FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

(There just seems to be something about Dragosects that my muse finds interesting and gets my fingers to moving. This is the first Dragosect Tale I threw together, inspired by the picture shown, a piece done by the very skilled Slushy(http://www.furaffinity.net/user/slushy/) over on FA, with the picture itself posted with his permission in order to give the story some context and visuals.)

Engineer Johnson's personal log, Entry 213

It's been a rough, strange week.

When the ship started experiencing a critical failure of the coolant system(I told the Captain that the equipment he was buying wasn't worth the credits, but he just couldn't pass up the 'Buy 2 get one free' offer), leading to a rapid overheating of the engine, and a locking up of most of the ship's systems, I thought we were done for.

The momentary spark of hope the four of us felt when Sam, the other engineer/mechanic ran the scanner and found a planet with a breathable atmosphere within range was quickly snuffed out when the rest of the results came in, listing it as an apparently barren desert planet. Still, any lifepod in a meteor shower as the saying goes, so all of us piled in the emergency escape shuttle and shot off as quickly as the thrusters would take us before the ship's engines went critical.

On a rather morbid note, the explosions when they did were rather impressive. Best 'fireworks' I'll likely ever see in my life.

The ride down was rather bumpy, but it had nothing on the landing(if you can call it that), and I can only assume the shuttle came from the same source as the coolant system(someone really needs to tell the captain that there are some things you do not want to skimp on when looking to buy). However, as shaken up as we all were, and as totaled as the shuttle ended up, thankfully all of us made it through with nothing more than a few bruises and scrapes.

With the shuttle's systems fried and/or trashed from the landing, and the forward window showing nothing but a small patch of sand in front of the shuttle, if we wanted to see anything else it meant we'd have to do it manually, using the classic 'Eyeball version 1.0'. However, we'd only just managed to pull the survival gear out of the lockers when suddenly we heard some light 'tapping' on the hull. Seeing nothing out the front window, we assumed it was just something blowing across the desert and bumping into the shuttle, or at least that's what we hoped it was, because really, didn't our day suck enough already?

However, as we soon learned, this was not the case. Worse, it ended up being the lesser of our problems.

No sooner than the survival packs had been strapped on the backs of two of the others(for once being the skinny, 'weak' guy paid off, score one for a lighter build!), than we started to notice the air becoming rather thick, with a pungent, burning, 'oh crap that's not supposed to happen' smell, with what looked like wisps of smoke coming from the back of the shuttle. Deciding that was our cue to leave, we all quickly gathered near the secondary emergency escape hatch(the first being rather thoroughly jammed by sand), with the captain just barely about to open it when we found out, in a rather surprising manner, just what was really causing the noises we'd heard against the hull before, as the hatch was opened from the outside, and none too gently.

Big. There was green, and glowing gold, but the first thing that struck you was whatever it was, it was big.

Before he could do more than yell out, the captain was quickly yanked out the now open hatch by a giant, green, clawed hand. Shocked into silence by what happened, the three of us left could only stand there, looking up at the open hatch and the flashes of green and gold we could see through it. After a moment of almost silence(from the whatever-if-was anyway, the captain was hollering up a storm), we heard the captain let out a 'What in the-', cut short by a loud, and rather juicy sounding *SQUELCH*, then silence.

Assuming the worst, myself and the other two looked around for something, anything we could use as a weapon to defend ourselves, but before we had a chance to grab anything the the other two were quickly ensnared by a pair of strange 'rope' looking things that shot through the hatch, with glowing, almost feathery ends on them. Just as quick as the captain, the two of them were yanked out, and again the loud *SQUELCH* noise was heard, this time twice.

At this point the smoke had filled most of the cabin, with the only fresh air coming in through the hatch, making me more than a little dizzy and lightheaded, not to mention starting to cough, which, unfortunately, was more than enough of a distraction for the 'rope' to slip in while I wasn't looking, somehow managing to loop around my wrists, before pulling me out.

Temporarily blinded by the bright sunlight coming down, it took me a few seconds to blink away the tears, but when I did... well, 'shock' just doesn't quite describe my feelings in that moment. We'd thought the part we'd managed to see was big, but it was nothing compared to the rest of the creature. The central part of it's body alone had to be almost 20 feet, with a pair of massive legs probably doubling that.

Speaking of legs, I was surprised at how almost familiar this 'alien' creature was to life I was used to. Despite the outer shell-like covering, and insect-ish face and body, with two waving antennae above it(finally I knew what had grabbed me), the creature's body itself was remarkably human like, with two arms, two legs, a neck and a recognizable head. It even had a pair of eyes and a mouth in an earth style configuration.

My moment of shock over, I of course quickly focused on the mouth most of all, given I assumed I'd be rather quickly getting a much 'closer' look at it. However, much to my surprise, that was not where I ended up heading. Feeling a soft nudge at my hanging feet, I looked down to see a rather large, flexing opening, attached to an even larger part of the creature's body, all of it glowing a bright yellow-gold. If I wasn't going down the front, then that meant- looking up at the creature, I swear I could almost see a *smirk* on that alien face, as the opening slowly but surely slid up my legs, engulfing my feet and then working their way up.

At about chest 'deep', I felt something else bump my feet, and looking down I could barely make out a couple of moving shadows in the organ I found myself being stuffed in to. Still coming to terms with what was happening, it was only when I heard a muffled yell that I realized I wasn't the only one to make the trip this way, apparently the others had 'gotten there first'. If they were still alive though, maybe we'd make it out intact after all...

**

That was a week ago, and things since then have been... interesting.

Much to the surprise of all four of us, while the 'accommodations' were rather cramped, we were all able to breathe somehow, though the air was rather moist, and had a slight scent to it, almost honey-ish. Though we were jostled around a lot that first day, eventually the light coming through seemed to get ever so slightly darker, and soon after the 'room' was shifted even more, until the entrance was once more pointed 'up'. Not quite sure what was happening, and more than a little disoriented by our 'ride', we were all still rather surprised by the appearance of the green hand, which reached in and slowly 'fished' the four of us out, laying us out on a cool, shaded section of sand and rock, apparently under an overhang of some sort.

Fearing the worst, but feeling too tired and beaten up to do anything, thankfully all that happened that night was a whole lot of poking and prodding, as the creature nudged us about, looking like it was examining whoever was 'lucky' enough to have it's attentions at the time. Assuming it was just curious, we tried to act as non-threatening as possible(not hard when you're as tired as we were), and after a while it appeared to grow bored with the prodding, and took to just watching us, though it lay in such a manner that escape wasn't likely to be an option(not to mention, escape to where?).

Feeling rather hungry and thirsty, we dug into the emergency rations, as well as set up the moisture collector to gather what little water it could manage from the air. Food thankfully didn't seem like it would be a problem, as after a short amount of testing some hardy 'moss' like plant-life we found growing in the shade provided by the overhang was discovered to be edible for humans, and according to the captain, 'kinda like crunchy lettuce'.

Before we could get too comfortable though, one of the antennae snaked over and snagged the captain, quickly pulling him over to the large alien, where he was quickly stuffed back in the same place we'd spent the day. Once the captain was safely 'deposited', the alien looked back down at the three of us still remaining out, and almost before I could blink had the two others wrapped up, and was soon busy shoving their two wriggling forms into the glowing back-end of the creature.

Not sure whether or not running would accomplish anything, I snapped my head up when I heard a hissing, clicking noise come from the creature as it every so slowly pushed it's two current captives in, apparently deciding to try two at once. Looking up at it's 'face' I noticed that it's eyes, black with a golden iris, were half lidded, and it's small-ish mouth seemed pressed tightly closed, with occasional hisses and clicks slipping out every few seconds. If I didn't know better I'd almost say the noises sounded like-

Oh. Oh my.

**

Thus began what turned into our routine on this mostly barren planet, spending the main portions of the day crammed in a moist, glowy alien, let out in the mornings and night to eat and drink, and, more often than not, 'played with' once the necessities were taking care of. While it was certainly startling at first, I at least am starting to get used to it, strange as it may be. The others are still rather put out by our apparent 'new jobs', but without a working shuttle, or even communicator, our options are rather limited, and while they don't overly care for our circumstances, they're still better than what we could have been faced with on a planet like this, and all of us know it.

However, there is one thing I really wish our 'host' hadn't discovered: I'm terribly ticklish. That, combined with a feathery antennae or two, and the creature's enjoyment of us wriggling about within it... well, let's just say 'paying rent' tends to be rather exhausting when my turn comes up, which, if the looks I'm getting as I type this out are any indication, is right about now.

-End entry