FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I don't think I've seen a vibrosword like yours before, it looks so peculiar...Where'd you find it?" The petite gray hyena inquired, reclining in the large cockpit area, her violet eyes glued to the rectangular shaped blade propped up against Yuuki's chair. Its deep red hilt was long enough to be wielded in two hands if need be, but the silver blade had a blunt tip and was shorter and slightly wider than most standard edged vibroweapons, more suitable for powerful one-handed strikes. The reptile tapped a few buttons on his main command console to guide his spacecraft to a suitable hyperspace lane towards the Xenio system. The outside void zoomed past in bright blue and purple streams as the darted through hyperspace.

"I read some texts on vibroweapon engineering and just put some junk together. It's not perfect, but it works for all that's worth."

"I'm a bit impressed that you were able to hold your own against Ulysses with a weapon you made yourself. Even though you got your ass kicked." Ryskiris snickered, her spotted gray tail waving beside her as she crossed her thin, delicate legs. "Where did you learn how to fight like that? You said you do odd jobs."

"You sure ask a lot of questions, Rysk." Yuuki tilted his head towards the lanky hyena, a slight half smirk on his face. "After I answer, I have a question for you, little miss curious." He added, turning in his chair to face the lithe thief. "I learned from the best the galaxy has to offer, the Alliance gave me a few tricks before I was discharged. The rest came from being a dumbass errand boy..." The reptile paused, making sure the hyena was paying attention. "What did that asshole tell you for you to take this job?"

"He, uh...Ulysses offered four thousand Units, and didn't say much else. Money talks, so my wallet was doing most of the thinking. I saw a good opportunity to get a nice grip of funds, so I went for it. He just wanted me to find you and ping the signal back. I didn't expect the guy to babysit me while I tracked your location...." Her sentence hung inside the cockpit area, drifting off as the hyena fell silent.

The large crocodile smirked. "Hm, he usually doesn't like getting his hands dirty. Typical Ulysses, treats everyone like they're expendable."

"How familiar are you two? Seemed like you guys have quite a history."

"Former soldiers tend to. We were stationed at Caelica 9 about a decade ago, we didn't really get along back then either. Ulysses only cares about toying with people, like a kid in a holo-deck. He compromised and sabotaged a covert mission, getting our whole team killed, save me and that piece of shit. His reasoning, he claimed the mission was too easy and needed to up the difficulty." The reptile plainly stated, his tone even and serious. "That's as much as I feel like sharing. Ask him for the juicy details. So, what do you other than steal pretty rocks?"

The hyena's ears twitched, her gray tail curling idly. "Oh, I used to be a hacker when I was younger, taught myself how to use a blaster....but I try not to engage in battles like you do. Just enough skills to make money so I can be lazy with my electronics... Not as exciting as former soldier turned deliver boy."

"You'll be fine when I drop you off, judging from that résumé, I'm sure of it. Sit tight, I'll be right back." Yuuki stood up after activating the auto-piloting and walked out of the cockpit area, down into his armory in the lower deck, and grabbed a long, black case from one of the shelves lining the walls. He walked back upstairs and into the cockpit, setting the case down, propped up against Rysk's seat, reclining once again in his own.

"What's this?" She inquired, her hand reaching for the smooth handle, pulling it onto her lap. She flicked open the clasps and lifted the lid of the black gun case. Inside was a sleek, cerulean colored laser rifle, along with the scope, shoulder stock ad strap attachments, all nestled in dark, cushiony foam. The hyena closed the case briskly, turning her head towards the reptile with an inquisitive gaze.

"I did slice your last persuader in half. It'd be rude not to replace it. A good thief needs some long range artillery, especially if you're not up front in a battle."

"Th-thanks... Persuader, that's bounty hunter lingo isn't it?" Rysk tilted her head.

"Yeah, hang out with them long enough, you pick up on their slang pretty quickly." Yuuki nodded, relaxing in his chair as his light freighter starship soared through the cosmos. He set his course to a nearby space station near the Xenio system, tapping the buttons on his console. The reptile made sure he was clear of any planets or other cosmic bodies before reentry into real space. In the dark abyss floated a large ring shaped space station in the distance, dots of starships darting in and out of its ports. Yuuki picked up his headset and placed it over his head, punching in some buttons on his communications console. His headset crackled for a moment, then a female voice chirped in his ear.

"This is a private channel. Who is this and what business do you have?" The voice didn't sound pleased at all, her tone edged with slight bitterness.

"Nice to see you're still salty as ever, Lylia. Just making a little delivery." Yuuki quipped back sharply, a smirk stretched across his lips. "Could you open up hanger bay 92-Z for me, please and thank you."

"Y...Yuuki? Yuuki Kettenkrad?" the voice inquired in disbelief. "How about checking in once in a while, you jerk? Get your ass in here!" The call ended quite abruptly. Yuuki chuckled softly, shaking his head as he guided his light freighter inside one of the many hanger ports, decelerating as he entered the space station and activating his landing gear. As the starship slowly descended onto the hanger bay's floor, Yuuki opened the entry hatch and turned in his seat, facing Rysk directly.

"Well, here's your stop. Nice talking with you. That persuader cost me a grip of Units, so try not to get it busted out there, got it?" The crocodile smirked.

"Yeah, I got it. Thanks for the ride and the rifle." The hyena replied, her tail twitching behind her as she stood and started to disembark the spacecraft, gun case in hand and a pack on her thin shoulders. She stepped down the ramp leading into the hanger, her boots making tiny thuds as she walked. The lithe hyena started to wander around the station, her eyes darting from starship to starship, wheels turning in her scarlet covered head.

As Yuuki stepped out of his starcruiser, he was greeted by a short, busty raccoon, her dark hair styled in a fluffy mohawk, her eyes covered with goggles that glowed an eerie green. Her arms, seemingly robotic, covered by long, black fingerless gloves. A white tank top and a black leather jacket covered her ample chest, and a pair of denim jeans were adorned on her muscular legs. She growled and punched Yuuki's sternum, causing the crocodile to groan sharply, "Nice to see you too, Lylia..."

"No call? Nothing, not even a message on my com channel? You got some nerve showing your scaly ass back here." Lylia growled indignantly. "Where's your delivery?"

"Already delivered. What, did you miss me or something?" Yuuki clutched his torso gently, her punch nearly knocking the wind out of him. "Besides, you wanted to be a mechanic, so I sent you to a place where you can better utilize your skills."

"Well, maybe I enjoyed my boring job as a courier." Lylia smirked, folding her mechanical arms across her ample chest.

"Bullshit, you complained all the damn time and got on my nerves." Yuuki quipped back, his posture straightening.

The two old friends shared a little laugh, reminiscing for a moment. Lylia crossed her arms over her chest and took a few steps back, her goggled eyes glowing brightly. "If you're not too busy, you should stick around a bit, nice to see a familiar face around here. Let's have a drink and catch up."

~~~~~~~~~

Ryskiris continued her wandering, leaving the hanger bays behind as the short, lithe hyena stepped through the dull metal hallways, her violet eyes darting from room to room. Luckily her small stature and unimposing appearance made her go unnoticed by most of the pilots, mechanics and even service droids that passed her. She needed another ship, and wasn't above snatching one from under their noses. But, she had to make sure her thievery went unobserved. The hyena found an empty room lined with computers, sitting on long desks around the room, faint blinking lights faintly illuminated the small area. Rysk stepped in quietly, her boots barely making a sound as she approached a nearby monitor. As she sat down in the chair, she took off her pack and opened it, her slim computer, some cables, a small portable satellite and some memory discs were safely stored inside, she glad she took it with her before her ship was blown up on Arysylle. She turned on the monitor on the long desk, her thin fingers typed vigorously, her eyes scanning intently.

She hacked into the space station's archives, she couldn't resist learning the galaxy's secrets, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem at first glance. The tomboyish hyena found a treasure trove of information regarding the schism of the Alliance roughly ten years ago, around the same time Yuuki and Ulysses served in their military. Something about a coup, power struggles and...the destruction of Caelica 9, a major station for the Galactic Alliance. She pulled out a memory disc and slipped it into the slot on the console, and copied the files onto it. Rysk continued to search through archive after archive, copying data and storing it on her memory discs. She'd upload them later to her own computer, after she requisitioned another spacecraft.

Yuuki and Lylia were sitting at a table in the dining hall, glasses of alcohol in front of them as they conversed. The curvy raccoon took a generous gulp and sighed, wiping her lips with the back of her hand. "So, anyway... This arrogant pilot is standing over me, telling me how to do my job! At first I was just gonna let it go, whatever. Until he decided to get pushy and impatient."

The reptile shook his head with a smirk before taking a sip of his drink. "You just left his ship busted and walked off, didn't you?"

"You bet your ass I did! I'm not going to take getting berated in my own shop. Fuck him and his ship..." She took another swig and set the empty glass down, pouring another helping from the bottle sitting between them on the table.

"Seems like you've been having a bit of fun with your newfound authority, Lylia. Best mechanic in the Xenio system, and still as impulsive as ever." Yuuki mused, draining his glass with a gulp and a sigh. "I'm almost afraid to ask you to fix the Ouroboros."

"You're not an asshole when I'm working, surprisingly. Any other time, though..." The raccoon quipped. Her goggles glowed brightly as she spoke. "So, what the hell have you been up to? Still getting into trouble being an errand boy?"

"Always, you know me. Just making a living like the rest of us. Been doing some exploring lately, finding old shit to sell for a good price. Other than that, I'm still the same asshole you know and love." Yuuki shrugged and leaned back in his seat. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander around the dining hall, old military habit. Always had to keep checking his surroundings.

Soon afterwards an alarm rang out, the klaxon blaring throughout the dining hall, echoing throughout the space station. The whole area shifted into hyper alertness, shuffling feet to assigned posts, commands were given, all bay doors closed. Yuuki should've known better than to bring an opportunistic hacker to a Galactic Alliance space station. He darted out of the mess hall, and ran down the curved hallways towards the archives room, only to be stopped by the real intruders approaching in a dreadnaught sized stardestroyer. The reptile couldn't believe his crimson eyes as they stared out a window nearly midstride and almost beside himself with indignation. Dreadnaughts were typically used by the defected radicals of the Alliance Army, they prefer to be called Legionaries now. Sounds better to them. The speakers lining the walls blared warnings and battle plans, Yuuki could care less. He wasn't here to fight a skirmish. He's just a damn courier.

The dreadnaught stopped, but nothing happened, at least as far as Yuuki was concerned. Might be trying diplomacy this time around. A single battlecruiser glided towards a single docking bay door, entering the artificial atmosphere and stabilizing itself into place gently downward. Must be an emissary, looks like the communications went well. The reptile had no need to stick around for politics, corrupt and ubiquitous it may seem across the galaxy.

Rysk heard the alarms and froze in her chair, her fingers ceased their deft typing. She stiffly turned her head slowly towards the door she walked through, but for a while nothing happened. Then the intercom speakers chirped out some codes and other jargon that made no sense to the hyena hacker. She packed up her belongings and hoisted her pack on her slender shoulders, briskly walking out of the room to see a dreadnaught outside the window.

"Oh, well that's wonderful." She grumbled, her shoulders sagging slightly.

"Yeah, I thought that alarm for you."

Rysk turned her head down the hallway, and saw Yuuki smirking and shaking his head, arms folded across his broad chest. He glanced towards the window, cocking his head in the general direction.

"Because of these jerk offs, all the hanger bays are closed. What the hell are you doing in the archives room?" he inquired firmly.

"I'll tell you something even better, I can open the bay doors for you. But I need a ship." The petite hyena offered.

"No deal, sticky fingers. I'm not helping you steal a ship. Use your people skills." Yuuki was not pleased, his smirk turned into a scowl.

"I don't have people skills, you jerk!" Rysk snapped back sharply. "Look, we both want to get off this station and there's a fucking dreadnaught right within view. I can access the hanger where your freighter is sitting at and open the doors from a console." She turned slightly, showing her pack with her electronic gear inside. "Better yet, I'm hiring you as my pilot. I have most of what Ulysses paid me for that headache of a job."

Yuuki let out a low chuckle, "Oh, you're bribing me? That's your negotiating tactic?" he then laughed, almost mocking the hyena, leaning his head back slightly in feigned amusement. "Give me three thousand Units, let's get the hell out of here." The crocodile abruptly said, walking past Rysk with a swift even stride, his expression blank, yet stern. The hyena hacker was stunned for a second, she thought he going to refuse when he laughed so comically. She briskly followed the crocodile, her turn to be nearly beside herself, not with indignation, but confusion.

~~~~~~~~~

"So, you gonna tell me what you found in the archive room or am I just talking to a wall here?" Yuuki snidely inquired. He was sitting in his lounge area towards the aft end of his spacecraft, his long stretched out on the couch that wrapped around in a wide 'L" shape, the lounge spacious enough to accommodate a group of eight or nine people. Ryskiris sat on a stool with her computer on the bar shelf opposite the curved couch. She was typing feverishly, her violet eyes behind crooked glasses as she searched through the cybernet, a single use key searching for the right lock.

"Who blew up Caelica 9? The broadcasts say it was destroyed by the Legionaries." The hyena asked without even looking away from her screen.

"You hacked into the Alliance's archives and you mention public broadcasting?" Yuuki countered sardonically, his crimson eyes squinting in disbelief.

"Why would the 'Good Guys' destroy their own stronghold, then?"

"So they can have a reason to kill the 'Bad Guys' they created. Alliance, Legionaries, doesn't matter." Yuuki shrugged his shoulders.

Rysk stopped for moment, then turned on her barstool to face the lounging crocodile. "You were there, you were stationed at that base. That's why I'm asking you, as a first hand witness. What part did you play in that?"

"I helped train what would become the opposition. That was my job. Did I know at the time, hell no. Like every soldier, down to the last grunt, we follow orders. Yeah, it sucks ass through a coffee straw, but that was my job. They took what I gave them and gave it to others, just with a different banner attached." The crocodile's tone had a rough eloquence, his growling voice serious and level. "Now can you open our docking bay so I can fly us out of this potential shit show?"

Rysk nodded quickly, her gray ears twitching as she turned around and continued searching. "Sorry I asked, I didn't think you planted a warhead inside or anything, I just had to make sure..." Her tail swayed behind her as she typed and scanned and searched, her eyes dancing with lines of code and data. She instinctively hummed to herself, a way to concentrate and focus, yet also to distract and disassociate. "I got it! 92-Z is now unlocked."

Yuuki sprang to his feet and made his way to the cockpit. Ouroboros hummed to life, and gently lifted into the air as the docking bay doors opened, their thick metal gates creaking. The artificial gravity and atmosphere inside the space station was contained by a sky blue rayshield, shimmering like an ocean in sunrise. Yuuki calibrated his vessel to pass through the rayshield in one piece, flipping switches and turning knobs on his command console. He held the yoke as guided his spacecraft deftly through the hanger and through the artificial atmosphere into real space. "Hey Rysk!" Yuuki called out behind him. "Get up here! Time to pay up, but I'd like to talk about exchanging my Units. Think of it as an investment."

Rysk sat in the copilot's section of the cockpit, her quizzical gaze facing the crocodile, hearing his proposition. "You're hiring me, now? Doing what?"

"Stealing, of course. But, from the scum of the universe, not couriers or pilots. I'm talking about mobsters, pirates, slavers, those degenerate assholes." Yuuki explained, a small smirk etched on his lips. "But I'm not your boss. I provide the ship and manpower. You got the tech and cover fire. And Ouroboros here is our base of operations." He patted the side of his seat, making a soft thudding noise.

The hyena thought about it, the partnership seemed to be balanced and fair. He could've just taken the money and dropped her on a isolated planet. She almost expected that. But she was just on this ship before they arrived the space station. "Snipers are pretty damn lazy, so I think I can handle this." Rysk nodded, accepting the deal Yuuki suggested. "So how much am I getting paid?"

"Might wanna get your eyes checked if all you're seeing is Units and codes on a screen. I'll pay you well enough for you to be lazy when I'm doing my courier shit, just don't mess with the ship." Yuuki then cocked his head towards her. "And you're gonna have to learn a bit more about snipers if you think they're lazy." He quipped at her with squinted crimson eyes, then turned his focus back to his yoke and the view of the cosmos while his vessel soared onward into the galaxy.