FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A/N: You guys must love me by now... I'm keeping this story going so quickly, and apparently I'm doing a good job at it.

Warnings: This story contains scenes of violence, mature subject matter, nudity, and all-around science-fiction. Viewer discretion is advised. If you are offended by homosexuality and/or furries and/or the portrayal of foxes as inferior, please turn back now. Please also bear in mind that I am a fox in my own right, and I personally adore how this story is going. If you are under the age of 18, do not continue reading this.

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Chapter 10: The Rebels

The young man watched the night sky every night, and every night he lived to fight another day. One night, though, he saw the swirling aperture of a Slipstream event. He gazed to the heavens as a speck of light moved out of the event, followed by another, dimmer speck. He watched in awe, while far above him:

Alarms sounded fiercely and Axis started to tap at controls.

"What's wrong Sir?" asked Lieutenant Phillips. Axis' face was grim, and he twitched a bit as he spoke. "We're about to be under attack," he said.

--

On the bridge, Jasyn had to perform quick dodges, a hard thing to do in a ship this large. All around them things were exploding, and Jasyn shouted, "Ions, scan for ions!"

Somebody did a quick scan and the faint outlines of a cloaked defence-grid were seen. "Lieutenant. What are we looking at?" asked Captain Varu.

"The structures look almost Crag in construct," started Jasyn, as another shot exploded off their starboard bow.

"Mika, target the nearest one and fire a full volley of missiles, torpedoes, and beams. Bridge to Engine room: Lieutenant Levi, bring the Crag-Frequency shields online," said Commander Lincoln, acting head of the Battle Bridge.

"Online now, Sir!" said the fox, controls tapping in the background.

"Axis?" said Jasyn, still piloting the ship.

"Yeah Jayse?" replied the Engineer, working feverishly in the background.

"Good luck," said Jasyn.

"You too," intoned the fox.

"Quit the chatter you two, we've got a fight to win. Commander, scramble the fighters, prepare the M.P.N.s and be prepared for anything," ordered Varu.

Minutes later, Jasyn could see countless Exoskeletal Armour Suits shooting ahead, followed by wave after wave of fighter-jets.

--

"Let's give 'em hell people. Launch all Exoskeletons, Scramble the fighters, I don't want to see a single weapon not firing people!" ordered Captain Long of the Nathaniel, her fiery passion for combat burning forth.

--

"Alright people, this is it. The Crag have oppressed us for long enough. Now is the time to fight as one, and not divided. Those ships up there are our salvation, so give them what support you can! May Avarus goddess of war smile on us!" rallied the tall wolf, looking into his soldier's eyes.

--

"Sir, we've taken out three of the satellites, they're all de-cloaking!" shouted Mika.

A sudden impact shook the ship, sparks flying from sensitive machinery. Jasyn yelped as a shard of metal nicked him in the arm, and started flying more aggressively. Alarms were sounding all over the ship, and there were new readings on the sensors.

"We've got a group of fighters, coming up fast from the planet. It looks like we're about to meet the welcoming committee," warned Edwards.

Suddenly there was an open-channel communication, "This is commander Roman Caprius of the Sirian Rebellion, here to lend you some support."

It was audio only, but the Captain nodded, "Excellent, back up our Exoskeletons and our fighters."

Suddenly something off to the left of the main screen shuddered and a large explosion followed.

--

The Nathaniel's bridge looked horrible. They were taking the brunt of the fire, and they weren't doing well.

"All crew! Get to escape craft and head for the planet! I repeat, all crew head for the planet!" shouted Captain Long.

A terrible tearing noise filled her ears and she closed her eyes, alone on her bridge. "Your run might have been short, but it was a go-" she said, as the ship was torn apart around her. Escape craft jettisoned from the ship's bays, and as the ship's hull buckled, they held a moment of silence for their honoured dead.

--

"I can't find the Nathaniel on scanners sir!" shouted Edmunds. Missiles and beam cannons were grazing their hull; the Crag shielding had proven useless.

"What, you mean they've run away?" questioned the Captain, hoping.

"No sir, I mean they've been destroyed!"

Jasyn's console sparked, and he let out a quick grunt of spite, "Captain, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep this up. Engines have taken massive damage, even with the shield modifications." Torpedoes exploded all around them, and a fire had started nearby. Someone quickly extinguished it and returned to work.

Varu grimaced and shook his head, looking at the satellite in front of them. "Bring the ship into an emergency landing descent. Aim for land," started Varu, "Evacuate the lower five decks, and get engineering cleared."

"Sir?" started Edwards, another salvo rocking the ship

"If we're going down, we're going down on OUR terms. Aim for an unpopulated region, Jasyn."

Jasyn turned the ship as best he could, and he heard someone over the intercom say: "Engineering is clear, Sir." There was a massive crunch as the main engine blew out, and whether they wanted to or not, they were crashing now.

--

Axis flew through the crumbling corridors, on his way to the bridge. He jumped into a lift and was sped immediately to the rear entry of the bridge, and came out as the ship's bow started to cut the atmosphere.

"Commander Roman, get your people out of there. All squadrons follow us in," ordered Varu, as the flames started to lick up along the hull. Jasyn aimed for a ruined farmland, the ship now freefalling. Axis was lifted off of his feet for a moment, before he flew over and strapped himself into an emergency seat, gritting his teeth.

--

As the ship burned through the atmosphere; smaller craft were going through re-entry aswell. Axis gritted his fangs as he saw the ground coming up fast, and started to pray to his gods.

The impact wasn't as bad as the drag. The Echo Wind dug into the ground, the engines now defunct and useless. The terrible grinding of hull against rock drowned out the damage alarms. The ship buckled, crunched, and ground to a stop less than a foot away from the edge of a cliff.

Lights flickered painfully in the poorly lit bridge. The emergency lights did no good, and Axis had to strain to see. He was lying on his stomach some three feet from the crash-seats. He had cuts all along his arms, and his nose was bleeding, but he was otherwise all right. He got up carefully and heard the ship creak around him.

Jasyn groaned, having hit his head on the console on impact. He looked better than Axis did, but then again the fox always looked good.

A single droplet of water fell through the ceiling, and Axis looked up to see a small fissure in the bridge hull. This bird would never fly again.

--

As the Sirian Fighters landed all around it, people were making their injured way off the ship. Axis had immediately started to help people off of the ship. It was raining heavily, and everyone gathered under the ship's surviving wing. Out of the seven hundred and twenty that the ship had started out with, at fifty were dead. Lynn Kathow and Frederick Azuma were among those that were missing, presumed dead.

Captain Kaine stepped out of the ship, shaken a bit but confident to the last. "Okay people, we've got a slight setback. Our only way home has been eliminated, our support craft has been wiped out, and we're stranded on an alien world. We can get through thi-" he started.

"Alright, now listen here," interrupted Roman, "You aren't stranded on an alien world. You're stranded on a world that me and my men know intimately."

Jasyn recognized the voice from the open frequency transmission. Roman was as his voice would entail, confident, muscular, and lupine. He was six feet tall, towering over most of the congregation, and had intense ice-blue eyes. His fur was a silvery-grey, and from his head came a darker grey, hanging freely and cut short in the back.

"Oh, and I suppose you have a facility that can house six hundred and seventy people?" antagonized Kaine, "I mean really! We're stranded here with no hope for rescue! We're likely going to die on this godforsaken rock!"

Something sent Kaine flying backwards, and stopped him short of hitting the ship's hull. Axis' wrist was angled towards the ship, as he started to speak. "This may be a hope-deprived situation, Captain, but we're not going to die here!"

Roman looked at Axis, and blinked a few times. The commander was in his late teens, and the young fox struck his fancy. As he started towards Axis, however, Jasyn's arms wrapped around him, and held him tightly. Roman's ice-blue eyes met the ice-blues of Jasyn's and he stopped dead in his tracks. Axis spoke still, his amethyst eyes looking from one person to the next.

"I know it looks hopeless, but there is always a way to beat the odds. I learned that the hard way..." he said, trailing off and looking at Jasyn's eyes. He followed the gaze and looked up at the older wolf. His wrist fell and Varu started to speak.

"Lieutenant Levi is right, if we work with the Sirians, we might be able to help turn the tide of their war, and find a way to make it home," he said.

A low rumble was heard from the east and Roman looked up at the hills. "It's a Crag salvage and capture team! Quickly, everybody follow me!" he shouted. Roman ran over to his fighter, jumped into the cockpit, and said, "Come on, we need to make ourselves scarce."

Captain Kaine had noticed that the Vehicle Bay's main doors were open, and shouted, "This way, get in a RaPTr and follow them as fast as you can!"

Pilots ran to their ships, or exoskeletons, and Jasyn watched them, before he noticed one of them hadn't been launched, it was still sitting on the topmost floor of the Vehicle bay. He elbowed Axis, and asked "Hey, Kit, can you get me up to the top quickly?"

Axis bit his lip and nodded. "I think so, hang on Jayse," he said as he grabbed Jasyn's wrists and shot up into the air. Jasyn was safely on the top floor, and was powering the crouching mech when he heard an explosion from inside the ship. He quickly activated the thing, never having driven one before, and moved it clumsily and intuitively towards the hangar door. He growled and banged the console, before he remembered the Neuro-link. He slipped the M.P.N.s NL band over his forehead and immediately the huge armour suit started to fly.

He shot out of the hangar, Axis shooting through the air of his own accord, and followed the convoy of vehicles as the Echo Wind's auto-destruction sequence initiated. There was a loud clap, and a heavy shockwave, as the ship's slipstream core imploded on itself, taking the ship and a good twenty metres of rock and debris with it. Axis dropped down slowly, and landed in the unoccupied seat of a RaPTr, or Ra pid P ersonnel Tr ansport, and the combined forces disappeared into the nearby city, in the opposite direction of the Crag salvage crew.

--

The base was dank, and there was very little appeal, but it was home to the Sirian Rebels. Axis was shown his room, and a very worn-out wolf immediately joined him. He grumbled a bit and looked around the room. There were four walls, a floor, and a ceiling; 'Okay full points for function' he thought. There was a pile of blankets and pillows in the corner; on which they lay. Other than that the room was pretty ugly. There was a rank smell coming from somewhere, water dripped from the pipes, and he was holding Jasyn. 'It gets full marks because I'm too tired to care...' he added, as he nuzzled into Jasyn's fur.

Jasyn had already fallen asleep, but in his slumber he snuggled closer to his fox; perhaps drawn to the warm, soft fur; the comfortable fur of his lovable Kit. As they slept there was a meeting between the command crew that escaped the crash, and Roman.

--

"With your powered-armour we could finally defeat the Craganii!" shouted Roman, staring at Kaine with an angry glare.

Kaine shrugged it off and sighed. "But if we fight with you, there is a good chance we'll be destroyed! We have to get a message to Earth; they can send a fleet-" he started.

"We'll do that! But we still need to think about them! We are their salvation, Kaine! If we don't help them now, then we shouldn't have come in the first place!" shouted Varu compassionately.

"But we barely know these people! We-"

" We know them well enough to trust them with our slip-stream core, to pilot our ship! We've been flying with them for a month Kaine!"

"But what of the other two?" he said, angry now. "The two that tried to murder Jasyn? The two that threatened Levi!? We can't trust them! Why should we trust these people!?"

"Because they're desperate! They need our help, and if we don't help them willingly, they could try to take it by force! They don't need another enemy, and we've got a way to help them right in front of us!" shouted Vary now, quickly turning back to Roman.

"You should ask your crew," suggested a youthful and sad voice from behind them. They all turned to see a young wolf with the same, complex-blue eyes as roman. "Some of them might be against it, but it's better than forcing them to fight."

"Daemon, you should be in bed," said Roman sternly. The young wolf looked up, and almost immediately you could tell that they were related.

"Gods! You aren't father! Father would have suggested that long ago, Roman!" shouted the young wolf.

"Daemon, please-" started Roman.

"Don't 'Daemon please' me! I'm not a kit anymore Roman!" interrupted the young wolf, and suddenly something struck Varu as rather odd.

Roman had a tail that almost mimicked Jasyn's, that is, wolf-like, whereas Daemon's tail was fluffier. It was tipped with black, and it was thick and neat, like he took great care of it. A thought suddenly occurred to the man and he turned to Roman, tapping him lightly on the shoulder.

Roman turned and looked at him, eyebrow raised. "Why do you interrupt me?" he said, and Varu sighed.

"We'll ask the crew their opinions. You've a very smart brother, Commander. I think I'll retire to my room for the night, though. If you'll excuse me?" said the man, a hint of thoughtfulness in his voice.

They bid their goodnights and went off to bed.

--

In Daemon and Roman's room, the two were having an argument so loud that the whole of the base could hear. It woke Axis in the middle of the night, and he squirmed out of Jasyn's arms to investigate.

Slipping on his uniform pants, he followed the yelling to a larger, nicer room off to the west of the entrance. He couldn't tell who was arguing, but he stood by the doorway, back against the wall. He was curious about the native Sirian's, and listened intently.

"But I've told you over and over again, Daemon! I don't want you fighting out there! You're still young, and you haven't even found a mate yet. I want you to live long enough to continue our bloodline..." pleaded a slightly hysteric Roman.

The youthful voice of Daemon had maturity beyond its years, and he shouted back, "You just don't want me going out there because you think I'm weak! Admit it Roman! You don't think your little half-breed of a brother can fight!"

Roman sighed and Axis could hear footsteps inside the room. "Daemon, you know I've never thought that. You're stronger than you look, and I know that. I just don't want to lose y-" started Roman.

"You don't believe that! You never mean it when you say that, you just want me to shut up! You're afraid that your half-fox brother is going to break your reputation!" screamed the younger voice, and Axis heard footsteps coming from the room, fast. He pushed against the wall as the teenaged wolfox ran past him, crying profusely behind his dark head fur.

Roman sighed from inside the room and said, quietly, "And I suppose that you're going to tell me I'm too hard on him?" He waited a moment before he added, "I know you're there fox."

Axis revealed himself and looked at the wolf quietly. "No," he said, at last, "I don't think you were too hard on him. I think he's too hard on himself, but you're not helping much."

Roman looked at the fox, and sighed. "You're telling me," he said, dejectedly.

There was a moment of silence between them, and then Axis said, "I've got a wolf to get back to. I'll see you in the morning, Commander?"

The wolf nodded and sighed, "Whatever..."

--

Out on the rocky crag, the young wolfox stared out towards the stars, the three moons visible through the cityscape. "Why does Roman hate me?" he asked himself, crying as he watched the largest moon spin in its quick rotation. He hated it here, he wasn't accepted at all because of his heritage, and he hated his parents for it. "Gods bless their souls," he added, and slowly made his way back inside.

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Ooh, angsty... o.O I wasn't even intending that'n... uhh... Seems Axis has an admirer, and Jasyn isn't looking too happy about that.

If you're enjoying ths story, please comment, as I'm starting to wonder how many fans I actually have. Anyway, stay tuned for Chapter 11: The Crag Empire