FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The year 2371AT on a small asteroid known only as 8941BA small contingent

of pharlans stood near the back of a massive room carved out of the rock.

Carpets covered the floors and tapestries hung from the walls each bore the

pharlan governmental symbol, the receding eclipse.  Two pharlans stood out from the armored

soldiers standing at attention silence spaced around the perimeter. Unlike the

lightly armored soldiers, these two were clad in crimson capes secured by

golden broaches, with their wings folded over their chests and stood near the

entrance to the cavern. Glowing lamps illuminated their faces only slightly. One

was tall and stately, the other was short and constantly fidgeting. "Sariala,

why do we have to wear these silly clothes, and when are the other people

coming.  I don't want to just stand here

all day." growled the smaller one, pulling at his cape with his talons. "Have patience

young prince, you will meet the ambassadors shortly, but you must hold your

tongue, I am doing the negotiation." responded the tall Sariala with patience."Humph, if that's

true why did father send me with you anyway?""He wants you to

learn about the other races and how to form alliances.""Like we need any

of them . . .""Even the strong

need friends, dear prince."At that, a new

scent blew towards them over the ventilation system. It was like a hot burning

smell but with the feeling of fire itself, exciting and warm. "What is that?"

blurted out the prince."That will be the

Tartarians, wait and watch . . . in silence." said Sariala with just a hint of

a growl. As the two of them looked down the long carpeted path they could

detect the scent getting stronger and stronger, soon they could sense there

were multiple scents of the same kind all mixed in together, as they watched

four feathered figures stepped out of the gloom of the entrance. The first two

walked in front of what looked to be two Tartarian warriors, mail clad with

spears in their hands. The feathers of all four were like the colors of magma,

red, orange yellow and black flaming in appearance. Unlike the pharlans they had

long beaks pointed beaks like those of a crane. Their forelimbs

were lined with primary feathers that were folded back along the length of the

arms and were crowned with a yellow scaled and clawed three fingered hand at

the wrist. Their tails were glorious and flowing filled with orange, red and

yellow feathers, rising and trailing like plumes of lava as they walked. The

eyes of the Tartarians seemed to burn like fire and the glances the warriors

gave caused the pharlan guards to inch their hands just slightly nearer to

their sheathed swords. The largest one of the group wore what could only be

described as an intricate largely black dress with beads and sparkling gems

arranging in spectacular wave-like patterns. 

She was flanked by

smaller and nearly as extravagantly dressed individuals who seemed to be her

attendants. As she entered the room she looked it over from one end to the

other and exclaimed in an irritated, yet somehow beautiful voice, "Well! Only a

barbarian race would call a council meeting in a place like this." Sariala

walked forward towards the Tartarian lady and as he approached her he bowed,

extended his taloned hand and said "Welcome to the council meeting hall. You

must be Lady Aie'oleiwe. I am Sariala." "Of course you

are," she said curtly taking his hand and bowing herself, raising her tail into

beautiful burning fountain. "Perhaps if you put a bit more emphasis on the last

'E' in my name you would have it nearly perfect. Still you did an amazing job

for a pharlan." As she rose from

her bow she seemed to wear something resembling a smile at the corner of her

mouth. She caught sight of the young prince hiding slightly behind Sariala and

said "Now who's this then?" Sariala deftly used his long tail to push the

prince towards the lady."Uhh" he stammered

for a moment as his pure blue eyes beheld the bejeweled creature. Steeling

himself he said stoutly, "I am Akena son of Dakathire, Queen of Rona.""I see," she said

looking down her sword-like bill at him. She lifted her head and announced in

her high and powerful voice, "The young prince is here to view the proceedings,

why is the Queen herself not here, does she not care enough to mingle with the 'lesser

races'?""No my lady, she

was called away by an emergency meeting of the senate. She will arrive here

later this week. These are only the preliminary meetings. Now if you please, I

must greet the other ambassadors, make yourself at home, refreshments are over

near the wall to your left.""I see, so is

there something other than dead beast on the menu?" she said ruffling her

feathers slightly and looking at him intensely."We have gathered

the finest foods from all over the quadrant, there is sure to be something

there to suit your tastes.""Hmmph," she said

puffing herself up and lifting her feathers a bit. "We shall see." She lifted

her long feathery tail and she and her whole entourage walked over towards the

extravagantly arrayed buffet table.As they looked

down the dark hallway again they began to pick up a new scent and hear the soft

padding of small feet coming down the corridor. Soon five tiny furry creatures

stepped into the room. They were even shorter than Akena, he almost laughed at

the sight of them. Their fur was golden orange with black feet and forepaws

save the one in the front of the group which seemed to be grizzled and grey

with a bit of a beard on his chin, fox-like in appearance. Their brown eyes

were shining and full of life. One of the creatures just behind the lead one

spoke his small voice saying, "The Keynari delegation from Iristine has

arrived!"From the buffet

table the Lady Tartarian shouted back, "You don't need to make such a

pronouncement!""Ahem," said

Sariala leaning down a bit. "Welcome to the council hall."Sariala was about

to introduce himself again but the grey fox stepped forward and thrust out his

paw for a handshake, "I am Ketzian, you must be Sariala and this must be prince

Akena." said the old keynari in a fast and direct voice.  "Yes of course,"

replied Sariala shaking the keynari's paw with two of his fingers "If you would

care for refreshments . . ." began Sariala, but Ketzian cut him short, "Right

over there, yes, perfectly obvious. You don't mind if we take some measurements

do you?""Uh no-" replied

Sariala who immediately found himself and Akena surrounded by the rest of the

Keynari delegation each with hand-held scanners running over every inch within

their short reach. "Uhh," started Sariala feeling terribly strange surrounded

by the small canines. "Enough scanning."

barked the older Ketzian at the other keynari after a few more seconds. "Thanks

for your patience Sariala," he said with a sly vulpine smile. They small group

trotted over towards the buffet and the round meeting table.  Sariala looked over at the prince and they

both stared at one another and smiled."How many races

are coming again?" said the prince, once the keynari were out of earshot."Six in all." replied

Sariala quietly. His words were interrupted with what seemed to be a low

resounding thud. Everyone in the room paused for a moment but then the thud

repeated itself. As the vibrations fell rhythmically, the tartarian female

blurted out, "Your kind would choose an unstable asteroid!""Nope, nope

perfectly stable." replied the lead Keynari, "Those are footsteps." And so they

were, a massive shape appeared in the large doorway. Sharp pointed ridges rose

over a snake like neck and a scaly horned head entered the room followed by the

unmistakable form of a dragon.  "Kralenai!"

exclaimed Sariala. "It is so good to see you. How long has it been . . . 200

years?"With a deep resounding voice and a

reptilian smile the dragon replied, "Two hundred and thirty one I believe.""Ahh you have done

well for yourself", said Sariala tilting his head slightly and slapping the

dragon on the foreleg with his wing.Kralenai leaned his great head down

and with a grin gently butted Sariala away. Sariala was pushed back, his talons

skidding across the metal floor and his cape bunching up behind him. Akena

looked back at his teacher quizzically. Sariala touched one hand to the floor

and his tail tip emerged from the cape twitching excitedly.  His eyes seemed to glow like reddened coals

and he said, "I see we shall have to spar again sometime my friend." He stood straight

again stretching his wings out slightly and dusting himself off.  "I have brought you one of our famous

Gakra'Rek as I promised.  I killed it

myself only this morning. I am sure it will be to your liking."Kralenai made a

great sound seemingly shaking the entire asteroid, it was only after a few

moments that those other than Sariala realized that the huge beast was

laughing. "Very good my

friend. Ahh, I see you have given your kill a prime position at the table. I

thank you. I hope our discussions here will be as fruitful as your hunting." With that the great dragon and each

of the bipedal dragons acknowledged Sariala in turn. They sauntered off as a

group towards the prominently displayed carcass. Sariala walked back to Akena's

position.  The young pharlan looked up at

Sariala in amazement.  After an awkward

silence he asked in a low tone, "You are really friends with that thing?""Of course",

replied Sariala staring down at the prince with a disappointed look."I can see now why

your father and mother so wanted you to be here." Even as they spoke several

new scents began to waft down the hall towards the two pharlans. Out of the

gloom appeared a large two legged creature, but not nearly so large as the

dragon before. This one was tall walking on its toes like the pharlans but had

furred paws and skin like the keynari but golden brown like dry grass. The

creature's head looked as if cut from a large stone block,  with intense golden eyes and a short shout

like a bear's, equipped with gleaming fangs and crowned with a massive mane.  It was muscular and well built with much of

its skin covered in shining armor. Sariala could feel the prince trying to

slink behind him again. The creature

stepped closer, three much smaller beings came behind it which looked very much

like humans with only the slightest hint of fur and slightly pointed ears.  Two seemed to follow directly behind the more

beast-like creature but the other, which blue in skin color, stood more off to

the side and seemed to be looking the room over with extreme care. Finally the

beast creature approached Sariala and spoke in a low thick and heavy voice,

"Hrotha and Chefik delegations reporting to the council." The two smaller human

like creatures stepped forward and shook Sariala's hand in turn but the third

stood back, still eyeing the situation. "We are pleased to

meet a pharlan on, peaceful, terms." They said smiling weakly.  "We are honored to

have you here good Hrotha." said Sariala looking at both the beast creature and

the two human like creatures with a gentle smile. The massive beast chuffed

loudly and said, "I need none of your pleasantries, winged one. We are here for

one purpose only, to protect our people from this new threat . . . not to

befriend you." "I understand."

said Sariala his face emptying of emotion and nodding slightly. The three

walked gruffly over towards the central table and sat down near the Keynari and

Tartarian delegations that were already seated. The lighter colored individual

stayed behind glancing about the room and looking up at Sariala.  "You must be

Efrika of the Chefik, correct?" said Sariala. It finally snapped to attention

and stared up into Sariala's grey scaled face with its large blue, liquid eyes."Uhh yes, correct"

it said with nervous intensity. "I presume you've taken all of the necessary

precautions. . ." as it spoke it looked over the pharlan guards standing in the

back of the room. It seemed not to be very comfortable with their presence. "You need not

worry, chefik this location is perfectly safe and the guards will defend you

with their lives if necessary.""I see . . . " it

said with a sigh."Please have a

seat, the last of the representatives will arrive shortly."  The Chefik nodded affirmatively and walked off

but it did not look to be reassured. Akena peeked out from behind Sariala's

wine red cape and asked, "That big thing and the two smaller ones, are

they  . . .the same? They smelled very

similar."Those are the

Hrotha, "They come in two forms, the smaller weak one that you saw and the

larger beast one but they are the same species. They are ploidomorphs like the

Gakra'Rek. I believe you will learn about them in your biology class sometime

soon.""Oh okay. . . do

they taste like Gakra Rek?"Sariala raised his

crest and looked down at Akena, "You should not think such things my prince.

Sentient races are not for eating."The prince scowled

and grew silent. Finally an audible clicking began to come from down the hall,

it sounded like the impact of claws on a solid floor. To the amazement of the

prince what looked to be a human clothed in a white robe flanked by a pair of

four legged eagle-like kennedir equipped with oversized dewclaws on their

forelegs. But the scent of

each of the creatures and of the human was virtually identical.  Akena looked up at Sariala but his face did

not belie any surprise or wonder.  "Welcome Hazaeki, to the first

Council of Seven." said Sariala as the small group drew near. "I see we are the

last to arrive." said the human looking creature. Its robe seemed to almost

pulsate as it moved and its skin was of an almost unearthly smoothness."Yes we are nearly

ready to begin," replied Sariala"Good, I'm afraid

we have no need of your refreshments." The human and two creatures walked over

to the table the human sat down immediately but as Akena and Sariala watched

the two beasts began to change. They seemed to suddenly become rounded like a

ball, their color becoming reddish and then almost as quickly rose up and

formed into human like creatures. One was clothed in armor while the other had

a thin semi-transparent robe and looked to be a lithe female. These two took

their seats on either side of the first robed creature.  Kralenai laid on

the floor to one side of the table still licking his lips from the Gakra'Rek he

had consumed. His two lieutenant dragons were seated in chairs next to him,

sitting bolt upright with stone cold expressions on their faces. Sariala and

the prince walked over to the table. Sariala took his place at the head and had

Akena sit in a seat next to him. Sariala adjusted his cape and folded his wings

into a more comfortable position. Finally he spoke.

"I would like to welcome all of you to this first Council of Seven.  I believe we all know why we have come here

today. We are here to discuss a new threat to all of our peoples. Many of you

have reported being attacked by a new and unknown enemy. First I would like

each of us to share our own experiences with these creatures." Sariala paused

and looked over towards the lady tartarian who seemed to be fidgeting in her

seat. "Lady Aie'oleiwe,

perhaps you would like to begin?" She shook her head slightly and said, "I will

defer to my commander of the Nakala." A smaller tartarian began to speak in a

clear and melodious voice, "I am Oaserikele, commander of the first battalion

of the Nakala. We first met the creatures in battle approximately 3 months ago

at the outpost of Bralenai on our southern continent. They appeared out of

nowhere, our planetary defenses were not alerted. They slaughtered many

civilians in Bralenai before the Nakala were called in. They seemed to

primarily be using their own natural weapons as those that were killed bore

massive claw marks. Many of those that were only injured died after a short

time; leading us to believe the creatures may be venomous. When we met them in

battle they seemed to be like ghosts, able to disappear and re-appear behind

our lines. When facing the Nakala they began using energy weapons of some kind.

Those individuals that we caught glimpses of appeared somewhat like the

Ryukaissen here but they did not have wings and were of a very dark color. So

far as we know we were unable to slay any of them and they retreated of their

own accord. We suffered one

other very similar attack on one of our more northerly settlements but the

attackers fled before the Nakala could engage them.""Hmm I see," said

Sariala.Kralenai spoke up

and said, "Our experience was very similar, two attacks on remote settlements.

We know that least two of the creatures were killed by our warriors but the

survivors apparently took the fallen ones with them. We are still investigating

the attacks and have not come to any conclusions about the nature of the

attackers."The large and

beastly hrotha growled and spoke "We too were attacked, one of our orbiting

research outposts. Every one of our scientists was killed. Whoever they were

they managed to break into our databases. We are not sure what data was

accessed since most of the records were heavily damaged."The Hazaeki leader

spoke and said, "Thus far we have not suffered attack but we felt it was

important for us to participate in these discussions.""That goes the

same for us." said the chefik. "My people desire knowledge of this new threat.""I see" said Sariala,

"Then I will tell you our story. A small facility on Tabra 5 was attacked. Like

the tartarian experience, we were not alerted by our planetary defense systems.

There were only a few chiara guarding the station at the time but both they and

the scientists fought admirably and repulsed the attack. A few months later we

were attacked again on one of the space stations near Rona itself. This time

there were lashanka nearby. They were able to arrive sufficiently quickly to

entrap some of the attackers. We discovered that they were utilizing ships

equipped with cloaking devices. We were unable to destroy or capture the ships

involved but we were able to capture several of the attackers. They took their

own lives before we were able to interrogate them but we were able to perform

genetic analysis on their remains. But perhaps before I continue with my

discussion, we could hear from the Keynari delegation.""Are you trying to

imply that we know something about these creatures?" roared one of the younger

Keynari with rage. "We don't know anything about them and the very idea that we

. . ." The older grizzled fox calmly interrupted the tirade of the younger."Sperti," it said

softly "You speak out of ignorance." The younger keynari stopped short and grew

silent. Ketzian continued in a slow deliberate tone, "I have been authorized by

my government to reveal this information. It has been a well kept state secret

for many, many years. The creatures you have fought against are species 953

from our bioweapons program. They were created approximately 300 years ago,

primarily as protection against pharlan aggression." Suddenly the fox

was interrupted by a shrill screech from the tartarian female. She stood up,

stretching out all of her feathers and pointed at Sariala with her talons, "I

knew it, I knew your race would somehow be the cause of all of this!" she was

breathing hard, seemingly consumed with burning rage. Sariala remained

seated and spoke calmly, "We are not here to address the injustices of the

past. The cause of this problem cannot be changed or prevented. We must find a

solution to this enemy which is here and now. If you will allow the keynari to

continue, perhaps he has insights to share with us." Lady Aie'oleiwe stopped

and sat back down with a sharp huff. "Species 953," continued the fox

"Was created using ryukaissen and keynari sequences as well as data from

several non-sentient species. They were designed to be intelligent, aggressive

and quick evolvers. Their typical generation time is only about 12 years. They

were kept in a base on the moon of the 5th planet of our system. Unfortunately by the time we had developed

sufficient numbers of species 953 to be effective against pharlans, hostilities

had already subsided. It was decided that they should be kept on the moon base

and kept in constant training.  This

continued until the year 1357 AT.  In

that year there was a disturbance at the base. When our forces arrived all of

the caretakers were dead and Species 953 was gone. We searched for them but

they were nowhere to be found. We had not seen or heard anything of them until

only last year when we were also attacked."There was silence

in the massive room for a short time until Sariala finally broke it. "Did you

engineer this species with any control mechanisms?""Yes they were

engineered with a sensitivity to a particular chemical, however we have yet to

synthesize a sufficient quantity of the chemical for a test. We are also

concerned that the large number of generations that have passed since their

escape may have allowed them to evolve resistance to the chemical. One of the

sites that was attacked was in the process of synthesizing the chemical.""Were they made

aware of this sensitivity?" asked Sariala."Not as far as we

know but it is possible that they somehow acquired this knowledge.""Well in any case

it seems that the production of this chemical should be our highest priority." said

Sariala, there was agreement from all sides of the table. "Now I would also

like to propose that we begin sharing intelligence fully and that we begin

linking our planetary defense systems so that all of us can respond together to

any attack."Lady Aie'oleiwe

folded her arms across her chest and said "Humph I suppose you want to use this

as an opportunity to redeploy your forces across our worlds again."The other members of the table shot

sharp glances toward Sariala.  "We will not

redeploy our forces to other worlds unless you request them. That will continue

to be the case. But an integrated network of intelligence gathering will allow

us to track the movements of this species and coordinate our counter attacks. I

also believe we should continue these meetings beyond the duration of this

week. I think it will lead to greater trust and unity between our peoples."There was hearty

agreement to this across the room. Sariala continued his discussions in more

detail during the week and the council of seven was established as a permanent

fixture of pharlan government.