2500
On the advice of the BlackDragon999 here is some non dragon work I have been working on.
Year 2500, counting lost years 2511. Location: eastern Europe.
"Brother, what manner of devilry is this?!" Asked Vukomir, the great wolf morphs frame hung above a carcass of what was once a human being. He and his comrade in arms Kuna were sent to investigate a case of incursion around a isolated village of Nejebatici. Usually this would be the job for the army or the guard of the eastern empire but when a potential danger of a extraterrestrial nature was involved, the empire usually send out aliens themselves to investigate it.
The great white wolf had to bend down in order to enter the house, his 2.5 meter high frame looked even bigger in his mark 4, deathbane power armor, which was specifically designed for domestic issues and as such was rather light but offered greater maneuverability. Not his first or favorite choice, but what the central command gave Vukomir wore with pride. The only thing visible of his body was his face, which hung out unnaturally out of his helmet with the goggles or hud covering his eyes.
"I... don't know brother, its most certainly not a... work of a human... and most certainly not a work of a ssslobodni" Kuna hissed the last word out, he had a specific and personal hatred for the dominant race of the free federation, but even he had to acknowledge that they weren't able or willing to suck a innocent family dry of their liquids. His height was that of a average human or a fox morph, standing at 1.8 meters he looked more natural in his power armor, the same type his battle brother wore. Thou non reptilian super soldiers of the United empire were inferior to their scaled brethren in most ways, they were treated with the same respect. United empire engulfed most of the known universe, fighting a bitter far with the free federation. The newest front was the milky way galaxy, with earth being the for front of the fighting. The two main factions on earth, the eastern empire and the western federation, were already bitterly opposed to each other, from culture to ideology. The fact that both chose different, opposing patrons mattered little. The same day that the western federation decided to ally with the free federation the eastern empire allied with the United empire and it was only a manner of pure luck and chance that the entire plant and the sol system wasn't destroyed by the war. MAD (mutually assured destruction) was the only thing that prevented the complete all-out war between the two factions.
"This is just the first house, yet I feel that all of village now lies dead like this." Said Vukomir as he knelt before the body of a young human boy, he was barely 8 and yet his lifeless body was dry, staring at Vukomir with its hollow, empty eye sockets. Korduni, the super soldiers of the united empire, were specially trained to not feel most emotions, yet Vukomir couldn't help but feel sad for the family.
"To be honest, this looks like the work of some... vampire like species... I don't recall a species like that in this sector" Kuna said as he leaned against the wall, his arms crossed and his legs as well.
"No... vampires are our allies, they are members of the empire and besides... they are too far away to come here... even if they did..." Vukomir rumbled, losing himself in his thoughts "Alright, lets scan the area, whatever these things are... they aren't organized I can tell that much, by the looks of the buildings and the ruckus that suggest a primal drive rather than an organized raid" he said and without waiting for his comrades approval he took out a scanner and set it to detect heartbeats. The screen flickered with dots and Vukomir adjusted it to not show animals such as rats and pests. After he filtered out every possible thing, the screen showed a group of dots on the far end of the village, some half a kilometer away and by the look of it either they were some mutated animals or some species that Vukomir wasn't familiar with.
"Only 25 heartbeats per minute? Yet they move so fast!" Kuna said as he stood besides Vukomir, the wolf didn't notice him approaching yet wasn't surprised by his closeness. "Switch to heat seeking mode. These things are surly not sentient. They are many of them, yet they are disorganized, without any tech at all and they arnet even attempting to hide or block our signals. Not only that, but they stayed at the crime scene, even after days had past." Kuna concluded, his power armor shining blue as he knelt as well, his laser rifle standing idly beside him.
"Not... necessarily." Vukomir said as he looked at the data, any idiot could jam these outdated scanners now and yet these things didn't act like they noticed it at all. "Remember... mankind spend 11 years in the dark after the third world war, maybe these things are just leftovers or some mutants who had just found their way to the surface?" He questioned, rubbing his furry chin with his glowed hand, the cool metal brushing it calmed his nerves. Combat didn't bother him, he had seen his fair share of killing, yet the annoyance because of the ease with which these humans, which he was supposed to protect, died annoyed him greatly.
"ha! That was nearly 500 years ago! If they survived this long, then they must have mutated to a degree beyond help... but lets judge for ourselves." Kuna got up and readied his rifle "the usual, you do the melee and I do the work, brother" he teased and started walking.
"haaaa" Vukomir sighted, making a soft growl. He wasn't annoyed by the fox's comment, but he was annoyed at the fact that this was becoming his routine and he would much rather be out in the field, killing the enemy with honor then watching innocents die and being forced to clean the mess. He got up and coldly followed the fox, easily catching up to him as he had much larger footsteps then his battle brother.
"tell me... brother... what do you think of the easterlings?" Kuna asked as they made their way to the enemy.
"which ones and why do you asked" The wolf coldly replied.
"I ask because I am curious and all of them." Fox said as they walked besides yet another body, this man was in his 20ties, and his dried form hung over the well, it was evident he was trying to escape.
Sighting Vukomir explained, "Well... the Slavs I like very much... yet I don't understand them. They are all the same to me, yet they will go to great lengths to persuade me that they are nothing alike. They remind me of dragons, all they do it fight and fuck." This caused the fox to chuckle before he continued "I suppose they and their honor appeal to me somehow. The Chinese I find even harder to tell apart, but they are alright, they are hardworking and that I respect... they are much calmer then Slavs as well. For the rest I cant tell, I haven't meet them enough to judge." Vukomir explained as the scanner beeped. The culprits were obviously in a barn and at that point all conversation stopped, Vukomir readied his shotgun and sword, a normal person would had to hold the shotgun with both hands yet he wielded it with ease. Kuna readied his laser rifle as well. They looked at each other and with a wink Vukomir kicked the door opened.
The sight before them confused them. Small human like beings walked on all fours in a unnaturally bent way. The few that were around the door squealed and shattered as they ran behind their breather. The vast majority of the beings seemed to dance around the pile of liquid that they amassed in the center of the barn, they seemed to jump up and down and take small pauses to put some of the liquid in their mouths. Slowly they got out of their trance and looked at the pair, squealing and scratching in a threatening way. Taking a better look at the monsters the two soldiers couldn't tell either their race, species or pretty much anything besides the fact that they are ugly as hell. They vaguely resembled human beings, being half as high and, obviously, not sentient. They bodies were a strange and yet repulsive combination of blue, green, yellow and pink colors and their faces were disfigured. The majority of them seemed to be dancing around the pile in the center, as if in a trance.
"are those... bodies?" Kuna asked as he looked at the center of the barn.
"I don't know and I don't care, lets kill these things and be done with it" Vukomir lazily answered as he fired his shotgun straight to the face of the nearest creature. The loud roar of the gunfire startled the remaining beasts and soon all of them rushed the pair. To Vukomir's horror, he saw the one he just shot in the face get up and screech, his face ruined and one eye missing, yet very much alive and angry.
"LEFT!" Kuna yelled as he readied his rifle and fired a shot at the one who had jumped at him, the laser hit the thing in the mouth and the force of the shot send him flying away. He fired another shot and hit another one in the eye, yet both it and its brother got up and charged again.
Kuna had no time to react as Vukomir's foot passed his face and hit one of the monsters as the wolf simultaneously fired and slashed with his sword, yet he found that it was very hard to pierce the monsters skin, still... they were very much killable.
Kuna kicked one of them before firing a few shots, yet there seemed to be no end to them. Thinking fast, he pulled a void vacuum grenade, outdated, yet handy against unarmored targets. "watch out" he shouted before pulling the pin and tossing it to the body pile in the middle. As he tossed it he grabbed Vukomir and pushed him down out of the barn.
just as they had hit the ground a loud explosion was heard and body parts, boards, wood and hey started flying in all directions as a result of the explosion. Just as the force of the fireless explosion was at its highest, it suddenly started pulling all lighter objects towards it. Luckily for Korduni both Vukomir and Kuna were heavy and had power armor on them, monsters on the other hand looked like they weighted about as half as a regular human should weight. A whole bunch of them was pulled towards the middle of the explosion and the force of the vacuum fused them together with other light material such as wood, hey and tools. The unlucky ones that survived moaned in suffering as their bodies were fussed and broken beyond repair, yet they refused to die.
Vukomir and Kuna got up only to see that about 10 of the monsters had survived. "Is there no end to them!" Kuna yelled as he switched to full automatic and fired away.
"LETS FIND OUT!" Vukomir yelled as he charged the nearest monster and fired his shotgun at point blank range, the ugly bald head deformed as pellets punctured it, yet additional two shots, which hit a bit lower to the throat and chin, were needed before the ugly head was severed from its body. "Cut their heads, it seems to..." Vukomir was cut short as one of them jumped at his back and attempted to drag him down. He staggered but held his ground before thrusting his sword upright and puncturing the lower chin of the being and throwing it forcefully of him. He saw a cut on its ugly grey torso and the green blood that sprayed from it, it was obviously the one he had cut moments prior in the barn.
Behind him, Kuna fired like mad, the ultra-fast laser gun could fire extra hot lasers every 0.15 seconds and it was ideal against unarmored targets, yet he had to hold the aim for a good 5 seconds to fry the head off of the being that attacked him. Suddenly two of them jumped at his back, he was much lighter and weaker than his wolf battle brother and the combined impact of the two monsters caused him to seriously stager and yell in surprise. He barely held his ground before hitting one of the advancing monster with his leg and causing it to fly back, he swung the butt of his rifle at another creature and sent it flying as well. The third small nuisance went unnoticed as he grabbed Kuna's foot and he, combined with the two of its friends on kunas back, succeeded in tripping the fox over.
"AHHHH!" Kuna yelled as a laser shot went to the air and as he hit the ground. "Help brother! Demons are upon me!!!" he called out as the creatures got on his chest and started clawing away at his armor, yet luckily for Kuna, they seemed unable to break it. The creatures obviously weren't smart enough to attack his exposed face.
"No! Face me you monsters" Vukomir shouted as he rushed to his fallen friend, firing three shotgun shots in rapid succession. The pellets ringed and ricocheted against Kuna's armor, yet most of them managed to hit the creatures on top of the fox and most were pushed off from the force of the shots. Seizing the opportunity Kuna got his riffle and started firing like mad, not even bothering to get up. "are you al, UH!" Vukomir said as a creature jumped on his back once again and judging from the blood dripping on him, it was the same one he had cut twice already. "IM SICK OF YOU!!!" he yelled before forcefully jumping in the air and making a dive. He landed straight on his back, pressing and pinning the creature with the weight of his power armor, causing its neck to break from the sheer force of pressure applied. As he heard the creatures neck snap, Vukomir jumped to his feet.
"Now they will face the might of the empire!" Kuna heroically proclaimed before fixing his bayonet with great speed and agility. He got up to his brother back to back and took a moment to elevate the situation. They were surrounded, 7 of the creatures still remained yet he was confident in their victory. "watch my 6!" he shouted as he ran the bayonet into the nearest creatures mouth. He had just realized that the creatures were growling or at the very least making a very threatening screech. He looked with disgust down his iron sights as his elegant, yet now dirty kordun pattern 6 laser rifle hummed with power and head. The creature was still screeching and scratching the rifle with its small fingers as the end of the barrel faced its eye. With a smile Kuna pulled a trigger and held it, the automatic laser fire fried through the fiends skull as the organic matter in the path of the laser coagulated from the sheer heat. He swung the now dead beast around and fired at its friends.
"RRRRRAAA!" On the opposing end Vukomir roared as it took him three entire swings to chop off the head of one of the assailants. Then he grabbed the extended hand of the other beast as he swung it around and send it flying into its companion. He casually wasted all of his remaining loaded shells on them, making sure they are dead. He then swung his shot gun around and decided to use its axe, which was attached to it instead of a normal butt. Looking behind he saw that Kuna could use some help in melee and without thinking he charged.
The wretched body simply wouldn't fall off the damnable bayonet. Kuna thought as he fired through the dead beasts head, the stench was unbearable to a normal human, luckily Kuna was 220 years old and he has seen his fair share of battles and he had inhaled even worse stenches. He used his natural agility and pinned one of the creatures to the ground, standing with his leg on its throat as he used all of his guns clip on another one, effectively killing it.
CLINCK! The metal echoed as Vukomir struck with both weapons, each hitting the opposite endings of the wretched beings neck. The super soldier precision caused the two melee weapons to hit each other in the middle and the ugly head flew off the even uglier body, like it was cut with surgical precision. "THESE ARE BUT RABBLE!" Vukomir exclaimed as he saw Kuna club the last one to death with the butt before taking out his portable Cakija, a knife that all korduni wore but it looked more like a machete to a normal person , and cutting the beasts head off.
"Stand still brother!" Kuna exclaimed before charging Vukomir with his bayonet. The wolf simply smirked as the bayonet passed his head and as a screech filled the air. It was the same one that he had cut twice and then broke its neck. He was now hanging from Kuna's bayonet with it being deeply impaled it its nose.
"Well done... as always" The wolf murmured before taking out a net from his portable pouch.
"hey... I owe you one brother. I know the empire wants our lives to defend it, but Im more of a liberal thinking that my life is more worth before my body gets mauled." Kuna smirked as he shook the fiend off of his bayonet.
"Humans also think that items are more worth if you don't take them out of boxes... nothing makes sense to me anymore" Vukomir commented as he radioed in "Slava command, I repeat, Slava command, do you hear me"
"Da! We have been expecting you, what have you found, my lord" a strong eastern European accent boomed across the connection.
"Some beasts butchered this village, nothing we couldn't handle" He looked over at Kuna teasingly "I don't see why we Korduni were needed to fix this mess, mutants don't concern us" he said.
"but this does !" Kuna said as he examined one of the dead creatures "they are all full of dragon's blood!" he yelled.
"DAMN IT!" Vukomir cursed loudly "scramble that, this IS our business now, send in the usual, clean up teams and researchers. Ka'ne squad out." He yelled out before taking off his helmet and attaching it to his armor. "are you hurt, brother?" he asked
"no. my armor is scratched, that's all" Kuna explained as he ran over the body with his scanner "in each of these monsters there is enough dragons blood to transform a normal person to a Kordun, why they have it in their organisms is beyond me."
"We should have brought a ljiecnkin with us!" Vukomir said as he angrily punched the tied up being. Ljiecniks were the combat medics of Korduns, their duty was two fold, to heal their brothers and guard the precious dragons blood, the genetic material that is used to enhance a normal person to super soldier levels. Dragons blood was rare, uncommon and highly precious.
"Indeed we should. There is no other explanation; there must be a research facility nearby. Either mafia or some corrupted officials are stealing dragons blood and using it in their twisted experiments, central command must be informed!" Kuna explained as he cut the body up, he was no expert, but he knew the basics.
"NO!" Vukomir said as he sat down on the captured being. He began reloading his shotgun and looked on to the fused flesh of the creatures which were unlucky enough to be captured in the blast radius of the grenade. "if what we fear is true, then we need to go to the highest level, for all we know central command may be infiltrated already...." He angrily snorted. His day was getting worse by the minute but he intended to fix it by snapping the neck or cloaking the life out of the traitor. Just as he finished contemplating the thought of torturing the traitor who did this he heard the sound of helicopter rotors in the distance. Central command was quick and he could only hope that the soldiers who land here aren't corrupted as well. Otherwise they would try to kill them, no doubt. Neither the eastern or united empire weren't known for their tolerance and he had heard enough stories of loyal Korduns being excommunicated because they stepped on the toes of a wrong person. He let out a low growl as the helicopters landed
location: spaceship Ziv Biti. Time: 3 hours after mission completion.
"I cant believe they granted us passage" Kuna exclaimed as they docked to the space ship, their armor still bore the stench of their enemies as they entered. The space ship was more of a space station orbiting the earth, Europe perfectly visible from the windows.
"why wouldn't they... we are korduns, no fat corrupted official can hold us..." Vukomir growled, his anger not withdrawing.
"MY LORDS" a soldier ran up to them "Your audience is heard, you are asked to wait a few minutes." He explained, trying his best not to tremble before the united empire's finest. He fell down to his knee "May I suggest to tidy yourself, the emperor of eastern kind will take you in..." he said.
"THE EMPEROR!?!?" both Vukomir and Kuna asked in shock. They didn't expect him to take notice, let alone invite them. Anger in Vukomir finally calmed as he dismissed the soldier. He sat down and contemplated the situation as Kuna pranced about in nervousness.
The two didn't speak a word, Kuna was too lost debating himself. They were trained since their youth, but meeting a allied official wasn't part of their training. Vukomir decided to distract himself by looking at that news on the screen across the hall. He didn't even notice the soldiers look at him with great awe.
"Today we bring you a special story. Freedom and its spreading. As you all know our wonderful emperor fought against it since his youth, but despite his best efforts it still plagues our lands. It is estimated that since he banned it, it has began spreading. He has declared that all persons wishing to be free are allowed to leave the country, but any attempts at resistance against his will shell be meet with great punishment" the green skinned tv host coldly spoke. Her mutant appearance obvious to all who looked. Ever since the third world war, more and more humans were mutating and bearing mutant children, it was estimated that about 30% of the population of the eastern empire are mutants and luckily for them, they were treated the same way the normal folks were.
"Vukomir!" Kuna snapped him out of his trance as he cleaned his pauldrons, "snap out of it and tidy yourself!" he said.
"right right! I was just wondering how confusing the emperor is. He outlaws freedom yet gives everyone large amounts of it...." the wolf murmured.
"please don't tell that to his face...." Kuna whimpered.
"My lords. The emperor will see you now." A soldier approached, bowed and informed them of their audience.
the trip was short, no one said a thing as the two Korduns stood before the metal door. The two heavily armored soldiers stood next to it. The wolf and the fox expected they would need to strip themselves of their weapons before being allowed entrance but to their surprise the guard told them "The emperor trusts you enough, you may enter and please... don't make him do something... idiotic"
Without word, they entered and the door closed behind them. The emperor was even taller in person. He looked like he had nearly 4 meters in height and they could only see his long dark hair lie on his back as he looked out of his window in the cold dark space. His dark-gold armor didn't shine as the room had little dim light. "I treat mutants fairly because I am a mutant myself Vukomir" The emperor's deep voice boomed across the room, he didn't turn around and he continued speaking "I have nothing against freedom, but I do have a lot against freedom" he said putting a different accent on the first and second freedom "I have nothing against people living free, independent of other people, but I have a LOT against people using freedom to be stupid or do stupid things." He explained as he turned around to face the two soldiers, his bluish purple skin resembled that of a dead man and his eyes were all dark, not a white spot on them, just like the posters showed.
"m-my Lord" Vukomir stuttered.
"I can heard your thoughts you know. I know you care little for politics so Ill make things more simple." The emperor said as he grabbed a slate and threw it to Vukomir. The slate showed a man with a sack on his head being dragged by two soldiers. By looking at the time Kuna realized and exclaimed "this is happening right now!?"
"indeed it is! Watch" the emperor said as the two soldiers pinned the man down on a block, in a few seconds another man appeared carrying a huge sword. It took him but a few seconds to swing it and chop the head off of the captive. "THAT is the fate of those who betray me! And I thank you. those idiots in central command wouldn't know dragons blood if they used it as a condom... the moment the message was conveyed to me I knew the nearest military bio research facility had to contain it. You two uncovered a corrupted leech who has been sucking my country dry!" the emperor said with pleasure as he took out two medals "You are commemorated!" he said before attaching the medals to the armors of the two soldiers "I know you Korduni don't fight, expect or want it, but there is a hefty amount of credit that I ordered to be transferred to you. Also, you are welcomed to stay at any hotel, brother or such institution of your choice, free of charge." He emperor said as he went back and sat in his chair. "dismissed" he simply said.
"m-my lord. May I be so bold to ask for a full detail of the traitor and his activities." Kuna stuttered.
"Usually that is confidential, but you may have it, I don't see why not." The emperor said as he rose his feet to the table.
With a bow, the two left the room.
"You know... Im really beginning to like the easterlings as well!" Kuna said to Vukomir with a smirk.