FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Peppy muttered to himself absently hunched over glowing lines, circles and cones sprawled over the screens. Trying to find some route they could take to fly in and give their commander some backup. That idea was debunked repeatedly much to his increasing aggravation.

Leaning back, he removed his glasses and massaged his forehead. Even if they didn't have to worry about Polar's superweapon, it just wouldn't be possible to get closer for now. An ambush would be their doom without the arwings to provide close range defense. Slippy was working on that, nearly bouncing off the hangar walls to get their craft repaired. For the time, Fox would have to make do on his own.

ROB clanked in bearing a coffee pot. As his mug was refilled, the smell alone made Peppy feel a bit more true to his name.

"I'm gettin' too old for this mission control crap. At least flyin' around keeps ya awake,"

"How may I assist you further?"

ROB wasn't a good conversationalist. Slippy had once tried installing an AI persona but that only lasted a couple days. The robot wouldn't shut up about dark chaos gods and thus had to be rebooted.

"Just keep the coffee coming. That'll do for now,"

"So? What's the word?"

Falco posed the question, prior to which he had been silent enough that Peppy forgot he was onboard much less in the same room. A shoulder leaned on the wall as he stared out past the windshield into space. He peeled himself away and strolled up to Peppy.

"Might as well get comfortable," Peppy told him, "We're not getting in there any time soon,"

A groan of irritation broiled out of the bird, "I trust Fox in the air. It's just...he's no commando,"

"Yeah. I'm worried about him too," The hare remarked.

Falco's head whipped around, beak opening for a retort. But he said nothing and his face diverted away from the hare's knowing gaze. He smoothed down a few ruffled feathers and paced back to the main cockpit window, squared up with the Ketu system. It could be seen in the distance as a winking cluster of lights little bigger than pinpricks.

-

With a high pitched tone, the elevator arrived at its destination. The doors curled back to reveal nobody.

The corridor outside was silent, enough to hear the humming of the lights. But without prompting they suddenly dimmed at the far end, winking out in a wave of darkness that filled the space in the blink of an eye. Only a few flickered back on.

Visible again, Fox frowned in the gloom of the station's sudden shift into horror lighting mode.

"Any idea what that was about?"

"Power fluctuation," Lightfoot answered, "Though I cannot say what caused it,"

Their journey through the tower complex had been uneventful, lacking in guards or alarms of any kind. Fox's instincts were liking this less and less with each step. Andross certainly never left a base empty unless one of his bioweapons happened to eat the guards. His pulse was pounding as he neared the end of the corridor.

"Oh! This is interesting.."

Lightfoot's enthusiasm startled him enough that he had to smooth his tone out before asking what she had found.

"The station's network security has been disabled. I can access everything now. But so can anyone else,"

Ahead was a short landing of grated steps and heavy double doors. Fox approached, noting the thick mechanical keypad backlit by green.

"Can you tell what's waiting for us in there?" Fox asked.

"Affirmative. Accessing surveillance system,"

-

Rings of control banks blinked lazily inside the command center. They rose in tiers toward the center of the chamber where the master interface waited, a glowing holographic obelisk of pale light.

Wolf was expressionless as he strolled up to it. A snug black tank top had to stretch itself thin to cover a broad torso of steely fur. Pectorals bulged over top of the garment, divided by a deep wedge of shadow. Burly shoulders with unruly tufts of his coarse fur gave the appearance of spiky armored paulders. Finally the face emerging in the pale light of the holo beam, which was familiar enough. One eye cold, emotionless. The other cybernetic.

In his fingers he twirled a well worn metal object as he stepped up to the interface and looked it over. After a few seconds of scanning the machinery, the object came to a halt in his palm. With a click, the business end sprouted from his switchblade. Streaks of blue and green veins shone as he plunged it into a slot on the control bank and at once the lights went out.

-

The video feed playing back in his visor bled into the present as the doors swished open. Fox was admitted into the dark space, with only some bluish wall circuitry hinting at the command center's dimensions. In the upper limits, attention was quickly grabbed by the glass dome and its view of glittering deep space sky, frosted beyond blustering ice clouds.

Claws tapped on a keyboard somewhere in the murk where a shadow rose against the beam of light. A vague, inky shape crowned by sharp lupine ears. The tendrils on his thigh yielded the blaster as Fox cloaked. The shadows almost felt cold, running fingers through his fur until he was invisible.

A few commands and Wolf watched via video feed as a hangar was suddenly plunged into whirring red lights. The vacuum barrier switched to yellow coloration, and seconds later the interior was being evacuated into space in a barrage of junk, spacecraft parts and flailing pirates. A grin cracked Wolf's muzzle. Next up: Hangar defense turret control. Clear targetting parameters. Reboot. Lasers suddenly began to fly from all directions, turning the lower bowels of the station into a firestorm.

Suffice to say, the base was fucked thoroughly and sloppily. His claws rested on the console and he tilted his head up. His nostrils flared a couple times and for a moment he froze like that, as if he were some feral preparing to howl at the moon. Instead it was a rumbling chuckle that escaped his chest.

"Don't you know?"

The bass voice was directed at the ceiling, though it was Fox that froze in his tracks. Only for a matter of seconds before Wolf turned his head, and the faint ember of his cybernetic eye peeked over a shoulder.

Wolf continued his earlier thought.

"Don't you know that you can't bend light? If that's how it worked, ya wouldn't be able to see past your own snout,"

Fox had no chance to even wrestle over how it was impossible that Wolf could see him. There was a peculiar confidence in the lupine's words, and each felt like a punch in the gut. But he didn't react, standing stock still with blaster half raised at the black shape speaking to him.

"Nope! Ya got to convince everybody else they can't see you. That it 'aint you standing there. But I know exactly who you are, Starfox!"

"Cloaking system malfunction," Lightfoot warned.

With a crackle and hiss, Fox decloaked. Wolf didn't need to adjust his gaze at all, but it was held in place by Fox's new appearance. The skin of the suit clung close enough to the smaller vulpine's body, it could have been the shadows clothing him. Or a rather skimpy bikini, with the curve of the breastplate and plated V spannig his hips.

"I'll be damned..Found yourself some new gear? Don't lean on it too much. You still need some skill. Watch!"

The lupine's silhouette shrunk down out of sight, an instant later he whipped out of the shadows at full speed. Fox dove backwards, rolling over the bank of consoles behind him. Massive fists came down as the tip of the vulpine tail whipped out of the way. The double hammer blow crashed into a control panel, dislodged keys pelting Wolf and skittering on the floor. Recovering, he looked up to find the barrel of Fox's blaster aimed at him.

A blue bolt issued from the weapon, more of a loosely contained lightning bolt. It slammed into Wolf's chest and he was driven back stumbling a few steps, sinking to a knee as lingering static played over his fur.

They were interrupted in that moment, as the holographic beam exploded in a blue fireball that swelled upward into an impression of a mushroom cloud, lacking only in heat and explosive power. Then it smoothed back to its normal shape.

"AHEM!" Came Lightfoot's synthetic voice through the PA system.

With security down she had been able to hop wirelessly over to the main interface. The display had turned Fox and Wolf's attention to where she appeared as a giant bust- an apt description for her head perched on two much larger orbs, pockets of the labcoat covering pointy nipples.

The AI's avatar glared down at them a moment.

"By my observations, it seems neither of you have the desire to kill the other. Assessment: We are simply wasting time. Which is not strategically sound,"

"I can speak for myself," Fox said, eyes returning to Wolf, "But you've tried to kill me how many times now?"

A chuckle and shake of the shaggy head, "You wouldn't believe me if I told ya, Fox boy,"

"I already don't believe you,"

Wolf pushed off the floor, standing once again.

"You believe something about me or you'd have put a laser in my hide by now,"

It would be pretty hard to argue otherwise. The blaster in Fox's hand hung at his side, still on stun mode and incriminating him further.

"So what's your excuse, then?" Fox challenged.

Wolf turned to the shadows, "I'm just keeping you nice and sharp,"

There was a clink and a flame briefly illuminated lupine features, then a puff of smoke rose.

"You asked and I told. Take it or leave it,"

Wolf strode off as Fox's silence continued, soon lost in the shadows. In his wake, a tone sounded from the master interface and Lightfoot spoke up.

"We are receiving a signal from the fringe of the system. Linking now. Cornerian Military Net found. One classified intel update detected, downloading...one physics update-"

Lightfoot's tits suddenly dropped, sagging under their weight into great teardrops that dragged her avatar down, face first on the holographic stage but thankfully her own natural beanbag chairs cushioned the blow. She flickered out of existence, just deciding to hide her avatar at this point.

Fox snapped out of his trance, gazing off into the shadows. Retreiving his comm device, he plugged it into the main interface. A window bearing the Starfox team logo appeared almost immediately. A moment later Peppy blinked back at him in surprise, shifting at once to relief as he sunk back in the Great Fox's command chair and touched a palm to his chest.

"There ya are Fox! Glad to see you in one piece...er, well, you're in something or other,"

Fox wished he could turn invisible- cloaking wouldn't be useful if Wolf had told the truth.

"Yeah, well I ran into some Cornerian tech the pirates had stashed here. How are you guys?"

Peppy consulted some of the screens around him, whiskers twitching madly.

"Slip's almost got the arwings repaired. It doesn't look like we'll be able to get to Ketu anytime soon, at least not without being pinged,"

"Then hold your position," Fox said hastily, "Don't risk it,"

Peppy's expression contained a lot of bundled up dread, but Fox wouldn't dare mirror it. Lightfoot took the stage then, in the form of an icon displaying 'AUDIO ONLY'. Mostly as to not give the old hare a shock.

"Pardon. I've been able to formulate a plan for insertion into Ketu II, bypassing enemy scanners. If you'd like to hear it out I would be glad to explain further,"

A collection of planets rotated on screen with a line tracing through the mess. Only from the station though- still no way for the rest of the Starfox team to get through yet. Peppy whipped his glasses on for a moment, then they were off his tired eyes just as fast.

"Can't say I have any other ideas in my back pocket. But really, you think it's a good idea to go to Ketu alone?"

Fox shook his head, "No. It's a terrible idea. But we don't have time to spare. If Polar starts blowing up inhabited planets..or.."

"Corneria even," Peppy admitted grudging and grimly, "Yeah. Yeah, you're right,"

"Soon as I can I'll have your back," Falco added in parting, "Til' then, watch your tail out there,"

"Will do, guys. Fox out,"

-

A lone arwing rose into the whipping ice clouds. Through them he could just about make out distant guidance lights and for brief moments, they revealed the skeletal orbital elevator. Animated only by the magnetic lanes they generated. A wireframe of a square cargo pod rotated on the scanner.

"The Ultraviolet came equipped with advanced materials transportation pods. These contain scan nullifying properties to protect classified projects. They can easily contain one Arwing fighter. Running silent, it should render us nearly invisible to long range detection. Predicted result: Seventy-eight percent chance of infiltrating Ketu II undetected."

A lull in the storm allowed Fox to see far out over the frost tinted landscape to the flickering light in the distance. It could have been a prominent star but far more likely was a Wolfen headed in the same direction he was.

Either way, the universe was swallowed as he entered the cargo pod and locked into place. Soon they were ferried into orbit, situated in a magnetic catapult launch system under Lightfoot's guidance. She hopped back into the arwing and seconds later Fox was nudged back as they were fired deeper into the Ketu system. Toward whatever war crimes Andross had gifted physical form to.

Aside from the light of the instruments, it was pitch black outside the cockpit. A void, though it had nothing on the real thing. Fox rubbed two fingers together, the suit's material gliding easily against itself smoother than silk on glass.

"So...What Wolf said back there? Is it true he can see through this cloaking system? How's that work?"

"There was a malfunction. But I have no conclusive data,"

"No data, or just classified?" He pressed her in a half joking manner.

"Diagnostics report the stealth suit in working order. For now, I must monitor our path through the arwing's passive scanners in case we encounter any errant obstacles,"

Well, that answered it. Fox leaned back in his seat to try and get comfortable as he could.