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With darkness descending: The story of Triss Nighthunter. A furry fiction by Rocko Wallaby

DISCLAIMER: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 3: Introductions.

The human and Krynn eyed each other across the kitchen table, sipping their respective drinks, and considering what to say.

The man burned with questions to ask the creature opposite. Clearly, he wasn't human, although he considered that asking "what the hell are you?" might be overly rude. It was also obviously intelligent, not to mention surprisingly interesting looking, with its shiny deep brown fur with black highlights, large tufted ears and a muzzle full of very sharp teeth. At around 5 foot 6, it was quite a bit shorter than the lanky human, but was packed with wiry muscles that looked itching to release. Bright yellow eyes watched him carefully from below bushy brows. Dangerous looking too, with all those claws and teeth. He seemed friendly enough, although it looked pretty uncomfortable with his being there. Not surprising, given he probably wasn't meant to be.

In return, Triss considered the human carefully. The fact he hadn't gone mental when he'd woke up alone and isolated in such a strange facility pointed to a stoic sort of personality, which was unsurprising in his profession. However, he knew he was in a world of shit when the powers that be discovered his slip-up in allowing the human access into the cache unmonitored. Shrugging internally, he dismissed it as unavoidable. No changing the past, and as killing the human wasn't really an option, he had to deal with him directly.

Sighing, he looked at the human, before reaching towards him with a hand outstretched. "Triss" he said.

The human looked at him, then his hand, eyeing the sharp looking claws thoughtfully, before reaching out himself, enclosing the furred hand with his own and gripping it firmly. "Travers" he replied, before releasing his grip and returning to his seat. Taking a sip from his coffee, he brought his thoughts into order, before asking "I don't suppose there is a perfectly logical reason for all this, is there?" waving his hand at the room around him.

Triss thought for a moment, before grinning and replying "It depends on where you're standing. From my perspective, it's just a normal day in the office, although having you in here drinking my coffee fucks my morning up nicely."

Trav chuckled, resting his cup on the table and leaning closer. "OK. Let me try summing it up. Obviously, you're not from around here. You're also no guy in a dog suit. This setup is pretty sophisticated. Clearly expensive to set up, too. It's also pretty clear you've been here a long time, given your familiarity with us. Doing well so far?"

Triss nodded, and replied "Go on. You're doing fine"

Gazing at him thoughtfully, Trav continued "You had some business rolling over those scum last night?"

Triss shook his head. "Nope. Pure coincidence. Came across them while coming home from a movie. Saw you go down, and couldn't leave you there"

Trav raised an eyebrow, looking down at his furred countenance. "You were seeing a movie? Looking like that? Seriously?"

"Yep. Popcorn; frozen Coke; the works."

"Which movie?"

"Transformers, actually"

"So, the large wolf alien guy went out to see a movie about space robots, before rolling a whole bunch of criminals, and dragging my sorry ass back here to patch up?"

"Well, apart from not looking like an alien wolf guy at the time, that's the long and short of it, yeah" Triss replied.

He flicked on his chameleon system, and the human raised an eyebrow further, as the furry features were superimposed by those of a short, wiry, human.

Trav looked him over, before reaching out and touching Triss on the arm again. Still furry.

"Neat, but you look better as a...whatever you are. As a human, you're pretty...boring"

"Krynn" Triss volunteered, before turning the chamo off. "Sorry, but it itches like a bitch at times. Makes my fur stand on end. Besides, boring is good. Helps us blend in."

"Yeah. I can see that. Hmm."

Trav leaned back, eyeing Triss cautiously. "What did you think of the movie?"

Triss chuckled again, before replying "Bit retarded, actually. Had enough holes in the plot to drive a bus through. A typical "Michael Bay movie". Harry Potter was much better"

Trav gave a barking laugh, before asking the important one "So you're not part of an alien invasion force, out to enslave us?"

Triss snorted, spraying a mouthful of coffee from his nose across the table, before coughing harshly to clear his airways. Always alien invasions with these humans, he thought! What is with their anal probe obsession?

After he recovered enough to reply, he rolled his eyes and said to Trav "Do you have any idea how unfeasible an alien invasion is? Really? The logistics alone are unworkable. Bringing in enough ships, personnel and equipment to take over a planet this size while subduing the occupants as slaves, or whatever, when there are billions of asteroids circling this sun with mining resources to put this mud ball to shame? Umm, no. No enslavement by aliens. Not even with giant robots. Sorry..."

Trav nodded. "Didn't really think so" he said. "Does beg the question, though. Why are you here?"

Sighing, Triss made a decision. One that would likely have his arse kicked out of the corps, but he decided he liked this human, and his attitude. What the fuck was one more broken law, when he'd already fucked the whole rule book.

"Well, you see, you have a pest problem, that you're not even aware of. One that could screw up your whole planet if left untreated. We call them Marauders, and it's my job to exterminate them."

________________________________________________________

"The marauders came out of the Seta quadrant, first making themselves known around 2500 of your years ago. It's not that they caused a huge fuss at the time. Quite the opposite, in fact. Ships crossing the area just... disappeared. Cargo vanished, crew vanished. No trace.

Lots of investigations were conducted. Patrol ships were dispatched, scientists were sent looking for vagrant wormholes, sub space eddies, anything that could explain it. Nothing was found.

A decade passed, more ships were lost. Eventually, the Corps were irritated enough to send a whole squad out there, laden with detection equipment and the best of the scientists, to look into it thoroughly. The last report we had from them was they were checking out an old ion trail, possibly from the passing of a group of ships, and had planned on sending scouts out to investigate."

Triss looked at the human watching him thoughtfully, before sighing and continuing.

"That was the last we heard from them. Forty heavily armed ships vanished, just like the rest, with one exception. Someone had the foresight, as well as the opportunity, to send back a data probe. While limited in information, it did reveal the squad had been attacked by a large number of vessels, greatly outnumbering their own. They hadn't a chance. Sure, they took out a lot, but outnumbered ten to one, all they could do was put a dent in their opponents before being annihilated. Seems the enemy had developed a communications suppression field, to ensure their raids were conducted in secret. The probe lay there relatively dormant, recording the event, including their stripping of the ships and slaughter of the crews. Anyone left standing was simply rounded up, stuck in an airlock, and spaced while still alive. Not a pretty sight.

They spent two days gutting what they could from the wrecks, before they all returned to subspace. The probe took the opportunity to slip away, but not before recording one final action of the pirates. They set off a Nova bomb to cover their escape. It basically annihilates matter, reducing the whole area of space to its component atoms, before sucking them into a wormhole it creates. Hence, the lack of any material evidence, not to mention survivors"

Leaning back and taking a sip of his quickly cooling coffee, he continued.

"We called them Marauders, since that's what they did. Eventually, one of their ships were captured, and the crew interrogated. Xenophobes of the worst kind. Hell, they make you humans look downright friendly by comparison. So, the United Systems left them alone. No one entered their territories, and the killing and looting stopped.

The peace, if you can call it that, lasted until around 100 years ago, when they suddenly began expanding. Their modus operandi differed this time, in that they infiltrated a planets government, bribing their way into the system, while clandestinely gathering information on the biology of the planet and its inhabitants. Once they get their claws in deep enough, they'd leave. At least, until they send a DNA selective bio bomb to the world to wipe out the sapient species, leaving the planet free for them to colonise. It was then ready to inhabit with all the original infrastructure still in place! It's the first time your actual alien invasion idea worked, in part. Genocide is a little bit different than occupation and suppression. Although with no-one on planet to oppose them, they didn't need to invade anything; simply moving in and occupied the place. When they were avoiding United System worlds, there was little we could do about them, apart from keep an eye on their actions and sabotaging their operations whenever possible. That's where I fit in. Field agent; saboteur; terrorist to marauders; whatever way you want to call it. If we think the planet suitable, we can offer them membership in the US, and what protection they can offer against the enemy. If not, well...we can try warning them, but...."

Trav thought about this "So, where do we rate?"

Triss sighed "Your species has an enormous amount of potential for good, coupled with an equally large tendency towards violence. The council is still deciding if you're an ally, or a menace as bad as the marauders. Personally, I find you people kind of refreshing. United System planets tend to be... overly civilised. If they were any more anal, they'd have their heads up each other's collective arses. You humans though, you're alive in ways they only dream about"

Triss leaned forward, almost eagerly "I hope they continue to help you, as I think you deserve helping. The real issue is getting you lot to work together towards a common goal, in the time left before you're all wiped out."

"So, why not just come out into the open and explain this to the world's governments?" Trav asked, before grimacing at his own question. He'd seen enough movies on how they'd handle such a situation, too.

Triss nodded. "Exactly. You pinkskins, as a whole, have an issue determining priorities. Your leaders would fight to the death, both verbally and literally, on how to handle this, while the Marauders wiped you out from within, unchallenged."

Travers pondered the implications of that last statement, asking himself whether he believed the story. While he was sure there was more to the truth than this, he realised he couldn't risk the future of the human species by taking the chance it wasn't at least partially real. Besides, the worst that could happen is he made an arse of himself, or ended up dead. Given yesterday, as death was a certainty he'd already avoided once this week, he assumed he had nothing to lose there. He needed to find out all the facts. Besides, he kind of liked this alien, fur and all. So he asked, with an ironic grin. "How do I help?"

Triss raised an eyebrow in a remarkably human way, before replying "Hmm, seriously? I'd need to call in a few favours, but... what the fuck. Telling you all this, I'm already up to my eyeballs in shit. What could it hurt."

Leaning across the table, he clapped Travers on the shoulder, before sitting back with a toothy grin. "Welcome to the Corps, human. The last line of defence before the world goes to shit. Lets hope we all survive the experience"

____________________________________________________________

Some time later, Triss returned to the kitchen room where Trav was waiting, and slumped into his seat in relief. When the human eyed him curiously, he gave him a weary thumbs up, before reaching into the fridge for some beers.

"Well, that was....difficult", he sighed, before popping the caps with a claw and passing one across to Trav. "While it appears I'll be up for some further training when I return on the appropriateness of releasing classified information to indigenous life forms, they eventually caved in, seeing as how the damage had already been done. I think I should consider it fortunate I'm not due back at HQ for at least a few years!"

Trav grinned, taking a swig of his brew, and leaning forward towards the furred alien. "So, what now?" he asked.

Triss looked at him, before drinking himself. "Oh, now we get you up to speed!"

Trav looked puzzled for a moment "On?" he asked.

"Everything" was the reply.

Continued in Chapter 4: Mission.