FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"We're coming in," Peron said. "Two minutes until transpo."

"What have we got?" Stravlin asked, leaning over in his co-pilot's seat.

Peron kept his gaze on the data display as he spoke: "CausDek as expected. Light external armaments but don't worry about those. Easy jammin'."

"And how many sheep?" Yov growled from behind the two. The tall, burly man stood between his comrades, his bulky arms resting on the edge of either of their seats.

"Five, three armed," Peron answered.

"Sheep to the slaughter," Yov chuckled. "So the wolf will strike again. Are our claws ready?"

"Sheathed," Stravlin replied, getting to his feet. Yov smirked and slapped the smaller man across his chest.

"Old Earth wolves' claws aren't retractable."

"It's a good thing we've evolved."

Yov laughed raucously and then disappeared into the back of the craft. When he returned, he held two black square-shaped packs and a pair of helmets in his arms. Stravlin grabbed a pack first and fitted his arms through it straps before shouldering it. After he was comfortable with his pack, he grabbed a helmet and put it over his head. He winced slightly when it auto-adjusted to conform to his cranium. A tap to the side of his helmet and a barebones HUD came up with its only information being current temperature and atmosphere. This complete, he turned back to Yov and found the bigger man already equipped as he. More, while Stravlin was donning his equipment he had grabbed two rifles, vicious looking weapons with an underbarrel bayonet. He held out one to Stravlin who took the proffered weapon. He flicked it to safe when he found the selector set to automatic.

"Put it back," Yov said. "We're in the danger zone now."

Stravlin reluctantly switched it to semi this time, though he checked the chamber to make something was there before doing so.

"Thirty seconds," Peron said. "PortPacks good?"

"Check for both. The claws are ready," Stravlin said. He looked to the craft's viewport and watched as they approached their unwitting prey, a small speck in the vast expanse of space. Thanks to their high rate of travel, their prey had a more distinct shape, a small craft much like their own yet slightly larger and with the emblem of the CausDek Corporation painted on its visible side. Also of interest was the large doughnut shaped facility that the prey currently orbited. Stravlin was unsure whether to classify it as a ship or station. It did not seem capable of self-propulsion and neither did it possess the size to fit many people within its confines if it did have an interior. Whatever it was, Stravlin knew he would find it out soon enough.

"Ten seconds," Peron said.

Stravlin's heartbeat sped up while they moved ever closer to their prey. He clutched tonight at his rifle. He was ready for this. He looked to Yov and met his grey-eyed stare.

"They're not prepared," Yov snarled.

"5--" Peron said.

"We stalk."

"4!"

"We sneak."

"3!"

"We watch."

"2!"

"We strike"

"1! Cloak off, transporting n--"

Stravlin felt a slight shock to his system and suddenly he was no longer here, but there.

"We slay!" Yov screamed.

Stravlin blinked and then he was suddenly eminently aware of his new surroundings with a clarity unbound by the passage of time, a happy side effect of the PortPack. In this frozen moment, he found himself located in the rear of the craft's cockpit with his back to a blast door. To his immediate right was Yov, who had already shouldered and sighted his rifle. Stravlin traced the line from the tip of Yov's barrel to his intended victim, a gruff man outfitted in light combat armor who was reaching for the sidearm at his hip. Next, Stravlin shifted gaze left, sweeping past two unarmed individuals, a man and woman garbed in dark green jumpsuits, and further still to a lanky young man and a woman with a hard face. She already had her pistol drawn and aimed at him. Sensing the period of no time coming to an end and realizing what he had to do, Stravlin set his arms into motion.

Suddenly the world came into motion again. His rifle came up, but before he could sight properly, his target fired her handgun. He felt something whizz past his face. He blinked, let out a breath and squeezed his trigger twice quickly. The woman took both bullets to the chest, falling to the ground with a choked gurgle. He took no time to celebrate his true aim before adjusting his aim so that he was tracking the young security guard. He did, however, take more time to center his shot, pulling the trigger when his sights rested squarely on the young man's cranium. He relished the instant of fear in his prey's eyes, ones that became still and lifeless after the bullet sped through his head. His targets neutralized, Stravlin glanced right. Yov had splattered his combatant and was now in the process of skewering the unarmed woman, who had apparently grabbed for the doomed man's sidearm.

Yov savagely thrust the blade deeper into the squirming woman's body, removing it a moment later and ensuring she could threaten them no more with a double tap to her skull. When she lay still, Yov and Stravlin both turned their rifles on the lone survivor. He raised his arms above his head.

"Why?" he shouted. "You murderers!"

"They're just animals," Yov growled. "We're all goddamned animals."

He lunged forward and bludgeoned the man with the butt of his rifle. The man cried out and fell against the wall. Yov pointed his weapon at the man's head.

"Is there anything valuable on here?"

"No," the man shook his head. "Nothing! We're here for that!"

He pointed to the viewport and the black station outside.

"Us too. Huh," Yov snorted. "That was quick. You sheep are usually to busy crying to give a straight answer."

"Well," the man said, looking up to the barrel of the rifle. "You do seem keen on killing."

"Not you. Nothing here, eh? Stravlin?"

"On it," Stravlin said. He rushed to the craft's navigation panel and inputted new path and purpose to it. Then he stepped over to its console and activated a feature that he had specifically permanently disabled on his own ship. There was just one more step.

"Peron, we have it," Yov said.

From inside his helmet, Stravlin heard Peron speak: "Slammin'. You coming back to the pack?"

Yov shook his head. "Nah. We're heading in now. You got a clear lock now for three?"

"For three? Hold on. Alright, check."

"This is going to be wild. Wait for the word, Peron. Ready, Stravlin?"

"Always," Stravlin replied. At that moment, he started two processes at once: the ship's self-destruct sequence and its new navigation. Immediately the craft's thrusters activated, propelling the craft at high speed away from the station while a soft voice spoke over its speakers:

"This craft will self-destruct in ten seconds."

"What?" the man screamed. "What are you--"

Yov hauled the man to his feet and placed one hand on his shoulder.

"You're crazy!"

Yov nodded. "Perhaps. Stay with me if you want to live."

"Five," the voice spoke again, the craft cruising farther and farther away.

"We're going to die!"

"There's the bleating!"

"You're insane!" the man yelled. "You're all insane!"

"Four."

Yov burst into laughter.

"Three."

"Why didn't you just shoot me? Why didn't you just shoot me?"

"Two."

Stravlin took a deep breath.

"One."

"Now, Peron!" Yov shouted.

The ship began to shake.

"Termination process--"

Stravlin felt a familiar shock and then he felt his feet on more stable ground. The aftereffect of the PortPack was the opposite of what it had been last time, as time seemed to speed up. He saw the craft he had just been on fly a little farther before exploding in a glorious ball of fire and scrap. He watched as the debris from the explosion cleared faster than it should have. Seconds later, time resumed its normal speed and he was on his hands and knees, trying not to hurl on the dark cold floor.

Stravlin blinked and looked up. He felt his gorge rise, but that was as far as it got while he examined his surroundings. The floors of his new environment were solid enough, but the walls were mostly transparent, allowing him view of the outside space. He had wondered how he had been able to witness the craft's destruction when he had been expecting to only see the dark interior of the station's walls.

"We're alive?" he heard from behind him. "We're alive!"

Stravlin turned around and saw Yov and the man very much intact from their trip.

"Yes," Yov said. "Now where are we?"

"Where..." the man blinked and chuckled hysterically. "Where are we? You mean you attacked a CausDek craft, killed nearly all its crew, and almost killed yourselves and the survivor before transporting onto here without even knowing what here was? What if there hadn't been any oxygen?"

"Then we'd watch you die," Yov tapped his helmet. "Now answer my question."

The man took a step back. "I don't know."

"You don't know? Then why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing!"

Yov swung his rifle upward, slicing the man's jumpsuit but not his flesh. Still, it had its desired effect.

"Ok!" the man yelled. "I--I have a theory."

Yov tilted his head. "A theory?"

"It's CausDek."

"CausDek?" Stravlin said. "You're CausDek!"

"I know! It's...it's just a theory. I can't confirm until...well, why don't we explore for a bit? There has to be a terminal around here somewhere if I'm right." He took a step away from Yov, halting when the large man pressed the bayonet to his throat. "Or not."

"Sounds like you're not telling us everything," Yov said.

"Everything? You want to know everything?" The man sighed. "Fine. We noticed this anomaly a week ago. Higher didn't give us clearance to study it until...well, until a few hours ago when it was confirmed it was ours. And when I mean ours--"

The man ceased speaking when Yov prodded him in the chest with his bayonet.

"Get moving," Yov said.

"What? You just--"

"It is boring just listening to you talk. Move along, but keep speaking."

"Ok," the man said, turning his back to Yov. He started to walk down the station's curving halls. Stravlin looked to Yov. When he nodded, both men followed behind the CausDek employee.

"Like I was saying, and when I mean ours I mean CausDek's but now how you would think. What we're walking in isn't from out dimension."

"That makes no sense," Yov growled.

"It's the truth, the classified truth. I was the only one who really knew." He laughed and then frowned. "Almost kind of fortunate for you that you didn't kill me...survival instincts, huh?" He sighed. "Anyways, this...whatever it is isn't from here. It's CausDek all right but...but a parallel CausDek."

"Are you telling me there's worlds other than these?" Stravlin asked.

"Yeah. Infinite possibilities theoretically. There's probably one where you didn't gut Yura, one where you scum didn't show up at all." The man scratched his head. "But I digress. There's actually probably not one because...well, because in 97.3% of recorded alternates humanity is extinct. In 2.5% we don't even exist as a race. I'm in the .2% and I still get stuck in situations like this..." he sighed. "In every instance of our existence, however, there is CausDek somewhere. Sometimes it's a guild, sometimes it's a federation but in most it's a corporation like here. CausDek is always at the forefront of innovation and technology because of people like me."

Stravlin rolled his eyes while Yov snickered at this.

"Which is why this must be CausDek! We haven't invented it here, but over in some other alternates they've learned how to transport tech between them. Never people though...hmm..." the man shrugged his shoulders. "I can't think of an instance where what we've found doesn't have a Beta trace. Maybe this'll be the first! Of course, we don't have the equipment to do so and I doubt you'd care--uh!"

Yov reached out and grabbed the man. He pointed towards what appeared to be a terminal floating and jutting out impossibly from the transparent wall. Next to it was a large metal locker with a faded CausDek emblem on it. Or at least Stravlin thought it was CausDek--the symbol was a bit different in subtle ways.

"Ha! See! CausDek! Now we can figure out what this is! Maybe there's logs, history of the crew and the alternate. Oh, this is so exciting!" His shoulders slumped. "Or it would be if I wasn't forced to do so at gunpoint and with no idea of my immediate future. Ah, but such is life!" He paused when he stood before the terminal. "What is going to happen to me after this, by the way?"

"It depends," Yov said.

"On what?"

"On what's in that locker. See if you can open it."

The man stepped forward and pulled at the locker's handle. It didn't budge.

"Nope. Not like that."

"Peron," Yov said. "Could we get some explosives?"

"No, wait!" The man yelped. "Let me try the terminal first. There's probably some way to unlock it that way. It looks like they're connected. Please! There's no way to tell how this could react to whatever you're going to use!"

Yov growled at the man and gave him a hard stare. "Fine."

The man smiled and walked to the terminal. He glanced down but there was no keyboard. So, he touched the screen and immediately it came to life, displaying three symbols. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Umm," he said. "I can't understand this. Not a language I understand. Probably not a language any of us can--"

"Wait," Stravlin stepped forward. He stared at the symbols. "Is that English?"

"The language of Old Earth?" the man asked. "It's a dead language. Why would--unless...what does it say?"

Stravlin squinted at what he now recognized letters and slowly began to read them out loud.

"T..." he began. "C..." He tilted his head. "D. TCD."

The CausDek employee's face immediately paled.

"No..." he whispered. "No...we need to get out of here now. I'm not saying this just for me, but all of us."

"What does it mean?" Yov said.

"Time Continuum Device," the man said. "It's like a time machine but--"

"Time machine?" Yov sniggered. "I like the sound of that. Peron does have an eye for value. A machine from another dimension--priceless. A time machine from another dimension? Unimaginable."

"It's not what you think! There's a reason we discontinued it here, even before it got out of an Alpha working stage. Its safeguards are...let's just say it's too safe for it's own good! It's a defective product. What this could do to us..." the man shuddered. "We have to leave or destroy it. Yes, get those explosive. Blow it up!"

"Stravlin, can you open that locker?" Yov asked.

"I'll try," Stravlin replied. He pushed the CausDek employee aside and began to manipulate the touch screen.

"Aren't you listening?" the man said, his voice rising in volume. "This could be like the Dirk Incident, or worse! I'm talking fates worse than death. Pandora's box here, except we're the only ones that get fucked and that's the best that could happen! Stop touching that!" He reached for Stravlin. "You don't know what you're--"

There was loud bang and then the man was lying against the locker, clutching at a bleeding, gaping wound in his left leg. Yov advanced upon the man, barrel leveled at the employee's forehead.

"One shot to cripple, one shot to kill," Yov said. "That's how you put down a bitch."

"Got it," Stravlin said.

Something within the locker whirled and clicked. Yov pointed from the man to the locker.

"Open it," he ordered.

"Sure," the man said, getting shakily to his feet as tears ran down his face. "Why not? We're all fucking dead, you stupid shits. You don't even know it...you don't even know it!"

The man tore at the handle and forced it ajar. Immediately a thick green gas poured from the open container, engulfing Yov and the CausDek employee in its haze. Stravlin leapt back from the terminal and raised his rifle. He retreated as the gas continued to flow out of the locker. He couldn't see the man or Yov amidst the vapor.

"Yov," he said, speaking through the helmet's channels. "Yov, are you ok?"

Stravlin received a response when Yov's helmet rolled out of the smoke. He stared down at it and then looked up when he heard a harsh gasp for air. A clawed, inhuman hand reached out of the smoke and grasped the floor. It pushed its body forward, exposing something wearing Yov's gear, something that couldn't be him for it had the head of a reptilian creature Stravlin couldn't identify. It looked up at him with its slitted green eyes and screeched something. Stravlin pointed his rifle at it, but wasn't sure what to do. Before he could decide, something whipped out of the smoke and caught both his arms. He staggered back and the rifle fell to the ground. He reached for it, but then he heard another shriek and a dark shape landed in front of them. He looked up and into the eyes of another of the reptilian creature. This one wore nothing other than the torn shreds of a dark green jumpsuit and had a vicious, feral, and intelligent gleam to its eyes. It opened its maw, revealing many teeth, and shrieked again. Stravlin pushed back at it, earning a bite on his arm but keeping the beast away, for now. He stumbled away from the creature and broke into a full-out sprint.

"Peron!" he called. "Get me out of here!"

"I--" Peron replied after a moment. "I can't. It was easy portin' you in, but something is preventing a complete lock on your Pack. I can't even get anything on Yov!"

"Yov--don't worry about Yov. Just what do I need to do?"

"I don't know! This is all wrong! Uhh, try to get closer or--or somethin'! Get to the other side of the station."

"Check."

Stravlin attempted to speed up, but only succeeded in stumbling and falling flat on his face. Getting up was no easy task because his feet in his boots felt tight and constrained. He tore his left footwear off and threw it aside with no care for its condition. Rather, his eyes widened at the sight of a foot that just wasn't his--a clawed foot covered in green scales and possessing four digits, the second of which was larger, sickle-shaped, and was lifted into the air. He took off his other boot and found his right foot the same way. Worse, when he pulled the end of a pant leg he saw scaled, thinner flesh instead of tanned, hairy skin.

"No..." he whispered.

Suddenly multiple shrieks sounded behind him. He looked over his shoulder and sighed in relief when he saw nothing yet. He gulped and put his hands to the ground to give him the stability he would need to get upon on unbalanced and alien feet, but his hands felt wrong touching the cool surface. Arms shaking, he lifted them up to his face.

"Fuck," he swore, turning his now clawed hands up and down, up and down. It wasn't as if he had felt anything. Rather, one moment he had possessed normal human hands and then the next he had these. Retroactive changes, alterations by a force he could not hope to fight, only escape.

"Stravlin?" Peron said. "Why aren't you moving? Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Stravlin answered, getting to his feet. His pants slid down, revealing fully converted legs and a long tail that slipped out of its formerly restrained space. He stood in an almost hunched posture on two claws, his clawed hands facing upwards. His chest and head felt far too heavy for his legs and tail, but this seemed to be changing by the second...

He ran through the circular path presented before him, coming to a halt when he could clearly see his craft floating close to the station. He craned his lengthening neck, holding onto the heavy helmet with both hands.

"Peron," he said. "I'm as close as I can get. What's the status?"

"I've got you! I've got you! Hold on, just--"

The station suddenly shuddered. Stravlin wobbled unsteadily on his feet, pressing his claws against the station's walls when he noticed something terrible. His craft, his rescue was gone. It had suddenly vanished and where it had been was a large, white moon. He looked beyond this new celestial body and to the stars behind. Their positioning and even the color they shined inexplicably changed.

"Peron? Peron?" he said. "Per--rrgh!"

Stravlin felt his face push out and up against his helmet. Before it could make any more progress, he awkwardly hit the helmet's release tab at the back of it with his claws. It reverted to its default loose state, allowing him to droop his head. It fell off his cranium and rolled on the ground, stopping once it hit the transparent walls.

Stravlin blinked and found his vision changed. Everything was sharper and clear now; not only that, but he could see a protuberance at the middle of his vision. He reached a claw up and touched his new snout, its sharpened teeth, its holes where his nose had been, and the flattened portion of his head where his ears had been. He let his arms drop to their natural position, pulled up against his chest. Then he turned his head and looked over his body: a sleek, scaled saurian form, bipedal yet inhuman. If he wasn't a predator before, he truly was one now. He shook off the tattered remains of his clothes, torn by displacement, and took a step back as he considered what next to do.

It seemed the CausDek employee had been right and now it was too late to do anything about it because he had become...what, exactly?

An animal, Stravlin heard Yov say in his mind. We're all goddamned animals.

Stravlin heard a chorus of shrieks. This time he felt drawn to them and why not? What Yov and the CausDek employee had become were by the terminal. He had been able to unlock the locker, so why not try to meddle with the TCD's other functions? Perhaps he could return them to their time, dimension, and true form. He had to believe he could do it--small hope was better than no hope.

Thus it was that Stravlin made his way back, moving with a loping gait that he quickly grew used to. He ran quickly on his two feet, tail extending straight up behind him. It was only a matter of minutes before he found the two reptiles that had once been Yov and the employee.

They both stood near to the terminal, the dark green male raptor mounted atop a smaller red scaled female. It took a second for Stravlin to realize what they were doing and then it hit him--they were fucking like animals. He meant to look to the terminal but his gaze kept being drawn to the sight of the two reptiles rutting like animals. He felt a stirring in his loins, a slickening of his sex at the sight of the two going at it like animals. He imagined the dark green one atop of him like he was on her, pounding away at him, never stopping until they both received something for their efforts.

Stravlin blinked at the thought and realized that his previous train of thought was not so disturbing as it was arousing. Primal urges began to overtake rational thinking, but he was at least cognizant in that moment to realize that something might've changed more than his species...

Still, he could only look on at the pair in the midst of copulation like animals. He had caught them in their intercourse and now voyeuristic wants were overcoming previous lucid urges. How could he not? He desired the intimacy, the roughness of the male atop of him, screwing him out of his mind like an animal.

Animals. They were all goddamn animals.

But they weren't. They were thinking beings forced into forms directed by instinct, displaced dimensionally in--

Animals.

Heedless of their surroundings, the two continued to rut while Stravlin watched and struggled. Struggled, because he was losing. Lust clouded all because he--

She was an animal, a female member of a species out of place, an example that extinction was not forever. She wasn't Stravlin, a space pirate but a predator and breeder. She was an animal, a--

Stravlin's mind shattered.

The female raptor blinked and stared sightlessly. In that time, the pair across from her finished in a roaring climax as the male came within her. He dismounted from her and then approached the apparently catatonic other female. He hissed at her and playfully nuzzled at her neck. At this she blinked again and hissed back. She pressed into him, forcing him back a little, before turning around and teasing him with a seductive lift of her tail.

The male growled and took the opportunity, immediately hopping on top of her. It seemed he was virile enough for two because he wasted no time thrusting into her slick cloaca. She chirred and shivered at the sudden onset of pleasure, lowering herself obediently as he moved forward to push deeper into her. Her inner walls clamped down on his member as if it needed to milk him of every drop he had to offer. Their rhythmic rutting continued for a moment more and then male delivered secularly for the second time within minutes, satisfying the female beneath him and filling her so that the chances that he hadn't impregnated her was nil. He stepped off her, nipping at her neck and trilling softly. She panted and nipped him back, leading to a short series of bite-backs before she finally snapped back with real force. He backed off, allowing her room to shuffle over to the other female. She sat down and lay next to her sister, alike in both lover and lust. It would not be long before both were proud mothers of chittering hatchlings.

They would not be mothers aboard their current location, though. The TCD shuddered like before and then the raptors were gone, relocated to their proper time.

The TCD too had relocated to a different dimension of time and place. There it floated amongst the stars, waiting.