FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Only steps outside the engineering bay, it was obvious the Ultraviolet was being stormed. Fox only had seconds before a pair of pirates appeared. Trundling along behind them, a burly hog dressed in a flight suit with crew cut white hair bristling atop his scarred head.

Ahead of them a light flickered. In the split second the light winked off, a shadow darted across the corridor. One goon smacked his comrade on the shoulder and pointed. They rounded the corner with lasrifles up at the ready. An instant later, red light flashed as a pair of laser bolts cracked.

Lagging behind, the hog was very aware of what just transpired. In each hand he held weapons a little bigger than pistols, presenting a square shaped, wire gridded laser lenses at their fronts. With the SMGs he carefully angled himself around the corner. A dead end, occupied by a bank of lazily blinking lights behind a glass panel.

For a long moment he froze, trying to force his eyes to see something they couldn't. Not a flicker, aura or single hint at anybody still there. Just goosebumps running up his arms. Slowly he lowered his weapons and turned to walk away. But then spun and opened fire, hosing down the alcove with a high volume of low energy lasers devastating at close quarters. The computer bank was shattered, spewing sparks and glass. Glowing lines seared into the walls and heat wavered in the enclosed space.

But that was all. The alcove was truly empty. And then Fox swung down from the overhead pipes and a knee to the side of the face sent the hog reeling in one direction while one of his weapons clattered in another. Dropping down, Fox fired a trio of shots that flashed off a personal shield. Still enough force to propel the hog backwards ass-first through a vent cover where he began noisily tumbling down toward the lower decks.

Another search party was surprised when the head and shoulders of Commander Wort crashed through a vent in the ceiling.

"It's Starfox!" He raved upside down at them with a red face, "Get the whole fuckin' base down here! Scramble the LARPers too!"

As Fox ran, the hangar was visible beyond a grid of support beams. Toward the rear of the Ultraviolet, the ship was being stripped to a skeletal cage from back to front.

A spotlight flashed behind him as Fox ran out of floor and had to make a quick tightrope walk down one of the crossbeams. Many floors below, pointy jaws of half disassembled engines waited for his foot to deviate inches one way or another. And the end of the ship was coming up fast. A moment later the spotlight halted at the end of the crossbeam, revealing nothing.

Fox hit the wing of the ship, decloaking from the impact as he rolled prone with the SMG he scooped up. Locked eyes with a pirate standing on the closest catwalk. A young, orange feline. Probably a stupid kid that got caught up with this crowd somehow.

_"Don't ever hesitate" _

The words came back so clearly he'd have sworn Wolf was standing right behind him. Close enough to imagine the breath swishing over the tufts in his ear.

He sprayed the catwalk as the feline's rifle was halfway up. More enemies went down as shouts went up. Pirates scrambled for cover only to be intercepted by short controlled bursts. A barrel of ship fuel was bored into until jets of fire ignited, hosing down the catwalk and sending a few pirates diving off the side.

Once the makeshift flamethrower was depleted, Fox pushed himself up into a sprint as lasers responded from the ground level. Launching off the wingtip, he smoothly hit the catwalk and slid behind a crate. Invisible once more, he slipped off over their heads.

The catwalk led to a platform and set of imposing heavy duty cargo doors. He slid to a halt as they hissed, rumbling open to shed twirling orange light into the hangar. The catwalk vibrated as a mech strode forward which appeared to be little more than a fighter's cockpit and forward fuselage mounted on robotic limbs. A laser gattling weapon was mounted under one arm.

"LARP units,"

Dr. Lightfoot spoke up then.

"Light Armored Recon and Patrol. Their firepower isn't too scary, but their radomes can pick up your cloaking field. You'll want to avoid them even while invisible. Or..test out some more of our experimental weaponry. I've got an RFID signal from one of our weapons,"

He took cover behind a stack of barrels as the mech projected a blue grid across the floor, scanning the area along with its spotlight.

"Great, just lead me to it," Fox whispered

"Good news. It seems to be coming toward us,"

-

A sound came up the utility corridor. Distant at first, but steadily growing louder and more elaborate. It was a bright, cheerful whistling as a songbird wove their way through hanging hoses and flickering lights.

A set of pirates stood outside a door, exchanging a look as the whistling rounded the corner. In the shadows, a scruffy tall eared silhouette, a single bionic eye glowing dimly as the stranger casually approached. He removed his gloves, clenched big clawed hands and not once did the tune waver.

"Okay newbie, we get it. You watched Kill Bill once," One grumbled.

Right as he finished, the large lupine stepped into the pool of light over the two guards. His puckered lips relaxed, shifted to a grim snarl. A brutal punch and savage elbow strike later, Wolf considered the unguarded storage room. Inside was a single supply chest on a platform. Its shiny surface was scarred, chipped, with an array of broken sawblades, depleted laser cutters and snapped drill bits littering the floor around it.

"Rookies can't even hotwire shit. You want the booty but don't know what to do with it once it's in your face,"

Wolf muttered as he pulled out the keypad and began to tinker with the wires. A quick couple sparks and the crate opened with a puff of unsealed air. The contents caused the lupine to give a mad, ear to ear grin. A big tubular rocket launcher awaited him, with an eye catching orange and red color scheme.

He hefted the weapon onto a shoulder and set off in search of a test subject.

-

Fox grimaced as the catwalk shuddered. He dangled from the underside as the LARP unit thundered overhead. He'd be a hanging target if not cloaked, as pirates below continued to turn the hangar upside down.

"Aux power cell at 15%" Lightfoot reported.

Saying nothing, he flipped up, curling himself up and around into a reverse somersault back onto the catwalk. Nearby was a control panel to the cargo cranes. Dashing over, he yanked the first lever within reach.

From the shadows overhead, there was a loud whirring as something was set into motion. A wingless fighter came swinging out of the darkness, but passed over the catwalk with plenty of clearance. It did crash into another engine block suspended over the floor, with a thunderous racket as pieces scattered and clanged across the floor. The LARP unit swiveled on its torso, bringing the projected grid around to outline Fox. As soon as it touched him, the blue lines turned red.

"You've been detected. Find cover immediately,"

Lightfoot's calm, clinical tone warned as the mech's gattling laser started to spin. She was hardly heard as Fox yanked a release mechanism at the base of the terminal. There was a clang then whirring chains spinning until sparks showered down. A bus-sized engine block struck the catwalk somewhere behind the mech. Segments buckled with a shrieking of metal as the path collapsed into an avalanche of debris. The mech stumbled backwards, peppering the heights with laser fire until the section it stood on snapped off abruptly. This catapulted the mech up and backwards in a small arc. It landed in a heap of twisted metal atop the engine, smashing and buckling it at the center even as a sharp pylon speared through the back of the mech and burst from the shattered cockpit.

Fuming fluid leaked from shattered fuel lines as a pool of metallic liquid bubbled on the floor. The substances met. Decided it wasn't going to work out. Mech, engine and the unlucky pirates nearby were obliterated in a bright blue flash that sent a mushroom cloud up into the ceiling.

Breathing heavily, Fox peeked out from behind the molten slag heap that used to be the control panel. There were still plenty of pirates emerging in the dancing light of the blue bonfire. The cloaking field began to fizzle, until the power cell died entirely and was ejected from the backpack. An ember that faded into a burned out glass orb beside a small, outnumbered and outgunned fox with a shiver just then running up his spine.

He flashed back and flashed forth. Andross' troops. Tales of torture, or horrific genetic experimentation. Looking through bars at a sickly green sky was a fate worse than death. One of many that the ape brought into reality.

"Until we meet again. Don't you dare lose to these dirtbags. I'm nowhere near done with you,"

Again it was Wolf's words from a system and time far away. It was the trail of goosebumps that created the illusion of breath down the back of his neck. The thought of Wolf being that close...

"Fox? Your biosigns are odd-"

"Don't worry about it,"

His voice snapped, then his weapon as he slapped a fresh energy cell into it. Shaking off his terror, Fox was again on the move. He jumped over to a crane, sliding down to land on a hanging fighter at a crouch. The visor slid down over his eyes and he took aim.

One after another, he downed the pirates as they appeared. Switching targets too fast for them, keeping their heads down. Winning the battle against the army. Until his weapon clicked dry.

"Let's go! Form up on me!"

Commander Wort reappeared then. Pointing and gesturing wildly, in Fox's targeting reticle. Time for a new plan had clearly arrived. But Dr. Lightfoot broke his concentration.

"That experimental weapon I was telling you about? It's here,"

A set of doors behind Commander Wort hissed. He turned around as they parted to reveal Wolf, on a knee as he aimed the rocket launcher directly at the hog.

"Say cheese!" Wolf bellowed, claw squeezing a click from the trigger.

There was a peculiar PWONG sound as if the launcher was a giant pellet gun. With a skull squeezing pop, it launched a spherical projectile forward. Spinning directly into the gut of Commander Wort, the hog was sent flying backwards knocking aside two of his minions though his stomach did stop the projectile in its path.

About the size of a basketball, it rolled to a stop at another pirate's boots. The segments in the object began to shift and glowing light spilled out of the seams. It flashed with a sharp electric snarl. Everybody dove for cover, from an explosion that never came.

"The Ally Cannon. Fires capsules containing miniature flash cloning facilities. It can produce a formidable ally in mere seconds but ammo is exceedingly rare,"

As the light died, Commander Wort tossed his minions off him and gawked up at yet another intruder. A slender, tall figure in orange toned power armor. A visored helmet looked down at him and raised one of its arms, an integrated cannon. A click and a mini rocket was aimed at the hog's face. Wort screamed as he scrambled away on all fours. A hiss and snap of an explosion peppered his ass with shrapnel. Then he was trailing smoke as the personal shield overloaded, burning out.

The power armored stranger began to wade into the ranks of the surviving pirates and more explosions tore into the ravaged hangar.

"I think this is our chance, Fox. Let's get to the control center,"

He said nothing, but began to platform his way down eventually leaping to a stack of crates and down to the floor once more. By now, Wolf had slipped off somewhere. No indication of where he had disappeared to, just the discarded rocket launcher by the exit.

Wolf..don't you dare lose to these dirtbags. I'm not done with you either