FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Author's Note : The following is a non-canon fanfiction on the Visceral/EA video game Dead Space. The following contains graphic scenes of a violent and sexual nature as well as harsh language. Readers are kindly asked to view at their own discretion.

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Static crept across the live feed for a moment, temporarily obscuring the window to another's field of vision. The hallway tilted and bobbed in the view of the helmet camera, a military grade assault weapon hovering just about in view along the bottom of the RIG-link screen. The corridor was wide and low, lined with posters for consumable products and upcoming movies. Eventually the hallway ended in a sealed bulkhead, the holo-panel in the centre of the doorway glowing red.

"Bridge, Bachelor. Mountain and I are moving into lower maintenance now. Mountain, get on that console and hack it." a man's voice spurred over the RIG-link. As 'Bachelor' gave the order, a figure slipped into view.

'Mountain' was clad in an Engineering-RIG, the biometric strip along the spine of his armour glowing healthy green. He knelt beside the door and popped open an access panel, quickly setting to work as a reply came from command. As the reply came another wave of static, washing out the video link.

"Bachelor, bridge. We are reading you five-by-five... uh, your cams are a little fuzzy."

"Bridge, Mountain. I'm getting... -netic interference... the charts... that could be what's messing... comms and im... -sidual interferen... -om pla... -etcrack..." came the broken reply through layers of snow and static.

"Mountain, bridge. Repeat last, we're only getting half messages..."

The vid-link was completely gone now. No more visual, and only broken up sentences came back from Bachelor and Mountain. "Command, Bach... -epeat, we can't hear... -u just said. Looks lik... -ios are going..."

"Bachelor and Mountain, bridge. Wait one. We have a situation developing. Green team, bridge. Give us a status update."

"..."

Not a peep. The screen meant to show the image from Greet team's leader was black, a few specs of static popping up in the corners. The comms were deadly silent, and the biometrics screen was showing ten names next to which were biometric strips similar to those found on the spine of Recource Integrated Gear. Five of the strips were blacked out, two had fallen to red and the rest were on amber.

"Green team, bridge. Status update. Five of your team just flat-lined on biometrics and we're not getting any vid, respond."

"... oh, Jesus! Fall back fall ba... -ey just keep comi..." a panicked tone suddenly screamed, his voice blaring over the comms.

"Green team, bridge. Report, that's an order. What the hell is going on down there?"

"There's too many of them! Just run. Just fucking ru... what the fuck... AAAAAAARGH!" the transmission ended in a blood-curdling scream as another biometric turned black, followed by the dull tone of a cardiac monitor.

"..." silence filled the comms again.

"Green team, command. Respond... green team, I need a status update now!"

"Command, Bachelor. Mountain and... assist green team. Will report... -en we ha... -ecured a hard line. Over and ou..."

**************************************---

Dead Space: Eden

Prelude to Extinction

**************************************---

48 hours before planet-crack...

// Shuttle Bay, Eden II, Eden System, October 2511 [Earth Time]

"The USG Cloverleaf Vice is holding position in low orbit and awaiting cargo transfer. Transport team, you're up... hey, Mountain! Get your ass in gear, man! You're up! We're burning daylight here!"

"Yeah, yeah!" came the disgruntled voice of Senior Engineer Arthur Everest. "Keep your panties on, Greg!"

Arthur Everest, or 'Mountain' as his fellow CEC employees knew him, was half buried in the maintenance access panel of the anti-grav dolly. The damn thing had kicked it for the eighth time this week. The Eden II mining colony had been established for two years. Two years out on the fringes of the galaxy. Two years of being billions of lightyears from the nearest habitable system. They were getting to a stage where engineers were patching patch jobs with patches.

"If you ask me, it's about fuckin' time the CEC sent a planet-cracker our way." Arthur continued to complain as he went about repairing burnt out circuit board contacts. The smell of melting solder wafted from the hatch where the human sat half-submerged. "We've been ready to pop this bitch open for almost a month now.

Sam 'Bachelor' Fells rolled his eyes. He was sitting on the edge of the broken down dolly, looking out over the quiet shuttle bay. The cavernous space that held all of the Eden II Mining Colony's Mule-class transport shuttles was mostly deserted. There were a few maintenance staff, like Arthur, wandering around ticking off checklists on their RIG-links.

Sam was an anthropomorphic wolf, Earth born and raised, with black-as-night fur and brown eyes. The hair on his scalp was cropped high and tight in a military style to suit his profession. Sam was a CEC employed security officer with a military background, and was built accordingly. Thirty-something, the wolf was tall and broad with muscular features and a hardened look on his face. Sam was even clad in a RIG that suited him. All blue, he had sleek impact plating hugging his shredded body with a ballistic collar around his neck, his helmet retracted leaving his head open. He had a pulse rifle hanging from a gravity sling by his hip, and a Divet pistol locked to a holster on his right thigh.

"Since the Ishimura incident the CEC has been having trouble getting planet-crackers to where they're needed, you know that." Sam said calmly. "But the Cloverleaf Vice is in orbit now, so we have nothing to worry about. We move these ore samples up to them," - the security officer patted the black 'CEC' labelled crates stacked on the dead dolly - "stick around for the planet-crack, then rotate home. Easy."

"Yeah, easy." The voice of the control tower chimed in over the radio. "Easy as soon as you get that dolly up and running. C'mon, Mountain. Move it!"

"Eat me." Arthur muttered in response before sitting back holding a glowing soldering iron in one hand and a string of smoking lead in the other.

Arthur was a typical enough human. Early twenties, messy dark brown hair and green eyes. He had a fairly athletic figure, but maintained the physique of an engineer (nerd) rather than a sec-officer (jock). His body was covered in a CEC standard Engineering-RIG. Black jumpsuit over which rust-coloured strips of armour were fitted to protect his torso and right shoulder. Solid bands of armour covered his forearms and the backs of his hands, as well as his knees, down his lower legs and over his boots.

Looking up at Sam, the human visibly raised an eyebrow. "You're cheery." The duo had been friends for a year now. And even though Sam had a permanent hardened look on his face, Arthur could tell exactly what the wolf's mood was. "You're never this cheery... what kind of shit-storm am I in for?"

"My wife is on board the Clover." Sam admitted. "It'll be good to see her again."

Tucking his tools into a pouch on his belt, Arthur frowned. "Wife? Really? You're married... so... why does everyone call you Bachelor?"

Sam turned his head and looked at the engineer. He didn't say anything more on the matter. He just gave a grin, slipped from his seat and walked up the ramp of the waiting Mule shuttle.

"Mountain! Status! The Clover is riding my ass here!"

Arthur let out a frustrated sigh, pressing two fingers against the communications node in his ear. "Jesus, Greg. I'm on it, okay? Five minutes, man!"

"Well Altman be fucking praised! Get a move on!"

Turning to the far end of the shuttle bay he spotted the long window located high on the end wall. That was the control tower, and through the transparent screen he could clearly see senior supervisor Greg Lovett waving his arms. At the sight, Arthur held out one hand and presented the back of his middle finger, before turning back to the dolly he had repaired and gave it a solid kick.

A 'clang' echoed through the quiet shuttle bay as the dolly came to life. With a whoosh of energy the anti-grav pods along the bottom of the dolly flashed white light and buzzed like a thousand angry bees. Slowly but surely the tarnished yellow frame of the dolly rose from the ground, lifting the two-something ton payload.

"Badass." Arthur muttered, replacing the maintenance panel cover and pulling up his RIG-link. The semi-transparent square user interface projected from the holo-node on his chest hovered comfortably in front of him. The human synchronised wirelessly with the dolly, then tapped the command for 'forward.'

Slowly the dolly took off, creeping forward and up the ramp of the Mule shuttle.

"We are moving." The engineer announced, pressing two fingers against his ear as he marched up the ramp, overtaking the dolly. "See, that didn't take so long!"

"Says you."

The cargo bay of the Mule was wide and high, the cockpit located to the front at the top of a ladder. Along the right hand cargo bay wall were benches, one of which occupied by Sam. As Arthur walked over, he typed a few commands into his RIG and closed the holo-panel before sitting down beside the wolf.

The dolly slowly positioned itself on the deck, then gently settled on the floor. As it made contact, a set of four clamps locked down on the edges of the dolly, holding it and the cargo down to the deck. One queue the ramp closed upward and the cargo doors slid shut, locking down with a metallic grind and a hiss.

"Final prep. Waiting for clearance. Wings up in five." A female voice said over the intercom.

"Oh, after all that we still gotta wait for clearance anyway?" Arthur snapped.

"Maybe if you had been quicker we would have acquired clearance sooner." Sam retorted.

Arthur snorted at the mere thought. "Ha! I'm a fucking miracle worker. We're patching up patch jobs out here. You're thinking it, I'm just saying it, dude. This colony is fucked."

Sam glared, leaning over and putting his face close to Arthur's as a warning something was about to come flying his way. Recoiling, Arthur shrugged it off with an innocent look while Sam sat straight again.

"I'm not just talking about the sudden rise in dementia a couple of days ago." Arthur continued. "Since the Ishimura, planet-cracking has been on a downward spiral. Not even the Cloverleaf Vice has the cohunes to recover CEC profitability..."

As Arthur slouched into an arm-rest, smirking broadly he saw Sam pull up his RIG-link. The first thing visible was a personnel profile. Her name was Julia Fells, a golden furred cheetah currently stationed on the USG Cloverleaf Vice. She was without a doubt, Sam's wife. Her profile picture revealed her face and bust. The cheetah was lithe and slender, her slim neck flowing down into her sleek shoulders and ample bosom hardly contained within the beige vest she was wearing at the time the picture was taken. She had a pair of piercing emerald green eyes and short black hair to go with her spots. Beside her profile picture was an picture of the USG Cloverleaf Vice.

The Clover was huge, rivalling the old-faithful Ishimura in size. Able to house a crew of a few hundred-thousand, she was designed and built to take on crew and families for an extremely long period of time, and as such came outfitted with medical decks, hydroponics, leisure centres and the latest in advanced mining decks. Long and sleek, the almost gothic looking ribbed armour plating curved across the belly and flanks was specially designed to withstand high impact space debris. Along her flanks were long pronged appendages, four on each side. Each prong ended in a gravity tether, specifically designed to grapple on to, and rip chunks out of planets and drag them into orbit for processing. A quad of massive boosters were attached to the stern, able to shock the Cloverleaf Vice across vast sections of space in seconds. She was to date the largest, most advanced and the fastest planet-cracker in the CEC fleet.

"Wow." Arthur said, watching with a sleazy grin. "That is one well-endowed lady. I wouldn't mind getting my hands on her ample nacelles."

Only half understanding what the engineer was talking about, Sam's brow furrowed as the left corner of his mouth jerked upward. "We'd best be talking about the ship here." He growled in a warning tone.

Arthur frowned with genuine astonishment. "Uh, yeah. What else would we be talking about?" he said as if it should have been obvious.

**************************************---

Two hours after planet-crack...

// Transit System Tram-12, USG Cloverleaf Vice, Eden System, October 2511 [Earth Time]

Over the aching that ravaged his head, he could just about focus on bringing up his comms. Images of monsters, twisted, horrific mutations of men and women he'd once been able to relate to were imprinted in his memory, fresh as the blood that caked his RIG. Their roars of rage and blood-lust still rang in his ears. His heart was thudding hard against his chest as his hands shook with the adrenaline in his blood-stream. Through it all he could hear the whispers.

The whispers from disembodied voices, thousands of them, all merging together. He couldn't decipher where one ended and the next started. It started soft. Then slowly, as time progressed more voices added to the noise. Increasing in volume, increasing... until breaking point...

"Bridge, Mountain. Do you read me bridge?" there was only static lighting up Arthur's face in the back of the dim tram careening through the Cloverleaf Vice's transit tunnels. Focusing on the task at hand was all he could do to push the whispers to the back of his thoughts. All he could do to drown them out with sane thought. "Bridge, God-damn it! Answer me!" Arthur yelled now, without prevail. He was still just staring at snow filling the vid-screen, and listening to white noise in his ear.

The tram rocked lightly causing Arthur to stumble weakly before catching himself on one of the support-poles. Looking out one of the windows he saw the walls of the transit tunnels outside race past. They were on their way to the bridge after narrowly escaping the medical deck. Arthur couldn't even comprehend what had happened. They were sent in to investigate a complete comms blackout with the medical deck. What they found...

Arthur shook his head. No, it couldn't be aliens... but then again, what else could it be. An infection maybe? Whatever it was it wasn't pretty. Everyone on the medical deck, including the security team - green team - they had gone in with had changed. Changed into monsters. Grotesque, malformed abominations that shrugged off gunfire like mosquito bites. Thinking about them made his hands shake again.

"Bachelor, I can't reach the bridge. You think... Batch?" Arthur straightened up, tightening the grip on the security officer's Divet. In the panic to defend themselves Sam had given Arthur his side-arm and ammo.

Now Sam was sitting in one of the empty tram benches, hunched over his RIG-link muttering to himself.

"Batch?" Arthur asked, leaning closer trying to enter the wolf's field of vision.

"Wait one." Sam snapped, holding up a hand and continuing to type with his other. "C'mon, baby. Pick up. Pick up, baby, pick up."

Straightening up, Arthur realised he didn't need Sam to tell him exactly what he was trying to do. The wolf's vid-link suddenly lit up and the visage of his wife suddenly appeared. Julia Fells seemed to be in a panic. Her eyes were wide and bloodshot with fright, she was breathing heavily and her hair was tangled. In short, minus the blood that splattered the duo's RIGs, Sam's wife was in no better shape than they were.

"Sam? Oh, praise Altman, Sam!" Missus Fells hissed in a low tone. "What's going on? I'm hearing noises, screaming and gunfire. I don't know what is going on out there, and I'm too afraid to go out and check."

"I know, baby." Sam said, worry creeping into his voice. That was something Arthur had never seen or heard before. The wolf was always cool, calm and calculated. Right now, Sam looked scared, but probably not for his own well-being. "Can you get to the escape pods? Can you do that?"

Julia shook her head as a wave of static crept down her image. "There's something outside the door, making noise. Sam, I'm so scared, where are you?" Tears started running down her cheeks, dragging with them tracks of light blue mascara that usually framed her eyes so beautifully.

"I'm on my way, honey!" Sam suddenly assured, taking Arthur by surprise. He was? They had to get to the bridge, report what was going on. Regardless, Sam continued: "Stay there and stay quiet. I'm coming to get you now!"

"Sam, please hurry." Her eyes widened further as more static took over the vid-link. In seconds her face was obscured and all they could hear were bits of her voice. "S... -ease, Sa... I... -ou, I lo... -am..." the transmission died completely.

"Julia? Julia!" Sam yelled, jumping to his feet and bashing a fist against the holo-panel projected from his RIG. "FUCK!!!"

The wolf suddenly looked to Arthur. Even standing up straight, the engineer was significantly smaller than the wolf.

"We're supposed to get to the bridge." Arthur said darkly with a cocked eyebrow.

As intimidating Sam's size was, all the effect was lost by the look on his face. A pleading look Arthur had never seen before. He looked desperate. He was practically begging Arthur with his eyes. "Mountain... Arthur..." Sam sighed deeply, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "She's my wife... my life." Sam raised his gaze again. "Please..."

Arthur didn't hesitate, shouldering his way past the wolf and standing between Sam and the tram controls. His index finger rested on the trigger guard for the Divet as he held the pistol by his side, his other hand balled into a fist. Sam had really lost it. The man who always put duty before everything else was now risking the lives of everybody on the Clover because he wanted to save his wife. They had an obligation already. They had to get to the bridge and report so that they could save everybody else's wives.

Arthur rubbed the bridge of his nose, gritting his teeth and willing this headache to end. Willing the whispers bugging him to just stop!

He's lost his mind. A familiar voice whispered, and Arthur instinctively swatted at the air beside his ear. There was nothing there.

You need to go to the bridge... leave his bitch to rot... leave the selfish jarhead to get himself and everyone else killed...

It is your duty...

He had to keep a straight head. This was result of shock and panic. He had to focus on what he would do if this was a normal situation. They had a duty. It was their responsibility to report to the bridge, no matter what. What was the life of one woman against the rest of the crew?

Still...

"God-damn it, Batch." Arthur turned his head and reached out, jabbing the perforated muzzle of the pistol against the tram-controls. He re-programmed their route, the motion of working with hardware distracting him. It helped. Helped push the whispers away. Helped settle his heart and nerves.

They weren't headed to the bridge anymore.

"Next stop, crew deck." A woman's bland voice announced.

Sam let out a sigh and closed his eyes, nodding. "Thank you... thank you, Arthur."

Arthur smirked and reached up, grabbing a handhold to hang off as the tram branched off the main transit tunnel and curved around towards the crew deck. "You owe me beers, dude. At least like..."

He paused for a moment to think. As he thought, Sam reached back and picked up his pulse rifle. They both activated their helmets, letting the collars of their RIGs open up to allow the articulated plates to slide up and over their heads before everything sealed shut again. The face-plates closed over with sharp 'clicks' hiding their faces behind glowing blue visors.

"At least like ten-thousand beers." Arthur finished, his voice muffled against the inside of his helmet.

Holding his pulse rifle high against his chest, Sam stood by the doorway like a battle hardened marine ready to disembark and APC into a battlefield. In a way, the comparison was valid. "Here's the plan. I'll go and get Julia. Stay here and protect the tram."

Behind the H-shaped faceplate of his engineering helmet, Arthur frowned. "Uh... splitting up? Every ounce of my common sense is telling me that's a shitty idea."

"It's either split up..." Sam said. "Or we can stick together and come back to find alien monsters either infesting or trashing our only ride out of here."

Above them the brakes engaged, causing a loud screech. As they slowed down, approaching the crew deck, Arthur inspected the interior of the tram. "Stay behind and protect out exit." The human nodded. "Yeah, I can do that."

The Crew Deck transit platform slid slowly into view and they jerked to a halt causing the duo to stumble lightly. A moment later the doorway opened up. Sam was the first one to step out onto the platform. Directly in front was a long glass waiting booth lined with benches and vending machines. The walls, including the advertisements for protein bars, upcoming movies and Peng outlets were smeared with streaks of blood. Thick black puddles formed on the floor and splatters of crimson coated the glass of the booth forming a grotesque stained-glass mural.

There were no bodies in sight. Arthur figured that would be because they bodies would have gotten up and walked off somehow. Three hours ago a thought like that would have seemed far-fetched to the human.

To the left was a corridor leading further into the crew deck. Sam would have to move through the lobby and up to the executive lounge. Julia Fells was a senior member of the science teams on board, so her private quarters would be up with the big-cheeses.

Before Sam moved across the station he paused, let his pulse rifle hang from one hand and half turned, looking over his shoulder. "Hey, Mountain. Look, don't be a hero, okay?" the wolf said. "If you have to run. If you have to leave me... don't think twice. Just go." With that the wolf shouldered his rifle and jogged out of sight leaving Arthur behind.

Leaning against the side of the idle tram, Arthur sighed. "I am not gonna listen to your crappy advice."

At the same time, he tried his best not to listen to the whispers.

**************************************---

// Executive Lounge, USG Cloverleaf Vice, Eden System, October 2511 [Earth Time]

The executive lounge was quiet, untouched by the horror and gore that seemed to take the rest of the Clover. The central floor receded downward a little, and the red carpet was clean and grime free. To Sam's right as he entered were some doors leading to some of the private quarters. He'd been here this morning, and knew julia's door wasn't far away.

His pulse rifle shouldered, the wolf made his way briskly forward, brushing past some of the glass-pillar displays holding various extra-terrestrial ores in a beam of clean light. near the end of the wide lounge was a narrow door, a sign beside it marked Julia Fells. That was his target. Sam almost sprinted towards it...

When he skidded to a ahlt and raised his rifle. Three targeting lasers, one projected from each of the trio barrelled weapon cut across the room to a nearby pillar. The glass display-case held a twisted chunk of rock, slightly metallic in composition, glittering in the light that made the ore hover at eye-height. But Sam wasn't watching what was inside the display-pillar.

Gathered t the foot of the pillar was a length of crimson rope. Intestine to be exact. It just lay there, limp surrounded by a few splashes of blood. It hung from where the other end of the intestine was knotted around the pillar at about chest-height. The end hanging on to the pillar had a head attached to it, human and bald, features torn away and parts of the skull exposed.

The whiplash creature was dead, but it freaked Sam out regardless. What the fuck was it supposed to be? What did it do... who had it once been? It didn't matter much. Sam readied his pulse rifle to tear it apart none the less. Noise discipline be damned, wasn't going to take any risks.

The security officer stopped as he heard a swishing noise. Sam's helmeted head jerked up and his visor locked on Julia. She stood there clad in a black jacket and white trousers that hugged her slender legs. She was tall, his height and had a healthy build. Her golden fur was spotted with black dots, and her black hair fell to her shoulders.

"Sam!" Julia called. She looked breathless, but her face was alive with glee at the sight of her husband. "Altman be Praised! Sam you came for me!" she started moving forward, but suddenly stopped.

Crimson slime splashed Sam's face-plate. He gagged, dropping his rifle as something yanked him off balance. Something was wrapped around his throat and squeezed... hard.

Pulling back, Sam grabbed hold of the whiplash wrapped around his throat and saw the creature wrapped around the pillar had sprang to life. The head bobbed and the lips parted in a silent scream. Wrapped around the pillar, tail end gripping Sam's throat in an iron grip, the 'strangler' pulled and jerked, forcing Sam to his knees as it closed his wind-pipe.

Julia screamed her husband's name as she darted forward to aid him... but something burst from a ventilation grate above her head. Debris filled the air as her vision blurred. Something heavy landed on top of her, moving and squirming to pin her forcefully to the ground.

Julia squirmed under the creature that landed on her. It was horrible, hardly recognisable as a human anymore. The legs were twisted and bent upward, the skin from the chest torn open and joining with the thighs to form a gross manta-ray like form. The arms were melded into the back forming a lumpy spinal column.

The ribcage was folded open, the internal organs converted into countless slippery tentacles of slimy crimson flesh. As the creature landed on her, the 'feet' grabbed her knees and spread her legs out, and an arm of necrotic flesh lashed out to close around her throat. Squeezing gently she was completely pinned to the ground as the creature's head tilted back.

The mouth opened and something slid out. For a moment Julia thought it was a tongue. It wasn't even close.

The new arm was jointed at numerous point, ending in a phallic stump at the very tip. It arched over her, twitching down towards her mouth, taking aim.

Keeping her jaw gritted, the cheetah shifted her eyes downward. By the crotch of her trousers a trio of barbed tentacles lashed out, they plucked at her trousers, picking away at the lint and fabric until the crotch area of her pants and her panties lay shredded somewhere by her tail. Another feeler emerged from the mass of flesh on the monster's crotch. Long, raw red and throbbing as it poised somewhere above her slit.

The more she struggled, the more erect it seemed to grow.

Julia whimpered, shutting her eyes slowly, breathing softly but quickly. "Holy creatures of another world." She whispered. "Take me..."

"Julia!" Sam managed to choke out trying to wrestle free of the strangler. "No! Julia!"

"Alter my flesh." Julia continued as both feelers poised to plunge into her. "Make me a servant to your will. A servant of the Marker. A servant to convergence... Altman be praised." Tears ran from her eyes and her voice went high as she praised her deity with panic gripping her heart. Fear had closed its cold fingers around her, her fate was out of her own hands now.

She was about to become a servant of the Marker. A high honour for any Unitologist, but terrifying none the less.

"No!" Sam forced out, one hand still loosening the appendage wrapped around his throat, the other reaching out to his wife. "JULIA! NOOOO!" He pulled, squirmed and threw his shoulders from side to side trying to tear off the strangler's tail. Anything for an upper hand. His eyes flitted to the pulse rifle laying discarded, but out of reach. If only...

By the time he'd thought of that, he was too late...

The appendage over her crotch raced down. The dull end met her outer lips and pressed hard, causing the cheetah to gasp. As her mouth opened wide, the arm protruding from the creature's throat arched down. The phallus on the end jabbed into her mouth and thrust into her throat, causing the woman to gag loudly as she retched up globules of mucus.

It only served to lubricate the appendage more as it started thrusting in and out, her lips wrapping tight around the shaft. Her teeth bit down and raked along the flesh. It was like biting down on rubber, but the creature didn't seem to notice. It was undead, it probably didn't feel any pain, any pleasure. This wasn't enjoyment for the monster.

It was moving with purpose.

The creature's crotch bobbed up slightly, then thrust down again. This time her the cheetah's nether-lips parted slightly and the head of the creature's phallus touched the warm, pink flesh on her opening. Bucking lightly, the head rubbed up and down, rubbing warm moisture over clitoris.

Julia groaned, feeling her walls part slightly as the creature pressed harder. The obstruction in her mouth continued to thrust past her tongue, every jab jamming the head into her throat for a moment before receding to let her take a breath. It didn't want to suffocate her. It wanted her alive.

Sam could only watch with horror as his vision narrowed. The creature's rear end lifted a little, then thrust down. This time there was no stopping.

Fully erect and lubricated with a mixture of clear mucus and blood, the monsters length plunged into her. Julia screamed and bit down. Her teeth raked over the phallus in her mouth, but it thrust on none the less. The other protrusion invaded her most inner sanctuary, painfully stretching her open and plunging as deep as possible. The head crashed to a halt against her cervix, sending a jolt of pain through her gut like the creature had just punched her in the stomach.

The feeler in her mouth held fast as the creature's hips bucked tight against hers, the 'feet' still pinning her knees wide apart.

And then it started moving. Thrusting and bucking. Julia screamed and bucked, feeling both protrusions violate her roughly. It tore in and out of her without affection or care. It didn't care about her enjoyment. It just cared about getting this done.

And it did the job as quickly as possible.

Something filled her. Something gooey and warm. It filled her throat until a thrust forced it down. The phallus in her vagina thrust deep again, crashing into her cervix before unleashing. She felt every twitch. Every wave of hot seed shoot up into her belly...

The raping had lasted about a minute. Sam would know, he kept his eyes fixed on the mission timer projected on his heads-up-display. The timer ticked away a minute as everything around him went black. All he could see were the cool blue digits, ticking on and on...

Sam blinked, but when his eyes opened everything was still black. The feeling in his limbs was failing. His throat hurt. His lungs ached for air. One hand was still trying to loosen the grip of the strangler around his throat, the other was feeling feebly along the ground.

His fingers suddenly closed on something hard. He felt around it and balled a fist. His index finger was touching a switch as the muscles in his arm strained and screamed. It took every ounce of his willpower to force his arm to move through the darkness swirling around him. He saw blurry images. The strangler wrapped around the pillar-case ahead, his fingers struggling against the whip-lash intestine...

His trigger-finger jerked back. Something punched him in the shoulder. Noise filled his ears, a screaming noise that nearly caused his throbbing brain to explode.

The strangler let go and Sam slumped to the ground, coughing and inhaling sharply. The darkness dispersed and his eyes were filled with white light. He just lay there for what felt like an eternity as the ceiling came into focus. The lights were harsh and blinded him. Squinting and weak, the wolf rolled onto his side and forced himself up to one knee, gripping his pulse rifle in one hand.

The strangler lay there, a limp chord of intestine trailing from his feet to the bundle wrapped around the pillar. The head on the end of the dead strangler was split in half by pulse rounds, smouldering brain matter laying in its wake.

A lucky shot to be sure. Still, Sam wasn't going to complain. Now for the next order of business...

Jumping to his feet and whipping around with his pulse rifle shouldered, Sam swept the room. The manta creature was gone. Julia was on her feet, dripping with blood and a whitish-clear ooze. It clung to the remaining shreds of her clothes and dried on her fur.

Her eyes were staring blankly forward, looking right through her husband who slowly lowered the pulse rifle. She was hunched over, her legs wobbly and her arms hanging limp and useless.

"Baby?" Sam retracted his helmet. It folded away neatly to reveal the wolf's agonised look. "Julia, honey, talk to me. Honey?"

He moved closer, his rifle hanging loosely in one hand. His other hand reached out to embrace his wife. He wanted to hold her, tell her everything would be alright. They'd get through this. They'd...

Julia twitched. She then convulsed. She then threw her head back and screamed. It curdled Sam's blood as he recoiled. Blood exploded across the wall behind Julia as something shot into the air. The arm of sinewy flesh connected with her shoulder from where it had burst. The arm ended in a vicious barb that slashed down.

The bone-scythe thudded home in Sam's neck, rupturing his aorta and puncturing his wind-pipe. The pain caused the wolf to gurgle blood and drop to his knees, the pulse rifle falling away forgotten. As he fell, the blade twisted, sending a squirt of blood shooting across Julia's dead face.

One hand gripping the barb in his throat, Sam held up his other hand as if pleading with his wife to stop. She didn't... she couldn't.

Another arm ending in a scythe burst from her other shoulder and slashed downward. Blood filled Sam's eyes for a moment. Blinking it away he looked with shock at the stump where his forearm had once been.

That look of shock remained frozen on his face as Julia's blade came down again and decapitated her husband...

**************************************---

// Crew Deck Transit Platform, USG Cloverleaf Vice, Eden System, October 2511 [Earth Time]

Arthur took a long, deep breath. His head was throbbing, his pulse pounding in his ears. He winced and rubbed the forehead of his helmet. The reflex to pain didn't help any, but it just felt right.

Comms were dead. He couldn't get hold of Sam, and it had been half an hour since the wolf departed for his wife. Arthur calculated it would take five minutes to get to Julia's quarters, five back. With resistance, maybe add ten minutes to that...

Sam was behind schedule. That never happened. Then again, today a lot of things were happening that Arthur thought would never happen. The figure standing by the tram doorway behind him was one of those things.

Arthur whipped around, pistol gripped tight in both hands with his finger curled around the trigger. The elongated muzzle of the Divet bobbed slightly as his hands trembled. This was impossible. It couldn't be him.

What are you doing, Arthur? His voice hissed. His lips didn't even move, as if the words were coming from inside Arthur's head.

Standing before the engineer was another human. He had dark hair, silver formed around the sides with a dark grey beard on his chin. His eyes were hollow, blood running down his pale cheeks. His dark blue dress uniform was ragged, stained with dirt as if he'd been buried at one stage. Two thin, bloodless cuts were on his wrists, diagonally across, with blood caking down on the palms of his dead hands.

It was Arthur's father, standing there after five years. After five years of death.

"No... no!" Arthur yelled, lowering the gun and balling his free hand into a fist, as if he was ready to strike the man in the face. "Go back to being dead!"

And let you ruin your life again? Paul Everest whispered, his lips unmoving. Everything about him was a military statue, his chin high, chest puffed out with his arms at his sides. His hollow eyes remained fixed on the engineer. You know this is wrong. You have to get to the bridge... finish the mission!

"Fuck the mission. And fuck you anyway!" Arthur said taking a defiant step closer. Every ounce of him wanted to believe this was just stress. This was just a hallucination as a result of a panic attack. "This isn't real. You're not real!"

Keep thinking this is not real. Arthur's father whispered. Keep running from your responsibilities. Keep ignoring your duties. Don't you ever learn? To see you like this, waiting like a sick puppy for your friend to come back... it makes me wish I could kill myself all over again. He added with malice entering his tone.

"Get out of my head." Arthur shook his head in disbelief before taking another step and yelling in the face of Paul Everest. "YOU'RE NOT MY FATHER!!!"

His father suddenly jerked to life. His hands came up and grabbed the sides of Arthur's helmet as his mouth opened wide and he leaned over his son. Blinding light erupted from his mouth and eyes as he screamed. But the scream was inside Arthur's head. It caused his senses to explode and his heart to stop. His head throbbed a million times worse and it felt like his brain might just pop like an over-inflated balloon.

Crying out at nothing Arthur swung his gun up and slashed a wide blow through Paul Everest's head... and in a blink of an eye he was gone. There was no screaming, there was no living corpse of a father he knew was dead and buried a long time ago. Why couldn't that bastard take the headache with him when he disappeared?

Arthur fell onto all fours, thumping his forehead against the deck with a metallic 'clang.' He coughed, trying to catch the breath he'd suddenly lost. His lungs ached like he'd run a marathon. His brain felt like someone was taking sandpaper to it. It felt like he had grit in his eyes as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Ffffuuuu-ugh-cugh-uuck, me, sideways." Arthur coughed, planting one boot on the deck and pushing his arms down on his knee.

Slowly he managed to force himself up to his feet again and looked around. No signs of life. No father. Just the faint wail of a crying baby momentarily drowned out by a burst of gunfire and the angry roar of some sort of unholy monster.

There were people out there fighting for survival. Sam among them. This was taking way too long. Arthur had to do something.

"Fuck this shit." The human mumbled checking his pistol. About five shots and two full magazines left. Not much, but hopefully he'd find a weakness on the monsters swarming the Cloverleaf Vice and then he wouldn't need so much ammo.

Gripping the weapon in two hands by his side, Arthur slowly moved across the tram station and looked down the declining hallway that led to the crew deck lounge. Raising his Divet, Arthur slowly moved down the hallway, the portal revealing the lounge beyond growing wider and revealing more as he closed in. he spotted some vending machines, some couches and loungers. The walls were splashed with blood, but not just irregular splatters.

It was organised. Drawings in crimson that glistened in the artificial light. Complex symbols, spirals and rough sketches of demonic entities were scrawled all over the floor and walls.

Narrowing his eyes, Arthur stopped halfway down the hallway. He'd heard something. The distinct hiss of a hydraulic door opening. Something on the far end of the lounge, out of his field of vision. The sound was followed by running footsteps, heels clicking on the floor. He heard short, panicked breaths... and then an enraged roar that caused a cold chill to run across Arthur's skin.

A figure ran around the corner, looking over its shoulder as it entered the hallway. Three steps up the ramp towards where Arthur was it looked up again and froze at the sight of the armoured human.

She was about his age, a vixen clad in only a bra. She was limping and trailing blood where her left foot had stepped on something sharp, and blood seeped from between her fingers where one hand clamped down on her right forearm. Splashes of blood, probably not hers, splattered the left side of her torso, staining her dark blue bra and matting her dark grey fur. Her eyes were widened with terror, but there was a glimmer of life there still.

He noted the relief as she sighted him.

"Help." She called hoarsely, limping towards him, holding out one hand for balance.

Arthur only hesitated a second before moving forward to help her. "Are you okay? Are there..." he was going to ask if there were 'more of them.' He should have kept his mouth shut.

There were more of them alright. Just not more of what he wanted.

Monsters loomed into sight behind the woman. The same creatures as before. They used to be people. What remained was their frame, a torn dead husk now home to something vicious and hungry for death. The first was a man. The species was impossible to distinguish, his fur only covering him in patches. His muzzle had been snapped away like a dry twig leaving only pointed teeth visible. His eyes were sunken and hollow, neck broken, head swinging limp with the sway of his motion. He was carried forward on a gimp-leg, his right knee snapped backward and every time he put weight on it a sickening pop or crackle was heard. His arms were gathered around his abdomen which looked to be torn open and spilling over his weak looking hand. From his shoulders sprouted sinewy arms of muscle tendon, each ending in a jagged scythe of solid bone.

The next creature was female, stark naked like the man. She too only had patches of blood matted fur left, her muzzle twisted and grotesque. Angry, massive welts formed on her exposed skin, pulsing as they leaked white-yellow puss. Her arms were still functional, unlike the male, and she had long scythes protruding from the palms of her hands. Her front was sheared open, her ribcage flexed open slightly and everything inside seemed to have been scooped clean out.

As they limped closer, they started swinging their blades, slashing at the air. Following these first two 'slashers' were more. There were five... and then six... and then ten... and then there were too many to count. A writhing mass of mutilated bodies lurching closer as Arthur took the woman's hand and helped her up the ramp.

Taking aim, the engineer squeezed the trigger on his Divet. He let a long burst fly. Five rounds disappeared into the undead mass. There was no effect, and the slide of his pistol locked back indicating the last of his mag was expended.

No time to reload. The weapon clicked home on a magnetic hard point on his waistline as Arthur pulled at the vixen. "Time to leave, c'mon!"

They swiftly crossed the transit platform, the slashers moaning somewhere behind. Before the creatures even made it to the platform Arthur was already sitting the vixen down on board the tram.

An angry roar rang out and the human whirled around, framing himself in the tram's single doorway. The first monster limped into sight and swung his head around to look Arthur in the eye. That was it. Sam was cut off.

"Shit." The human whispered as the first slasher was joined by his friends and they started moving across the platform towards him. "Fuck!" he finally yelled sealing the door and punching the controls.

Slowly the tram slid into motion, leaving the crew deck behind. The platform moved out of sight and they disappeared into the transit tunnels, a bored woman's voice announcing the next stop to be the bridge.

Arthur looked at the vixen. She was doubled over, sobbing as she clutched her wounds. He'd see to her in a minute. Turning away, Arthur retracted his helmet, letting it break away into parts and slide neatly into the collar of his Engineering-RIG. Pressing two fingers against his left ear, Arthur opened up a channel directed at Sam's RIG.

"Sam? Sam!" Arthur called, watching the blank vid-screen hover in front of him. All he saw was a black screen with some static along the edges. There was no reply, no white noise and no feed-back... it was like Sam's RIG was offline.

And that would mean only one thin...

"No!" Arthur shook his head. "Don't even think it. Sam's a tough son of a bitch. He can take it." He sighed. There was still that nag in the back of his mind that told him he was lying to himself.

With a sigh, Arthur turned to go see to the vixen. "Miss, are you..." he turned fully and looked to where he'd left her. She wasn't there anymore.

Standing in her place was something different entirely. Female, definitely judging by the rounded breasts and an athletic hourglass figure. She had a powerful tail, the tip of which rested the floor behind her long slender legs. Her hips were cocked slightly, one hand resting on the right side of her waist. The naked body was covered in blood red reptilian scales, a darker shade of red along her chest, abdomen and on the inside of her thighs. Her smooth shoulders ran up into a long slender neck that formed into an elegant viper's head. Her snout was flat, slits for nostrils with a pair of pure black slanted eyes. Arthur couldn't even see her pupils, her eyes were just black pits that glistened under the halogen lights of the tram.

There were a pair of crystalline horns sprouting from her temples that curved up along the sides of her head.

"What the fuck." Arthur managed to let loose. It wasn't a question though. More of a final statement.

As he said it, the crimson vipress launched herself forward, maw open wide to reveal a quad of long, vicious fangs oozing with venom...