant.

“Probably because she still has a warm, beating heart” the old wolf quipped with a smirk as he briefly looked away from his scope and instead looked pointedly at the skunk beside him.

“Fuck you” she almost snarled back at him, though there were traces of a smile on her lips. Traces which vanished faster than morning dew on a hot day when the bull interjected again.

“See, told you you two should get a room” Ryan said as he finished his final weapon inspection and stood up. “Are we doing this thing, or what?” the bull asked, with a raised brow down at Jack.

“We are a go, move out!” Jack replied as he keyed his mic again, this time while glaring back at the bull with a look that almost made him wilt under the intensity.

With precise movements, the fifteen special forces members emerged from cover like a well-trained swarm of ants, led by a white rabbit who happily skipped along beside them. Jack and Marquez spotted her skipping and cast each other a quick glance, before they both rolled their eyes and sighed in exasperation. It didn’t take long before they were at the front door of the base, a recessed white roller door which was big enough to permit a single ten-ton truck through. The exterior of the opening was covered in snow and ice, which made it nigh invisible unless you were looking at it head on and low to the ground. This was why satellites and drones had been unable to spot it, there was no telling how long it had even been here for, or what they were doing. The fact there were no photographs or surveillance of any vehicles entering or leaving the facility was worrying, certain members within GROWL suspected government agencies had been infiltrated by the Desolate Legion and were covering this location up. If that was the case, who knew what else they were hiding.

With a shrill metallic squeal of protest, the door began to rise as the special forces member finally cracked the code on the door panel. Beyond the lights reach, even Norman with his feline ability to see in the dark could only vaguely make out a dark corridor leading down into what appeared to be a vehicle garage. This facility was far larger than they had expected it to be, clearly most of it was underground. Norman’s grip tightened around the grip of his assault rifle as he signalled for their team to switch to night vision before entering.

The plan was for Hongying and Jack to stay up top and cover their retreat with half of the special forces detachment, while the rest of the team proceeded deeper into the facility to try uncover what was really going on. Jack remained outside the facility in the sniper’s nest to provide cover fire and watch for any backup which might be called in once they were discovered, while the rabbit would provide medical support to the special forces if anything occurred. They did not expect to find anything inside the facility, but that did not mean they would be allowed to simply walk away with their findings so easily.

As Norman, Ryan, along with Marquez and a couple of special forces members made their way deeper into the underground corridors, they found the base to be eerily quiet. There didn’t seem to be a lot, or any indication it was occupied in fact, despite the corridors and rooms being lit up like it was Christmas. It was easy to tell that Norman, and the special forces guys were starting to get antsy, being in enemy territory without any sign of the enemy was never a good thing. It usually meant they were walking into an ambush, with every corner and flight of stairs they took, the tension multiplied.

“There it is, just as she said it would be” Marquez whispered to their small detachment. Up ahead was what appeared to be a lab of sorts, one which looked to have been evacuated in a hurry. Norman and two of the special forces men swept the corridor and cleared the corners with precision before giving the all clear for Marquez and the remainder of their team to move up. “Coffee is still warm…” she noted as she touched a half-finished mug sitting beside a clipboard, upon which someone had been scribbling notes.

“Thanks for the info, Nancy Drew…see anything important?” Jack’s voice came over the commlink, once again baring that same sarcastic tone he always used with her.

“Sorry, no. No little piggies in here for you to huff and puff at” the skunk retorted as she looked around, but did not see anything that would give an indication of what they were working on. “Just a bunch of protein structures, DNA mapping…nothing out of the ordinary…wait…” she muttered as she brushed aside a stack of nondescript papers and uncovered a data pad. “They couldn’t…they wouldn’t…this is madness!” Marquez snarled as she scrolled through pages and windows on the data pad.

“What is it?” Norman asked as he stepped closer to try have a look at what she was seeing. Not that any of it made any sense to him, he did recognize the double-helix often used as the representation of DNA, though that was as far as his knowledge extended on the subject.

“They’ve been playing God, they created…something…unnatural” Marquez stammered, staring wide eyed down at another document flickering on the screen in her hand. “Oh shit…we have to go, now!” the skunk barked as she gripped the larger tiger by the front of his vest, hauling him behind her as they made for exit and back up to their group upstairs. But it was too late, the sounds of screaming and gunfire had already started.

“Hongying, what’s going on up there?” Norman shouted over the noise on the commlink but was met by nothing but more gunfire and incoherent shouting. “Dammit, answer me cottontail!”

“They’re…they’re going mad, shooting and killing each other…I can’t stop them…” came a soft and frightened voice they almost didn’t recognise. In all their years working together, they had never heard the rabbit sound afraid or upset, even in the middle of some of the bloodiest battles in recent history. Marquez and Norman shared a brief look before slinging their weapons around onto their backs and dropping to all fours before sprinting like the devil himself was chasing them.

Time seemed to stand still as the small group raced like their feral ancestors being chased by an apex predator, up toward the sound of gunfire. Finally, up ahead they could see a sliver of light coming in from outside, they were almost back into the vehicle garage at the entrance. Norman heard it before he saw it, with a sudden sideways dash, he tackled Marquez to the ground as an arrow whistled right through the spot her forehead had just been occupying. Behind them shouts of pain and confusion erupted, the skunks look of annoyance quickly faded as she caught the last glimpses of a strange looking arrow ricocheting off the passage walls and taking out the special forces behind them.

“Oh darn, looks like I missed…oh well” a smoky, almost sultry voice called out from the darkness before it laughed cruelly.

“Stay away from her!” Hongying shouted out from somewhere else in the dark garage. “She did something to our men, made them go crazy and they started attacking each other!”

“I hate to add another turd to the shitstorm you’re currently dealing with in there…but we have a black and red V-22 Osprey incoming…and she don’t look friendly” Jack’s voice crackled over the commlink.

“Red Rover, Red Rover, I choose Norman to come on over” a smooth voice purred out in the darkness. With a sudden clap of hands, light burst out overhead and illuminated the garage finally. Standing in the middle of the garage was a black panther dressed in an all-black business suit, even though they were inside, he still wore sunglasses.

Norman froze on the spot as fresh memories forced their way to the surface, flashes of his old self, a soldier fighting in conflicts around the world. Faceless members of his team, soon replaced by screams of pain. The memories began to fade, the last glimpse of his past was a burning photograph of a younger and happier Norman, his arm wrapped around a pretty black backed jackal dressed in white robes. Kneeling before them was the black leopard, someone had scrawled the letters “TAFT” across his face…”Turned Against Fucking Team” Norman muttered to no one in recollection.

“Taft…” Norman growled as he stepped into the garage, his assault rifle raised, and a shot fired in a split second. The round struck the well-dressed panther right where his heart should be, but the stranger barely reacted, aside from brushing off his suit as if the tiger had just tossed a bit of dirt at him.

“I see you’re in no mood to talk” Taft sighed and rolled his head side to side, his neck cracking and popping as he did so. “Very well then, maybe next time…if there is a next time. Kalypso, Barricade…you know what to do” the panther ordered as he turned on his heel and casually strode out of the garage and into the almost blinding white light outside.

“Jack, take him out!” Norman shouted into his commlink, sounding almost panicked for some reason. He couldn’t remember much if anything of his past, but for some reason he remembered this panther. His very presence triggered the tiger’s primal fears, he knew that if Taft lived another day, things in the world were only going to get worse than they already were. “Jack, goddamit! Kill him, take him out now!”

“Who? There’s no one outside…” Jack replied with obvious confusion as he scanned the area outside the entrance.

Norman didn’t get to reply, something large and heavy burst from behind one of the parked vehicles to slam into him and sent him flying, as if he weighed nothing. When he landed, he thought he must’ve hit the ground harder than he thought. Standing before him was an elephant, only it wasn’t an elephant, the damned thing had more shaggy hair than Jack coming out of winter. Along with a pair of long gleaming ivory tusks. Before Norman stood a large Woolly Mammoth, who could only be the Barricade that Taft had given orders to a moment ago. Norman watched in slow motion as Barricade lifted his PKP light machine gun and aimed for centre mass; thankfully he had no trigger discipline and was squeezing the trigger even before he got on target, which caused his first shots to go wide thanks to the guns recoil.

“Move, dammit!” Marquez shouted as she jumped atop the tiger and physically rolled them both underneath one of the stationary vehicles and out on the far side.

“I got him!” Ryan shouted from somewhere behind them, his head lowered as he charged Barricade from behind. None of them spotted the grin on the ancient pachyderm’s face however as he mumbled something and stomped his right foot on the ground, adopting what could only be described as a sumo wrestlers’ stance. It was hard to see, but there was a faint golden glow around the scruffy orange furred monster, something Ryan didn’t see with his head down. When he slammed into the mammoth’s back, he was stopped dead in his tracks, as if he’d run headfirst into the side of a mountain. As the bull stumbled back a few paces in a daze, Barricade slowly turned around to grin at his smaller opponent before simply raising a foot and kicking Ryan square in the chest to send him sailing through the air, back the way he had come from.

Meanwhile on the other side of the vehicle, Norman and Marquez did not see Ryan impacting the immovable Barricade, they only heard the loud impact before they saw their friend and ally sailing through the air like a ragdoll. They were not out of danger either, as a shadow leapt from one vehicle to another above them, something was closing in on their position and fast.

"Nuh uh, naughty skunk” that same sultry voice from before said right above them. When Norman and Marquez looked up to meet the source of the voice, they were met by an odd looking female tiger. She almost looked like the female version of Norman, aside from the thick white dreadlocks and the long fangs of course. “Hi, dad…breathe deep” Kalypso urged as she blew a fine, sparkly purple dust down over the confused pair.

Marquez sneezed and shook her head, feeling a little dizzy, also rather confused as to what that dust was meant to do. She didn’t have to wait long before she got her answer however, when she looked down at Norman, there was nothing but rage and hate in his eyes, as if he didn’t even recognize her anymore. Even now, his arms were wrapped tightly around her as he sunk his claws into her back, making it hard for her to breath. “Norman…it’s me…” the skunk gasped and wheezed as red began to stain her clothing wherever his claws punctured her. His grip was like iron, no matter how hard she wriggled and squirmed, she could not shake the tiger off her.

“Sorry, Normy” Hongying apologized, right as she brought the butt of her M90 down against the side of the tiger’s head and knocked him out cold. “Here, let me heal you” the rabbit offered as she placed her small healing pod beside them. The faint green pulsing glow brought a welcome warmth throughout Marquez as the pain from where Norman’s claws had dug in deep began to fade.

“Wait, where’d they go?” Marquez asked after a moment, her back still hurt from the deep lacerations Norman had given her, but Hongying’s healing device was doing a good job of repairing the damage.

“As soon as Norman grabbed you, they left” the rabbit replied as she pressed her fingers to Norman’s neck and measured his pulse. “I hope I didn’t erase anymore of his memories…” she mumbled to herself in concern after the whack she was forced to give him. “Ryan!” she suddenly remembered and rushed over to check on their bull companion. “He’s alive!” came her relieved call a moment later.

“Yay…” Marquez grumbled sarcastically as she stared at the still unconscious Norman.

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“Less than half the detachment made it out alive, even with Hongying’s assistance…what the hell happened in there?” An angry fluffy white Bichon Frise shouted; the small fluffy white canine was the director who had direct oversight of all GROWL operations. Currently the remaining forces were being tended to by Hongying in another tent, while Jack, Norman, Ryan and Marquez debriefed the director.

“Project Apex” Marquez replied simply, as if it were obvious, while she rhythmically tapped her fingers against the data pads screen.

“What?” the director asked in confusion.

“It’s what the Desolate Legion have been working on, why they’ve been digging up fossils all over” the skunk continued. “They’re bringing back ancient species, DNA manipulation and combination…” her voice softened at the last few words, where she cast a brief glance at Norman.

“Kalypso and Barricade…” Norman muttered; an ice pack pressed to the side of his head to keep the swelling down. Despite the pain, he was rather impressed with the rabbit’s blow to his head. He didn’t hold any animosity toward her for it either, he was actually rather impressed that she of all people didn’t delay and just did what needed to be done. Asking forgiveness was always easier than asking for permission, as he always liked to say.

“Yes…a Saber-toothed tigress and a woolly mammoth” she nodded in agreement and cast a worried look at the tiger. “The mammoth makes Ryan look like a scrawny ten-pound weakling” Marquez noted with a sigh. For once, Ryan had nothing to say, he just looked down at his clasped hands in seeming embarrassment. His pride clearly hurt by how easily he had been tossed around by Barricade.

“And the other one?” the director asked.

“Even worse…she has the ability to sew confusion on the battlefield like I’ve never seen before, turns friends to enemies…” the skunk winced as she sat up straighter, still feeling the marks on her back.

“Great, it can’t get any worse, can it?” the director sighed and shook his head.

“Taft…” Norman muttered without looking up at the display; the look on the directors’ face said it all.

“You’re certain?” his voice had changed, there was an icy edge to it now. Not a further word was said as the call cut as soon as Norman nodded his confirmation.

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Character Ideas:

Project Apex characters:

Character name: Barricade

Species: Woolly Mammoth

Lore: Created by Project Apex, while he is currently working with the Desolate Legion, he is not strictly loyal to them. He knows he is an abomination and should not exist in the world, but as he thrives on chaos and conflict, he will join whichever side permits him to spread as much as possible at any given time.

Abilities:

1. Tactical - Drops barbed wire to temporarily block off access to a pathway.

2. Signature – “War Trumpet” disorients enemy players in X radius from player. (Similar to Norman’s roar)

3. Ultimate – “Iron Castle” halves all incoming damage for everyone in x radius if Barricade remains motionless. Drops to a third of damage reduction if Barricade moves while it is active.

Character name: Kalypso

Species: Saber-toother Tiger (Smilodon)

Lore: Created using a combination of Norman’s DNA combined with recovered Smilodon DNA from fossils. Similar to the X-Men’s X23 character, she is not directly the daughter of Norman, but she was created using his DNA and inherits his innate combat prowess.

Abilities:

1. Tactical – “Ricochet arrow” fires an arrow from her wrist mounted crossbow which bounces between up to three enemy targets in close proximity to each other.

2. Signature - “Sense heartbeat” works similar to Jacks hunt ability but only shows enemy up to five "heartbeats" through objects. It does not show the character outline or which direction they are facing.

3. Ultimate - “Voodoo” removes all player names and titles, causing confusion between friend and foe for x seconds.

TAFT – NPC – Ghost of Norman’s past, part of the shadow government running interference for the Desolate Legion and the director of Project Apex.

Additional characters:

Character name: Spectre

Species: Black backed jackal

Lore: Spectre was an arms dealer in Northern Africa and assisted Norman during multiple conflicts. Usually seen wearing a not so traditional white abaya with a face covering which only leaves her eyes exposed.

Abilities:

1. Tactical - Sticky bomb (Similar to Halo’s sticky bomb, it will stick to people or surfaces and explode after three seconds)

2. Signature – “Arms dealer” drops an ammo resupply crate which anyone can use up to ten times. Upon exhaustion, the player is granted 10XP, hopefully promoting its use.

3. Ultimate – “Mirage” has Spectre activate her abaya’s active camouflage which turns her invisible for x seconds. Unlike Akai Hime’s stealth, Spectre is not restrained to one location, though those with a keen eye will spot the Predator styled shimmer moving across the battlefield.

Character name: Rowena

Species: Grey hyena (Crocuta Crocuta)

Lore: A former warlord who with the assistance of Normans team and Spectre’s weapons managed to overthrow the tyrant ruling their lands. Said tyrant was put in place by the Desolate Legion so they did not take kindly to her interfering and subsequently eradicated her entire pack. Seeing that Spectre had joined the fight against the legion, Rowena joined up to get some revenge as well.

Abilities:

1.Tactical – “Warlord” has Rowena briefly draw a second copy of the equipped handgun for one mag. Once second guns mag is empty, it gets stowed away again. Reloading the handguns immediately cancels the ability.

1. Signature – “Power driver” has Rowena wield the massive hammer on her back which has a knockback and mild damage effect. This turns the “yeen machine” into the “yeet machine” as if used correctly, she will send enemies flying over the edge of the map.

2. Ultimate – “Queens decree” has Rowena let out a hyena cackle which boosts her allies damage/reload/health regen for x seconds.