{"sf1_id":94920,"sf2_id":"B1QYWgv1","title":"The Karn Dominion, The Hybrid War, Tony the Cougar","author":"Hinny Mule","words":7309,"posted_at":"2009-07-17T10:12:00.000Z","tags":["Alien","Cougar","Dog","Goat","M/F","Transformation"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/94920-the-karn-dominion-the-hybrid-war-tony-the-cougar","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/B1QYWgv1","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/d3/01/d3014977-0361-453a-b572-8147591db4f9","description":"","content":"The Karn Dominion, The Hybrid War  \nTony the Cougar  \nBy  \nWilliam W. Kelso  \n  \nI lifted my head briefly and took a quick look. The Krill laager was about two hundred  \nyards away where they'd set up in an old highway rest stop for the night. It was almost  \ndark but that didn't bother me, my night vision is excellent. I remained perfectly still, my  \ndun colored fur mixing in perfectly with the tall grass, and the only thing that moved was  \nthe tip of my tail, slowly flicking back and forth, I can't control the damn thing when I'm  \nhunting! I made my decision. These guys are going down, I thought with relish. Their  \nsecurity was lax, and there was plenty of cover, more than enough for me and my  \ncommandos to get close. And I was very curious as to what was in those supply hover  \ntrucks. The Krill would never know what hit them.  \n  \nMy name was Tony, and I had been a part-time Wal-Mart employee (associate) when t  \nhe plagues that preceded the Karn invasion had hit. I had been visiting some friends at  \ntheir ranch near Dallas, and we had all become infected before we could return home.  \nFor almost three weeks my friends and I had been in a state of terror as we had watched  \none another slowly turn into animals right before our eyes. We had watched as our  \nbodies grew fur at first, then began to twist and form into new shapes. God it had hurt  \nso bad! And we could do nothing to stop it or help one another. No one could. At best  \nwe tried to comfort one another, holding on tightly to our friends in our mutual terror.\n\n\u0026nbsp; The alien mutagen viruses had attacked our very DNA, and reconfigured it to a new  \nhybrid species. Of course we didn't know this until later. We had been lucky in that  \nthere had been plenty of food available, including a large meat locker full of sides of  \nbeef and deer since my friend's father ran a small dressing plant for hunters. And when  \nthe agony faded and sanity, or as close to it as possible, had returned we had been so  \nconfused and scared. I and my five friends had become cat-people, like something out  \na cheap B-Movie, but it was all too real. We had all become, as near as we could tell,  \npart human and part Cougar or Mountain Lion! It was so very strange at first, but we  \nquickly adapted to our new lives as best we could.  \n  \nThe worst thing was we could no longer talk, or read and write! We couldn't even  \ncommunicate with one another by writing something down! I would stare at a book  \nknowing the marking meant something, but I just couldn't remember! But we quickly  \nlearned to read one another's body language, and the sounds and calls we made  \nalso made sense most of the time. Another thing we found was our senses had been  \ngreatly increased, especially our senses of smell and hearing. It was amazing how  \nmuch information could be transmitted by scent alone. From just a urine marker we  \ncould tell the sex, age, and even the health of another feline! Plus the female's scents  \nwere enticing to say the least! We also came up with some hand signals that worked  \nquite well, so we got along fairly well.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; I had no way of knowing how we had been transformed, and we too busy just surviving  \nthe new terrifying world in which he found ourselves to really worry about it. It was an  \ninsane world of scared new animal species wandering the streets and countryside,  \nterrified and not understanding what had happened. Later we would find that we had  \nbeen created to serve alien invaders as intelligent livestock, and that they would have  \nclassified me as a \"Stage 3 Human/Feline/Cougar/Male, Function: Guard/Tracker.  \nI would have been used to guard property and facilities, or as a tracker to hunt down  \nferal or run-away hybrids. We were very lucky, we escaped the initial round-ups when  \nthe Karn Colony ship arrived, to take possession of their new world and to prepare the  \nway for their Masters.  \n  \nI'm approximately six feet tall and very lithe and muscular. I'm covered in tan/dun  \ncolored fur, darker on my back and sides and fading towards my belly. I'm bipedal,  \nbut my hind legs are those of the big cat I had become, but my arms are still mostly  \nhuman except for the retractable claws in the ends of my fingers. I like the way my  \nclaws feel when they snick out and retract. I have no problem dropping down on all  \nfours very comfortably, and I can move along the ground with my belly touching it with  \nno discomfort. My head is entirely feline, with the short blunt fang filled muzzle of a  \ncarnivore. Like all Stage 3 hybrids I can't talk as my vocal cords are entirely feline,  \nbut I can make some very human sounds, mainly when I'm sad or unhappy. My full  \nlength tail is almost prehensile. I'm a natural predator, with all the instincts of my  \nanimal donor.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; And my friends were just like me with minor variations in coloring. Three males and  \nthree females. The males are larger though. Our sexual organs are a cross between  \nfeline and human, and thankfully sex is not painful for us as it is for some natural felines.  \nMy penis is human shaped, but I carry it in a sheath, and am completely covered in fur.  \nOur females have both human and feline mammaries, but their human breasts tend to  \nbe fairly small and firm with a downy fur covering. They are incredibly beautiful, and  \nI just love to just watch them move  \n  \nAfter the food at the ranch ran out we had gone hunting, literally, for more food. It was  \nobvious everything had collapsed, and we soon ran into other confused hybrids, but  \nthese were goats and deer, or even horses and bulls! The others were scared of us  \nand would usually flee at our approach, even though we had no desire to hunt or hurt  \nthem. We knew they had been human too, and to kill them for food would have been  \nmurder. Plus they were just as scared and confused as we were. We did encounter  \na few other carnivores, but they had mostly been canines and we shared a mutual  \ndistrust, and being incapable of communicating in any way we had just backed off from  \none another and gone our separate ways.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Then we made our first feral kill a few days later. We were so hungry, and as our hunger  \ngrew the human part of us had retreated, and the predator had taken over. Our first kill  \nwas a natural cow, and it really wasn't much of a hunt to be honest. Still, we had stalked  \nthe cow through the tall grass and weeds, and managed to bring it down with little effort.  \nThen we had feasted on the raw meat until our gnawing hunger was satisfied, and it had  \ntasted so good! But afterwards when our human part had regained control we had been  \nhorrified at what we had done, and had held each other and cried . But it had been that  \nor die as there was no other real source of food for us anymore. The stores had long  \nbeen looted and cleaned out, and any meat left was too rotten even for us. But we soon  \naccepted what we had to do, and quickly became skilled hunters and learned to love the  \nthrill of the hunt. One Cougar by itself is formidable, as a pack we were terrifying.  \n  \nFor almost five years we lived as little more than animals, predators, doing what we  \nhad to survive. Occasionally we encountered other felines, but they had their own packs  \nand territories, so we mostly avoided other carnivores. The other hybrids, the herbivores,  \nhad mostly settled into large herds, and we left them alone. There was plenty of natural  \nprey. We mated and had kittens, which grew up to be healthy young adults very rapidly.  \nBut we were sad they had never known any other life, and would grow up as wild animals.  \nWe still knew we had been something else once, had been human, and that part of us  \nstill remained.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Though living mainly as wild predators, the fact that we banded together was a human  \ntrait as large natural cats are loners. We marked out a territory and set up camps in  \nold abandoned houses or other suitable places for the shelter. We had fires for light,  \nbut our thick fur really made them unnecessary for warmth. We used fire mainly  \nbecause it was a way of reminding us that we had been intelligent civilized beings  \nbefore our transformations. We don't wear any clothing other than a harness to carry  \nour few possessions. Our nudity was of no concern to us, we simply didn't need clothes  \nfor any reason, but we do carry ponchos for rainy days. Wet cats are not happy, and  \na group of wet cats is not nice to be around.  \n  \nThen we found something new and unexpected. We had run across the trail of another  \nfeline crossing into our territory, and naturally we went to inspect. If this cat was just  \npassing through that was allowed, but if it intended to set up in our territory the fur would  \nfly. We tracked it to an abandoned farm house, and moved in to confront it as a group.  \nAnd we were shocked to meet our first Stage 2 hybrid feline! The Stage 2 hybrids had  \nbeen designed to be managers and administrative slaves, to basically be go-betweens  \nbetween Stage 3 and higher hybrids and their masters. Because of this and their need  \nto be able to speak intelligibly their physical changes were less than ours, but they  \ncould understand us perfectly as they have many of the same instincts.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We burst in on her, she was female, and nearly scared the poor thing to death. She  \nhad immediately assumed a non-threatening submissive posture, and had also begged  \nus \"Please don't hurt me!\" which had shocked US! After getting over the shock of hearing  \na voice, more or less human, for the first time in almost five years we also assumed  \nnon-threatening postures and introduced ourselves. I can't explain how we did to a non  \nfeline, but within a few minutes she knew, and we knew, that we had found a new friend  \nand  \npack member.  \n  \nWe found out her name was Tiny, and she was smaller than our females, but very pretty  \nand exquisite. She was about five feet tall, and had a full fur coat and tail, but her muzzle  \nwas very short and the rest of her body was much more human then feline. She had lovely  \nsleek black fur and blue eyes. She knew our names, or at least our feline names for one  \nanother, which can't really be translated. She had been a bus driver for the local school  \ndistrict before her change, and we were the first other feline hybrids she had encountered.  \nAnd she was pitiful, half starved and weak as she just wasn't as good a hunter as the  \nStage 3 hybrids, and being alone was a big drawback too. So we adopted her and she  \nbecame a most valued member of the pack, and her being able to care for the kits allowed  \nus all to go hunting at the same time. But after a few weeks a problem did arise.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We all noticed it at about the same time, she was going into heat! And of course all the  \nmales were interested, but we were all happily mated, and the young were just too young!  \nWe knew she was miserable, she would go off by herself and mope, and would lash out  \nat anyone who came near. And we knew she had been alone over the years and had  \nnever mated, and felt sorry for her. It's a horrible thing to be alone with a need like that,  \nespecially for a hybrid. And finally since I was the alpha male and in charge, it was  \ndecided it was up to me to console her! I never even got to vote! At first I refused as  \nI was happily mated, but even my own mate insisted. So it became my duty to seduce  \nher and add her to my new harem! I had mixed feelings, but I lie if I say I wasn't very  \ninterested in her, all the males could smell her need! We did not consider it wrong or  \nadultery in any way, to us it was a perfectly natural need.  \n  \nAt first she refused my advances, but as her need continued to grow she finally gave in  \nand accepted me for her mate. She was so scared at first as it was something totally  \nnew for her. But I was very gentle, starting by just grooming her. I licked her muzzle  \nand face, brushing and rubbing softly and sensually against her body with my own,  \ncaressing her with my tail. Soon we were both giving throaty purrs of mutual pleasure  \nas we got to know one another. We ran combs through one another's fur, and the  \nfeeling was delightful. She has the most beautiful black fur, like crushed velvet! I loved  \nto just rub my nose in her fur and take in her scent, like crushed mint! Our courtship  \nwas a mixed combination of human and feline, but as it progressed it became more  \nintense and the human part slowly receded. I ran my tongue over her human breasts  \nwhich were much fuller and larger, more human than a Stage 3 feline. I felt her nipples  \ngrow hard from my licking, and she began to make soft purring and mewling sounds,  \nand from her scent I knew she was ready. But I did not mount her yet, I kept gently  \nrubbing and caressing her for a while longer as I wanted her to make the offer. It is not  \na good idea, even for a Cougar, to try and force yourself on an unwilling female! Then  \nwith a yowl she pulled away from my embrace and dropped to all fours. I didn't need  \na second invitation, so I mounted her and pinned her with my arms. I must have  \noutweighed her by close to a hundred pounds, so I was as careful as I could be under  \nthe circumstances. I reached back to help guide myself into her, and once I was seated  \nI pushed into her with powerful thrusts of my hindquarters, and she yowled in pain and  \npleasure. She was ready for me, but I was very large and it was her first time. I slowed  \ndown some to let her stretch more to accommodate me better, which didn't take very  \nlong much to my relief! And soon I was in her to the hilt, and began energetically  \nhumping her with steady powerful thrusts. And oh how tight she was!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We coupled under the night sky, giving yowls of mutual sexual ecstasy as we ground  \nagainst one another. And believe me, felines are NOT quiet lovers! We most likely  \nscared anything within a mile or two half to death! And it was glorious! She stayed in  \nheat for several more days, and we were left alone and secluded in our pleasure, and  \nwhenever we were temporarily spent she would crawl into my embrace, and I would  \ngently groom her face and ears with my tongue while we rested. And when we were  \nthrough I had a new mate, and we were both very pleased with one another.  \n  \nWhen we finally went back to the main camp the others complained that they hadn't  \ngotten much sleep during the last few days! And it's not like they hadn't added their  \nown choruses to the racket! Of course I had to make it up to my first mate, but that  \nwas fine with me! I soon found that having two loving mates was very nice indeed!  \n  \nAnd then we got another shock that would completely change things again, it would  \ngive us our human names and identities back, and we would finally learn what had  \nhappened to us, and why! I met Colonel Roth, a huge Shire horse stallion hybrid and  \nseveral of his soldiers when they entered our territory on a scouting patrol. I was by  \nmyself at the time, on a regular patrol of my own to check our territorial markings and  \nrefresh them with my urine. It was how we let other felines and animals know they  \nwere entering our territory, and to stay out! I smelled them first as they were upwind,  \nso I went into \"stealth\" mode and tracked them. And when I finally got close enough  \nto see them I was really surprised, no, I was shocked! For one thing the Shire stallion  \nwas huge! One of the biggest hybrids I'd seen yet, he must have pushed 1200 pounds!  \nAnd there were carnivores with herbivores! There were six soldiers in the patrol. The  \ncolonel, an equally huge bull, two canine hybrids, a goat Ram, and a Donkey! And  \nthey were all wearing ammo bandoliers and were armed with weapons! And I almost  \njumped up in surprise when I realized they were TALKING to one another, in English!  \nBut I kept my cool, and decided to sneak in a little closer to take a better look at the  \nweird scene! But they were very alert and I blew it. One of the canines, or as I later  \nfound out a wolf, suddenly looked intently in my direction and let out a deep growl, then  \nsaid,  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; \"Colonel, we got a visitor! A big cat! He's by that rock at our forty!\"  \n  \nI let out a deep growl of my own in response to the wolf's challenge, but stayed still.  \nThe huge horse put his weapon down, and approached me with open hands. I could  \ntell he was a little nervous as his ears kept flicking around trying to catch any sounds,  \nbut he walked up until he wasn't very far away. I watched him approach and gave  \nanother growl when I thought he was close enough. Then he spoke to me!  \n  \n\"If we're in your territory we apologize, we mean no harm!\"  \n  \nAnd as he talked I realized it wasn't really coming from his mouth, but from a collar  \naround his neck. The voice was coming from a disk or medallion on the collar, and  \nit was a deep rolling baritone.  \n  \n\"That's right he said, we can talk, and so can you if you want!\"  \n  \nWhen I heard that I did jump up, and assumed a non-threatening sitting posture. Oh  \nGod, I thought, to be able to talk again!  \n  \n\"It's these collars, he said. We get them from the aliens, don't know how they work  \nbut if you're a Stage 3 you'll be able to talk again too.\"  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Collars, aliens, I thought?? Then he reached into a pouch on his belt, and took out  \nsome more of the collars!  \n  \n\"Hmm, he said, you look like about a size green, here you go!\"  \n  \nAnd he tossed one of the collars to within my reach. Hesitantly I picked it up and  \nsniffed it, looking it over.  \n  \n\"Put it on!, the horse said, then think about what you want to say. Don't use your  \nvocal cords, just think about what you want to say.\"  \n  \nI slipped the collar over my head, and the elastic like band was a nice fit. I looked at  \nhim, and tried to say something, but all that came out was garbled nonsense.  \n  \n\"Slow down! You have to get used to it! Now, let's start out small. What's your  \nname?\"  \n  \n\"T-T-uh, grrr! T-Tony!\" I managed to say! \"M-m-my name is TONY!\" And I can't  \ndescribe what it was like to be able to talk again after all that time! I went from being  \na dumb animal to being an intelligent being again in just a few seconds! With a sob  \nI ran up to that wonderful huge horse, crying \"Thank you, Thank you!' and hugged  \nhim as hard as I could!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; He just laughed and said, \"Watch the claws buddy!\"  \n  \nEmbarrassed I retracted my claws and stepped back to look at him in awe. His  \nsoldiers were watching me with big shit eating grins on their muzzles,  \n  \n\"Feels good don't it!\" said a Goat.  \n  \n\"I, I , don't , I, how can I Thank you!\" I managed to say, and unable to help myself  \nI hugged him again, and this time he returned it and nuzzled my head and held me  \nwhile I mewed and cried like a little kitten. And they all gave me hugs and introduced  \ntheir selves and told me \"welcome back\". And the little Donkey dried off my faced  \nwith a towel he produced from his medic's bag. What a wuss I was!  \n  \nAnd that's how I met Colonel Roth and joined the resistance. The whole pack did,  \nand there was no hesitation or regrets. He gave us all collars, even the kits and soon  \nthey were able to talk too! He gave us back everything we had been before. For the  \nfirst time in years I heard my mate and friends speak again, and we met so many  \nothers and had so much catching up to do! He told us about what had been done to  \nus, and how, and why.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; That the Earth had been invaded and conquered without firing a shot by a race of aliens  \ncalled the Karn, and they had transformed us for their use in colonizing our own planet.  \nHad destroyed our civilization and turned us into intelligent animals for their use as they  \nsaw fit, and we were less than slaves. And our hatred slowly grew, and cats hold  \na grudge like you wouldn't believe.  \n  \nThe resistance was glad to have us as there were far fewer felines and other carnivores  \nthen herbivores. And I was amazed at how well the carnies and browsers got along!  \nThere was little, if any, conflict! Despite our forms we still saw one another as equal  \nmembers of the same race. And while the others made good soldiers or performed  \nother vital duties, we felines had very special abilities that were priceless. Only a cat  \ncan get close enough to a kill an enemy without them even knowing they're being killed.  \nWe became scouts for the resistance, both the males and females. And Tiny was  \npriceless too, she was one of only six Stage 2 hybrids in the whole resistance at that  \npoint. She became one of our best spies, but I worried so much when my black beauty  \nwas away! The kits stayed with my mate Tiny while we were in the field, or there were  \nplenty of others to watch them if she had to go on a mission too.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We were formed into Commandos, and trained intensely with one another and the  \nother hybrids. We met other species of hybrid felines and canines, and plenty of  \nherbivore species. We all lived in scattered base camps, and moved around on a  \nregular basis to keep the enemy from pinpointing our location. Then finally I was  \nthrough with my training, and my first mate Cindy and I were assigned to our first  \nfield unit.  \n  \nOur purpose was mainly scouting, but we could also take out \"targets of opportunity\"  \nif the risk was minimal. There were twelve of us in the unit, called Special Commando  \n7. In addition to myself and Cindy there were two other felines, both males. A Puma  \nnamed George, and an honest to God Leopard named Bridget. There were also two  \ncanines named Butch and Roger, and the remaining four were goats. There was one  \nram named Bruce, and three ewes named Ruth, Flowers (don't ask me, she sure didn't  \nsmell like flowers!), and Sally. Our medic was a Donkey named Bernie. Almost all  \nmedics were Donkeys or Ponies, they had been designed to care for other hybrids,  \nso were perfect for the role. Our last team member was another Goat named Henry,  \nbut he was a different hybrid species from the other four Goats. He was our radioman.  \nHe was the only Stage 2, all the rest of us were Stage 3's.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We felines were the scouts, we always had point and flank security, and we considered  \nthat a point of honor. The two dog soldiers were heavy weapons and demo, and the  \nGoats were our basic infantry support. You might think Goats wouldn't make good  \nsoldiers, but you'd be very wrong. They could run and dodge and bound and leap like  \nyou wouldn't believe, and were almost impossible to track and hit with any weapon.  \nMillions of years of evolution spent avoiding and outrunning predators made them  \nnatural soldiers. Give a goat a weapon and he's a fair match for just about anything,  \nand their horns and hooves are nothing to sniff at. I got kicked by a pissed off goat  \nonce and it broke my leg. It is virtually impossible to sneak up on an alert Goat or  \nother browser as almost all of them have 360 peripheral vision. Like most carnies  \nI have a limited field of forward oriented vision so I can concentrate on my prey. It  \nmust be weird to have 360 vision though, but anytime I asked a browser they just  \nsaid it didn't bother them after the first few days following their transformations.  \nI remembered about how \"normal\" I'd come to feel within a short time after my own  \nchange, so I could understand what they meant.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; So we trained together, lived together, and fought together. And we became a crack  \nteam, and I came to love each and every one of them, even the smelly goats! We  \ndepended on, and needed each other. Our job was to basically remain in the field  \nand gather intelligence, contact and try to recruit other hybrids, and to take out enemy  \nunits if the opportunity presented itself. Kind of like an extended patrol, we only came  \nback to a base camp if we needed supplies or had some really hot info.  \n  \nOnce when I had been separated and wounded after an attack that went south big  \ntime, they had stayed behind to search for me for days. Bernie found me and patched  \nme up, and the rest took turns carrying me back to base camp, even though I weighed  \nmore than any of them except George. We watched out for one another, and we never  \nleft anyone behind unless it was just impossible to retrieve their body if they'd been  \nkilled.  \n  \nOn one of our first actions I really screwed the pooch (no insult intended to my canine  \nbuddies). It was one our first real attacks against the enemy, and I guess my impatience  \nand inexperience were the main reason I opened fire without really thinking, that and my  \nhunting instincts had kicked in.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; We had set up to ambush a supply convoy to get feed for the herbivores. It was high  \nsummer and most of their forage was drying up and losing a lot of its nutritional value.  \nI saw one of the Donkey wagon drivers stand up and thought we'd been spotted, so  \nI opened up, and that set off other members of the ambush team. When it was over  \nwe were horrified to find the convoy had been made up of only equine hybrids, and was  \nunescorted. And we had slaughtered them.  \n  \nI remembered how mad Colonel Roth had been, especially at me for pulling such  \na stupid boner, but he had forgiven me as he was a professional soldier. Then he  \nhad roamed the area after the massacre, and even though he thought we didn't notice  \nit was impossible not to hear him grieving for the dead Donkeys and Mules. I'll never  \nforget how he took the Donkey driver I had killed, and held him like a baby, and cried  \nand cried and grieved as both a horse and a man. He tried to console the dead drivers  \nMule team mates who were frantic. Equines really love one another, they form bonds  \nthat I can't explain.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; And a Donkey who's team mates I had killed, even though badly wounded himself, had  \nattacked me and kicked the snot out of me until I threw him off. I was going to kill him  \nwith my fangs and claws for that, but the other team members stopped me, and boy did  \nthey rake me over the coals!  \n  \nLater as I came to realize the true horror of what I had done, that I had murdered gentle  \nhelpless equines that were no threat, I went off into the brush by myself and holding my  \nhead in my hands I had cried and mewled. I had sobbed with my whole body shaking  \nfor a long time and had hated myself.  \n  \nLater when I went back to the convoy Col. Roth and Tina, our Goat medic, had been  \ntending to the Donkey who had attacked me. I had looked down at the two mules I'd  \nkilled, and on impulse I had reached down and cut their name tags off their harness.  \nThey said Rob and Bob, and had been crudely hand embossed with little flowers around  \ntheir names. The Donkey hated me at first, and tried to get at me more than once. But  \nwhen I gave him the name tags, and he saw how truly sorry I was, he had forgiven me.  \nThen he had consoled ME while I cried again. How he could ever forgive me for killing  \nhis team mates I'll never understand. His name is Brad. He was our unit medic now,  \nand one of my best friends. More than once I'd watched him go the aid of a wounded  \nbuddy with total disregard for his own safety. And he saved my life on more than one  \noccasion. We called him our Guardian Angel, when he couldn't hear us!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; I finished my recon, and keeping low I slowly moved away from the Krill patrol. I left by  \na different route, just as carefully and quietly as I had approached. We'd hit them during  \nthe early morning, about two hours before sun up. Being reptiles, even though warm  \nblooded, they‘d be a little sluggish around then. They were members of one of the many  \nslave, or subservient, races the Karn had conquered over who knows how many millennia.  \nSo long ago they can't even remember a time when they didn't serve their Karn masters.  \n  \nThey looked a lot like raptors, but with very human like arms. They had nasty claws on  \ntheir feet and four fingered hands, in addition to their nasty fangs. They went nude like  \nwe did, but the only way you tell their sex was the males were slightly larger and had  \ndarker colorings. Their colorings ranged from common greens and browns to an almost  \ncobalt blue. They did wear body armor, combat harness, and other military gear. They  \nwere excellent soldiers, and rarely gave up without a vicious fight. It was best to kill them  \nsuddenly from ambush, or from a distance. Getting within reach of those claws and fangs  \nwas not a good thing, even to a carnie like myself. And their skin was tough and leathery,  \nhard to penetrate even with claws. Fortunately they were about the size of ostriches, if  \nthey have been T-Rex size they would have had us for snacks. But they were garrison  \ntroops, and more used to semi-police and security duties then actual combat, and so far  \nthey had no real idea of what was happening. They would have a hard time accepting that  \nlivestock was fighting back! So they were very complacent at first, and we kept our  \nactivities to a minimum to start with. But that had changed, and we were starting to take  \nout small isolated units, especially if we thought they had equipment we could use. We  \nhad good intel from a Stage 2 spy that this small convoy was loaded with veterinary  \nsupplies, which we desperately needed.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; I arrived back at the small bivouac we'd set up in a washed out stream bed. The banks  \nwere high enough to give us plenty of cover, and there were trees for shade. Before I got  \nthere I ran into the Puma named George, never even saw him until I almost stepped on  \nhim. He added a whole new meaning to the word \"sneaky\". I gave him the quick rundown,  \nand he gave a smile that scared even me a little bit. He was even bigger then I was, and  \nno one messed with him. The other felines were on perimeter security, but the rest of  \nteam was taking it easy.  \n  \nI had Henry get HQ on the radio, I told them the situation, and they gave the green light  \nand said go for it. They'd send a couple of wagons to help haul off whatever our loot was.  \nThen we settled down for a meal and rest as we had several hours to wait before moving  \nout for our attack.  \n  \nI'd been looking forward to dinner all day as I had lucked into some old, but still good  \ncans, of Fancy Feast cat food. It was Tuna, my all time favorite! I opened a pouch of  \nMRE scalloped potatoes, then popped the lid off the can of Fancy Feast and started to  \nmix it in. And almost instantly Bruce, the Goat Ram, suddenly lifted up his head and  \nflared his nostrils, and looked around in distaste.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; \"OH my GOD! He said, what IS that smell!\" The other Goats quickly picked up the  \nscent of my lovely dinner too. \"PU! What the hell is that!\", \"What died!\"  \n  \nSeeing the source of the foul smell they chorused: \"You're not going to EAT that  \nare you! GROSS!\"  \n  \n\"Beats grass!\" I said!  \n  \n\"Bite me!\" said Bruce.  \n  \nI looked at him and said, \"You offering?\" He made a rather rude noise, so I added ,  \n\"Naw, I don't think I will, you goats are too tough and stringy!  \n  \nAbout this time Berniecame trotting by, holding his nose and making gagging noises,  \n\"Ack, Ack, AAAWW!!\"  \n  \n\"Hey, I said, it's not my fault you guys can't appreciate fine cuisine! And I took a big  \nmouthful, and chewed with my mouth open with pieces of it falling out, \"MMMM! Yum  \nYum!\"  \n  \nBruce pretended to pass out, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. The other Goats  \nwere all bleating in disgust \"AWWW, Man, that is just NASTY!\" \"You stay away from  \nme, you've got mental problems!\" The rest were holding their noises and making  \nvery creative grossed-out noises.  \n  \nAnd the whole time Henry was trying not to crack up, and losing the battle.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; About this time Bridget, attracted by the noise, came wandering over and asked  \n\"Mmm, smells good, can I have some?\" Which set the Goats off again,  \n  \n\"Ohhh! Gross!!\" \"I'm gonna puke!\". Bruce pretended to wake up, and when I offered  \nthe pouch to him, he pretended to pass out again.  \n  \nThen I started chasing them around, \"Come on!\" I said, \"Just try a bite, you'll love it!\"  \n  \nBernie was staggering around making horrible puking noise like he was dying, and even  \nthe canines were holding their noses.  \n  \nRoger had found a great big spider somewhere, and dropped it on Sally's head, which  \nfreaked her out and she was dancing around screaming and bleating, \"Get if off! Get  \nit off! BAAAAAA!!\"  \n  \nAnd by this time Henry was rolling around on the ground totally helpless with laughter,  \nso I went over to him and held the pouch next to his nose. He took one whiff, his eyes  \nflew open, and he jumped up with a loud \"BAAAA!\" And ran off yelling, \"Get awaay from  \nme! That's siiick!\" He bleated.  \n  \nAnd after running a few feet he tripped over a rock and fell face first into a big slimy  \nmud puddle. Everyone froze for a second, but when he stood up covered in mud with  \nslime all over his head and dripping from his horns we all totally lost it. I pointed and  \ntried to say something, but had to collapse as I was laughing so hard it hurt. It was  \nthe funniest thing I'd ever seen! And then he came over and shook himself off all over  \nthe rest of us, mud and slime flying everywhere. And after that we had no choice but  \nto thrown Henry back in the mud puddle, despite his fierce resistance.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; For a long time the stream bed echoed to the sounds of helpless bleats, brays, yowls,  \ngrowls, and other sounds of hybrid hilarity. We're lucky the Karn didn't hear us, but  \neven if they had what would they have thought? It sounded more like a massacre than  \nanything else. And after the mayhem had ended we all settled down for a short nap.  \n  \nBruce and Henry snuggled up with the ewes in a big pile with Bernie on top. Browsers!  \nI thought. The felines and canines not on duty curled up under trees or bushes, and  \nwe all fell asleep. That was how we were, we all loved each other.  \n  \nOur approach to the Krill camp was slow and careful. Just because their security was  \ncrap didn't mean one alert trooper couldn't pick one of us up by sight or on a scanner.  \nBut I wasn't too worried about scanners as there were plenty of natural cows and other  \nanimals in the area, and we'd just show up as one of them. That's one advantage to  \nbeing more animal then human, no way to tell us apart on scanners. Plus we were  \nwell spread out. The other felines and I approached the camp from all four sides. Our  \nmain job was to neutralize the sentries and take out the com center before they could  \ncall for help.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; Butch and Roger, the two canines, set up their old WWII vintage .30 cal MG on a small  \nrise overlooking the camp, their job was to give us what support they could when the  \nmain battle started, and to cover us if we had to bug out. The Goats and Bernie stayed  \nin reserve, they'd move up when the action started.  \n  \nThe felines all had silenced pistols and combat knives, but we often just used our  \nnatural weapons. There is something very fulfilling about ripping out an enemies throat  \nwith your fangs. It took us almost two hours to infiltrate as close as we could, but by  \nour very nature we were very patient. I waited until the sentry I'd been assigned to take  \nout walked past again and he never saw me as I rose up behind him. I reached around  \nwith one hand and held his muzzle shut, and slit his throat with my combat knife, and  \nheld him. The only sound he made was the air escaping from the gaping wound in his  \nthroat as he died. I gently lowered him to the ground and hid his body behind some  \nbushes. I heard a brief noise from the other side of the camp, and knew my mate had  \ndispatched her own sentry. Then dropping to the ground I slowly crawled on all fours  \ntoward what was obviously the com tent from the antennas and dish set up next to it.  \nI could hear the sound of a couple of Krill talking in their hissing, clacking, whistling  \nvoices and the sound of a radio playing some weird music.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; I stood up and stepped into the tent. \"Hello Boys\", I said, and all they had time to  \ndo was gape at me with their mouths open before I shot them both with my silencer  \nequipped Beretta 9mm. Then I stayed just inside the entrance of the tent and waited,  \nknife in hand. It wasn't much of a fight, only one Krill got off a few rounds from his rifle  \nbefore George tore his head off, and no one was even hit.  \n  \nThere was one slightly hairy moment when one Krill we'd missed rose up from behind  \na truck with an LMG in his claws, but Flowers came bounding over the hood of the truck  \nand nearly took his head off with a machete. That is one mean ewe! Score was Krill 0,  \nHome Team 23. Not bad.  \n  \nIt was a text book perfect operation, and I knew the Colonel would be proud of us. The  \ncanines moved their MG to cover the road, and we called in the rest of the team, the  \nother felines disappearing into the night to recon the area. And Bernie, bless his little  \nheart, went around and checked all the Krill to see if any were wounded, making sad  \nlittle noises when none were. He was a healer, and even enemy dead upset him some.  \nI've seen him cry when he couldn't save a wounded Krill or Tawn. Like I said, he was  \nour Guardian Angel. But he cheered up a lot when he stuck his head in the back of  \nthe hover trucks. \"Jackpot!\" he brayed.  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; It was a fantastic haul! Enough vet supplies, equipment, and medicine to keep us set  \nup for months or even longer! Scanners, portable operating tables large enough for  \neven equine hybrids, bandages, artificial living skin grafts, medicines of every kind,  \noperating instruments, and on and on! Less than an hour later the wagons arrived,  \nand we quickly loaded up our ill gotten booty and headed for the hills and back to camp.  \nWe left the Krill weapons and most of the other equipment as it was useless to us. Krill  \nscanners could track the power sources. About all we took was the body armor as it  \nwould fit some of us, and the Krill rations which were pretty damn good. They were  \nblocks of compressed meat like jerky, and we carnies love the stuff, much to the  \ndisgust of our browser buddies! But Butch, our lupine demo expert, stayed behind for  \na little while longer and left some surprises for the Krill when they found the wiped out  \nconvoy. \"Boom\" he said to himself, an evil smile on his face. He liked what he did!  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; When we got back to camp we were welcomed like conquering heroes! After a big  \nhearty \"Well done!\" from Col. Ross, which made us all swell with pride, we were given  \na big party. There was great food for everybody including a roast natural cow for just  \nus carnies. And of course soon I was chasing the Goats around while I gnawed on  \na great big bone and they hurled insults at me. Col. Roth almost fell over he was  \nneighing and laughing so hard. Eventually they ganged up on me and threw me in  \na water trough from which I emerged spitting and hissing, looking like a drowned rat.  \nAnd everyone just lost it at my look of injured dignity as I stood there dripping.  \n  \nFinally my mates took pity on me and we disappeared into the night so we could  \ngroom and dry me off and pursue other interesting activities. And as the party wound  \ndown sooner or later just about everyone paired off with their mates or other partners  \nfor the night. The Rams Bruce and Henry each had at least half a dozen ewes following  \nthem around by then, the ewes instinctively recognizing desirable virile males. The  \nlucky bastards!  \nEND  \n\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*\\*  \n  \n\n\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;  \n  \n\n"}