FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

After that night, Faline and I would meet whenever we could. Weather it was during training, while we were eating, or us sneaking out before the barracks were locked. Basic took all of 7 months to complete, but it felt like days with Faline and Firedrake by my side. Especially when we would cause trouble whenever we could. We would all be punished for it, but it was worth the laugh.

The most memorable was when Rolland's birthday came along, he had made us miserable that day for wishing him a happy birthday, so we plotted our revenge. Around midday the next day, the cook asked Firedrake and I to help him lift a few things. Before we left, we asked him to make a cake for Rolland. He agreed to our terms, and managed to scrap up a cake.

While we were doing our usual 40 mile run, Firedrake and I managed to separate ourselves from the group, and made our way to the mess hall. Firedrake had barely enough time to set up a pulley system with a rope attached to the cake, which was laying on a table by the door, to the door itself. If anyone came through that door, they would get a face full of cake.

Just as predicted, Rolland was the first to enter, and the snap of the pulley caught our attention. We turned just in time to witness the cake collide with Rolland's muzzle. Rolland froze in the doorway as Firedrake started to laugh. Rolland then shook his head violently, sending cake flying everywhere, and locked his angry gaze onto Firedrake, silencing him immediately.

Rolland then charged Firedrake, chasing him around the training grounds for hours before giving up and returning to the mess hall. The next day, everyone, including Rolland was laughing about it.

"Taro, wake up before Rolland....." Firedrake pleaded as a sharp pain ripped through my back.

"Ahh what the hell!" I screamed, leaping from my bed and running into a red dragon, knocking him down. I then turned to see Rolland who was standing beside Firedrake at my bed. I turned to inspect my back, only to find a full set of teeth indention's.

"You bit me?" I angrily shouted as Rolland approached me.

"Sleep in again, and ill break your neck." He said angrily before turning and exiting the building. I watched him leave, then turned to see everyone starring at me.

"What!" I commanded, causing them to go back to what they were doing. I then walked to a small chest behind my bed that had what little valuables I was allowed to keep. I opened it, and retrieved my dog tags which also had a cross attached to them. The cross came from a necklace that I wore as a human, but could no longer fit the chain around my neck. With the help of Firedrake, I managed to get them on. I quickly helped Firedrake get his on, as Rolland ordered us all outside.

Once we had all lined up outside, Rolland and a yellow and green dragon talked for a few minuets. The dragon was wingless and his colors, looking as if he had been shot by a ton of green paint balls, somehow looked familiar.

"Great, now we have to deal with Rolland and Volteer." Firedrake, who was beside me said.

"Volteer, whose that?" Faline, who was on the other side of me asked.

"He works with the wingless dragons, and he's ruthless." Firedrake whispered to us. I opened my mouth to talk, but was cut off by Rolland.

"Today, we will start weapons training." He said loudly, sending commotion throughout the line.

"I know, all of you are probably wondering, how does a dragon use a weapon." He said as 12 large trucks appeared from behind the mess hall. Rolland turned to the trucks as a human jumped out of the driver seat of first truck and approached him. They talked for a moment, then Rolland turned to Volteer and commanded.

"Take them the long way around, I'll go help these guys set up." Rolland jumped into the back of the lead truck and they started to drive off.

"Alright, you heard him, lets go." Volteer commanded as we got onto the road that the vehicles had gone down. After a few miles, a Humvee passed us and we turned onto a smaller pathway that started to lead up a mountain. Within minuets, we were at the peak, which over looked a field with the vehicles in it. The field was surrounded like a bowl by mountains, a true sight to behold.

Within minutes, we reached the trucks and were told to relax. The trucks were all lined up with there fronts facing the mountain on which we had just come from, and the backs facing another mountain, about 5 miles from us. We were all laying in front of the trucks, watching as the Humvee that passed us earlier placed multiple metal pallets about 4 foot in width and height in the large field. They placed maybe 30 targets at different ranges, the furthest, maybe 5000 meters out.

Rolland appeared from behind the middle truck followed by 4 humans. He was wearing a vest, and a head band type thing with a small plate of glass in front of his right eye. The vest had 2 machine type things attached to his side, both machines having a barrel coming out from each one. There were 3 ammo boxes, like you'd expect to see under a 50 cal machine gun, or a LMG on his left side. All were entrapped by a larger metal box, with the munitions leading to the machine. The other side was similar, but with 2, much larger ammo boxes instead of 3.

"When you go into combat, you will be equipped with 1 of 7 weapons vests." Rolland said as a slight humm started to come from the vest.

"All are equipped with a M24 SAW and a weapon that you will specialize in. You will then be put into squads of 5, each member of your squad, using a different weapon, they will be placed to cover your weaknesses, to make them stronger. Rolland said as he motioned for us to follow him behind the trucks. I was the first to stand, followed by a purple and gold female.

Soon we were all standing behind the trucks, starring at the different vests. The biggest being a re-sized 105MM Howitzer, and the smallest was a 9MM Vulcan Gatling Gun.

"Each of you will try on a vest that fits your fighting style." Rolland said, catching our attention.

"You will then have a vest custom made to fit your body. These vests use gyroscope technology. One example of this is the weapon system of the Apache attack helicopter, thus meaning that wherever I look, the weapon will look with me." He said as the humm stopped, he then looked over the crowd, and amazingly, the weapon followed.

"I am currently using the 20MM long range rifle, and a trained user of this weapon, can make a kill at up to 4 miles." Rolland said looking at us one by one, the weapon following his gaze. I felt extremely nervous being on the business end of a 20MM, and could now tell what the term, psychological warfare truly meant.

"The thing around my head is the firing mechanism for this weapon. It may not look like much, but this little band reads my body actions, thus meaning I can fire the weapon, simply by thinking ....fire." He said making a few dragons jump.

"What about the glass in front of your eye?" the green dragon from the first day of training asked.

"The glass in front of my eye is a HUD, telling me how much ammunition is remaining, how well the weapon is working, and on this version, a 2,000 meter zoom, not including the digital gun sight." Rolland said , turning to a human beside him. The human then came and picked Faline from the crowd.

She rose, and followed the human to the side of a truck and out of view. Then 6 other men came and grabbed multiple dragons from the crowd. A man came and chose Firedrake, he silently rose and left with the man, making me feel like a fool when I started to talk to him, only to moments later realize that he was no longer by my side. Instead he was at a truck directly behind me with a human, smiling like a child on Christmas eve. He shook his head and mouthed the words "you idiot". I shot him an angry look, making him smile again.

I then turned to Rolland, but quickly fixed my gaze to Faline, who had appeared from the side of the truck, wearing a weapons vest. She glanced at me, then quickly away, blushing slightly. I smiled at her, and turned to Rolland, who had his gaze locked onto her. The human then appeared from the side of the truck and approached Faline.

"What vest is she wearing?" Rolland asked the man, as he began to flip a few switches on the vest.

"Heavy 50." the man replied as he finished his work.

"The vest she is wearing, is equipped with the Browning 50.CAL heavy machine gun. Each of you will be watched carefully on how you are with the weapon, if you can use the weapon easily, then more than likely, you will enter combat with it, if not , we will find one that your more comfortable with." Rolland said as he turned and muttered something to Faline. They then walked about 20 yards from us and stopped.

He was telling her how to work the system when the others came from the trucks, each wearing a different vest. Firedrake then came into view, he was carrying the 105MM Howitzer on his back. He met my gaze and said aloud,

"You see how big this gun is!" in a half excited, half scared tone. The weapon was different than the others, it was positioned on his side just a few inches from where his tail began, and the barrel came to a stop a little past his neck. A large box type thing lay across his back, the apparent magazine for the weapon, with the usual SAW on his right side. Suddenly, Falines 50 rang out, scarring me slightly and causing me to turn to her. Those rounds were quickly followed by 2 shots from Rolland's 20MM. The shock-waves penetrated deep into my chest, making me smile with excitement.

The humans that picked the dragons out, walked to the dragons they chose side's, and instructed them on how to work the weapon. Moments later, the loud humm of the Vulcan filled the air. The red and brown dragon that was firing the weapon, stopped firing, surprised by the large amount of noise the weapon had given off. He smiled and began to fire in bursts on the metal targets, the tracers hitting the metal, then going straight into the air.

I turned my attention to Firedrake, who was widening his stance slightly. The human that was helping him took a few steps back. An enormous BOOM rocked him, making him slide a few inches backward. The sound hitting me gave me slight headache, so I knew that it had to have done something to him. He took a step forward and shook his head violently, as another much larger explosion, completely decimated the area about half a mile away from us. A tap on my shoulder caused me to turn from this amazing sight to a human, it was my turn. I rose and followed him to the truck. He uncovered a vest with the 20MM LRR on it.

"Stand still." he commanded. I complied as he alone, lifted the vest and placed it onto my back, strapping a few things together to hold the vest onto me after getting it settled onto my back. To tell you the truth, the vest wasn't as heavy as it looked.

He then put the band onto my head, tightened it to my head size, and moved the blank HUD in front of my eye, with the sounds of gunfire inspiring both feelings of fear and excitement.

"Is the HUD supposed to be blank?" I asked him, cocking my head slightly to the left.

"Hold on." he said in a tone that reminded me of my father as a wave of regret washed over me. I haven't even thought of my parents since the first day of training. What would they be doing now, without me, what about Sam. Have they even thought of me since I disappeared, are they even caring about where I was?

A loud click brought me out of my thoughts, and I turned to the man working on my back. The words "Loading", then appeared in front of my eye. That was quickly followed by the vest condition, and a small, digitalized cross-hair in front of my eye. The man then walked in front of me, and held his hand up.

"Follow my hand." he said as he slowly started to move it. I followed with my gaze, and so did the weapon.

"Stay there." he said as he walked to my left side, and ordered me to look at him.

I complied, immediately noticing that the weapon on my right side only went to my neck then stopped, but the other continued to follow my gaze. He did the same on my right side, again the left barrel stopped at my neck, and the right continued to follow.

"Your good to go." he said as he turned and led me to Rolland, then picked another dragon to follow him.

"How's the back?" Rolland asked me, laughing at himself like he had made a joke. I shot him an angry look, that shut him up. He stopped laughing and ordered me onto my stomach. I reluctantly complied, laying on my stomach.

"To zoom in, just think it, then think fire." Rolland said turning from me and firing 2 shots off, easily hitting the 800 yard target.

"OK." I said , focusing myself onto the same target that Rolland had hit, and amazingly, it zoomed onto the target giving me an amazingly clear view of it.

"Wow, ok fire, fire." I thought to myself. "BRAK BRAK" 2 shots from my 20 rang out, easily hitting the target I was locked onto.

I could see out the corner of my eye, Rolland smiling at me.

"Lets go for half a mile." he said before fireing 2 rounds onto the target, followed by me, both of our rounds hitting there mark.

"Now 1 mile target." Rolland said to me, making 2 quick shots, 1 missing and the other hitting its mark. I followed making 1 shot, barely hitting the side of the target.

"Close one." Rolland said.

"Now hit the 2 mile mark."

He waited about 3 seconds before firing 2 shots, both missing, but barely. Everyone had there eyes locked onto me, none firing or even daring to move.

"Come on, you got this." I silently ordered myself, before firing 2 shots off, each one about 2 seconds apart from each other, both hitting dead center of the target.

"Damn." Rolland muttered under his breath. This made me smile with joy, I had just out shot someone who had been doing this for his whole life. He turned to me and said,

"Time for your M24." he then stood and shook himself, I followed also shaking the dirt from my scales. We then fired a few hundred SAW rounds off. About an hour later, we were all loaded into the trucks. I was loaded into the third truck with Firedrake, Faline, the cocky green dragon from day 1, and the brown and red dragon that was using the Vulcan.

After the others had loaded up, Rolland jumped into the back of our truck and stated happily,

"I'm riding with you guys." he then laid down on the edge of the truck bed, looking out the back.

"What are we doing now Rolland?" Faline asked as the engine of our vehicle came to life and we started to move. He turned to us and smiled greatly,

"Your going to do a combat simulation."