FSE

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A Long Term Project

By Bluevirage

Chapter Three

Homesteading Made Difficult

Two Months Ago

The harpy scout glided along above a forest she was only somewhat familiar with. The sun's light struck her bright orange and yellow feathers and pale pointed ears from above and warmed her as she cruised along. It was not a flight of pleasure however for her large blue eyes were scanning the land beneath her. Similar to those of a predatory bird, with them she could see farther than any normal human.

But she was far from human, yet closer than she ever thought. Humans could not fly, she could, it was not by mistake, it was by design. She was made for it, and she embraced it as much as she was allowed to.

Her large prominent beak like nose pulled in air as she peered harshly at the land beneath her wings. Her eyes swept the forest floor for the escapee: her sister through having been made by the same human researchers back at the underground facility.

Though she was told some among the others were related to her human half by blood as well; the portion of animal genes she held belong to the falcon family of birds. Her extra arms with feathers to allow her the gift of flight as well as her hollow bones all came from said avian genetics.

The weight of the goggles on her forehead and the collar around her neck were a reminder of her lack of true freedom to fly where she wanted with those wings. Said goggles were apart of a compact communications apparatus that had the tiny bud of a speaker threaded into her left ear. Through it she communicated back to her so-called family.

Family that treated her like a slave and then made her a hunter of her own kind. She hoped nothing would disturb her as she caught a wonderful thermal and was enjoying it more than she was enjoying watching things scurrying about in the forest as her shadow passed over them.

"Spotlight, have you illuminated yet?" a voice at the other end of the wireless connection asked her.

The coded phrases were easy to understand and even though the channel was encrypted, the researchers that made her forced her to use such language when transmitting as well.

"My bulb is still dim." the girl replied as her spindly legs came up underneath her as she came in for a landing on a cliff face. Clutching the rocks with her clawed feet she dug in her right hand into the rock tearing bits of stone free as she firmed up her grip. She surveyed her surroundings before the voice replied to her negative.

"If your equipment was in better repair, you would have illuminated already!" came the sharp response.

The girl said nothing but faintly smiled. She had broken the thermal imaging part of her goggles on purpose to give her sister a chance to escape. She knew enough to know that wherever the little trickster ended up would be better for her.

"Spotlight, continue as ordered." another calmer voice said.

Lachiro. The girl thought bitterly as she remembered the bomb collar attached to her neck was his idea. Placed there at the order of the elderly director of the facility. A man of many titles and certain morals. she silently repeated to herself a conversation she had once overheard between researchers as they fed her and her sisters.

The harpy let go of the mountainside and dived towards the ground before unfurling her wings once more and soaring above the large forest her sister had fled into yet again. She hoped the girl was smart enough to not be spotted by her, lest she would be forced to carry out her orders.

They would know she lied and punish her by never letting her fly again or worse. Nothing was said, but plenty was imagined by her and her siblings in hushed tones after learning about what their human-half ancestors had done in the previous world before their births.

Having equipment in working order was not apart of her orders so she broke the thermal imaging device easily enough by dropping it...quite a few times. Still, as the goggles gripped her forehead, she swept her eyes back and forth carefully over the woods.

Flee little trickster, flee. she silently urged.

Heart full of hope for her sister having evaded her sight the winged scout turned her attention towards something on the ground near a river. The water fed hidden turbines built to supplement the facilities power needs.

Landing nearby with a powerful flap of her wings to halt her fall. The strange girl cringed at the sight before her and clasped her hands together as her wings folded shut.

The thing was a burned and horribly wounded figure. Resting upon the sandy shores of the unnamed river the bones of one of its arms and both its lower legs were visible. They were partly blackened stumps covered with dried blood and pus from infection.

What was more horrifying was that the wet shaggy mess was still breathing, gurgling mostly, as it laid on the ground.

"Come to finish me off?"

Subject #4780 leaped back in shock at the clear voice. Her wings opening and powering her retreat with a mighty flap that sent a few stray branches and leaves flying away in her wash. Even though she was already out of reach of the creature she drew the survival knife she was given and was ready to use it when a voice interrupted her.

"Did you illuminate? Your bulb has faded from view."

"Stop with the code words! I found something so I landed! I...I...think it's human or just...urgh I have no idea what it is!"

"Calm yourself," Lachiro cut in. "what is it? Describe it carefully."

"A canine I think, dark gray fur singed all over or just burned away. Three of its limbs are mangled and missing parts of them." 4780 gagged. "I can see bone, and it spoke to me!"

"It..." the still figure rasped before coughing not bothering to lift its head. "would like to be put out of its misery."

"Was going to do that...lady?" 4780 readied the knife again as she finished speaking. Her wings were shut behind her as she pulled in deep calming breaths. Her most basic fighting lessons involved her calming herself and pushing herself into a killing fit.

The emotional stress it placed upon her to become so dark as to kill something else troubled her. She was told it would become easier to do with more practice or was forced to kill multiple people whichever came first.

"Nice of you...to notice I am a girl." the figure said with a short laugh before more coughing seized them.

Lachiro listened intensely from his end to everything said in front of his harpy thanks to the sensitive microphone embedded in her communications gear. Thinking in silence for a long moment he finally made a decision that surprised everyone. "Recover the subject."

"I am already on mission-" 4780 started to say.

Lachiro leaned on his walking stick as he spoke over the radio more firmly. "Not the raccoon, the new subject, the canine. We need new sources of research material as it were."

The other speaker interrupted, anger obviously creeping into their voice. "Why waste time on medical aid for whatever it is she found?" they practically shouted over the earpiece in 4780's ear.

"Waste? We can study it you fool; but we need it alive for knowledge of the outside if we are to retrieve our other subjects!" Lachiro then spoke to the harpy. "Return for the recovery pack, once the subject is stabilized by you bring her to a designated airlock for decontamination and processing."

4780 readied the blade instead and approached the fallen creature. "I..." she began to use her training to call upon that killing feeling, to push aside doubt, and just mercy kill the individual before her.

"Do not be so quick as to think that a mercy kill will be best." Lachiro's guess as to what the bird hybrid was attempting was so spot on it stopped her in mid stride.

4780 paused in her movement towards the creature at the old man's words. "She is suffering, what can you do?"

"We can and have done plenty. We gave birth to your kind did we not?" Lachiro said with a hint of pride.

"Slaves we are! And I wear the proof of that each time you send me outside!"

"The explosive collar bothers you?" Lachiro said dodging the slave accusation by bringing up the item in question. "Well it will not be an issue the next time you leave, I promise you that. Return for the recovery pack, and I shall have a guard unit remove the collar and then send you back out."

The other speaker started to rage over the radio. "Lachiro you have gone too-ack!"

4780 winced at the sound of a solid object striking flesh followed by a thud. "You trust me?" she asked."

"Trust is not the issue at the moment." Lachiro sighed. "We have plans in place for recovering injured parties. It is simple equipment you will take with you and it is partly automated. Follow the spoken directions and you will do fine in stabilizing the injured. But as far as revisiting the trust issue," Lachiro paused. "Will you just go instead of helping the subject you did find? Because before you leave, think about this: what do you know about the outside world?"

4780 scowled and looked around her. Things appeared pleasant enough but that could all be a trick of her desperation in reaching for freedom; her fooling herself into thinking things were far better outside.

"Did you know we have a defensive zone designed and created by a special scout party? They set it up around the entrances to your shared home with us? Maintaining said zone involves regular secret excursions outside with armed guards. Their duty that involves them killing things that would do horrible things to you if they got inside our home." Lachiro lied.

"You lie." 4780 replied bluntly.

"Maybe so, but what chance do you stand out there alone? We can stop insulting your intelligence and start trusting you more. But, that knife you hold, yes, the blade. You could easily kill any one of us with it when you return; but our guards, foolish as they are, do not even train their guns on you when you come back armed as you are and just wait for you to hand over your gear peacefully.

"Do you know why?"

"No." 4780 replied sincerely.

The old man smirked to himself knowing he had her contained yet again. "Because you are our child, you know this, we are family. Now, return home and prepare for retrieval of the subject you did find."

4780 returned the knife to its sheath and faced the damaged being. "I will return with medical aid, you may not remember this conversation but...you may wish I never found you."

"Nothing...stopping you from at least rolling me back into the water." the thing gasped. "Washed up here and did not have the strength to pull myself back in." the pain in its voice was evident but it kept speaking. "Nature did not finish the job those assholes...started."

"It's a cruel world...but...maybe you got lucky with me finding you."

4780 watched her stop moving and realized she had passed out. The exertion from speaking had taken its toll on her and sent her back into a pained slumber. Pulling in a breath of her own 4780 spread her powerful wings and leaped into the air with a hard flap of them.

A week after Vena's escape

The evening found Dutch Wakerider lounging on his porch. It was where he spent the waning moments of light that crept over the top of the hills surrounding his home relaxing. The cabin was made by him with the timber having been dragged one piece at a time with ropes and chains to where he had built his residence. It was located within a remote valley and the work two summers ago allowed him to live fairly comfortably.

His frame was muscular and robust as a result of his labors even if he was not the rugged outdoors type by birth. He was more of a survivalist and had left home on a mission. A tent was not going to cut it and he was not too keen on sleeping underground all the time.

His need of a permanent residence above ground fostered a resolve within him and he learned everything he needed to make the cabin and more in the data cache his grandfather had left him hidden away underneath the very ground his cabin rested upon. The old man had taught him how to use the old machines similar to those used in New Landon. So everything that came after he set out on his own was a result of those early lessons in computers his grandfather had given him.

While the people of New Landon had fancy compact computers more recently manufactured using high-level technology. Dutch was puttering around in a computer stone age; but the old saying was true, a master of a slingshot was still a master. And he got along fine with the older technology whenever he ventured underground.

He had brought a bit of tech above ground with him into his cabin: laptop computers and mainframes with satellite up-links to the few in orbit that had remained after the Digital Collapse.

He also had access to a few hundred thousand gigabytes worth of holographic storage from the previous civilization. Videogames, television programs, movies, stage plays, all sorts of recorded materials. The millions of hours worth of knowledge he had was a data cache that his grandfather had arranged for and hidden. He had told Dutch and not his son because Dutch would not abuse the knowledge.

He wanted it to be shared, not horded, and Dutch was in the process of figuring out how to share it. New Landon was the issue, the country ruled by Lady Eurynome was making inroads with the surrounding villages, towns, and cities that it threatened to encroach upon with offers of food, medicine, and freedom from work.

It was why Dutch spent as much time below ground as he did. There he spent his time when not hunting working on expanding his knowledge to better figure out a way to spread what he had and avoid Lady Eurynome. By his reckoning he had learned enough about hunting and fighting to be an expert; and more than enough about computer programming to handle the most basic things.

All those videos copied from video sharing sites and held within the cache had really came in handy. The long dead practitioners of everything from computer repair to archery had shown him how to do what they did via his mimicry of their actions along with their vocalized and visualized directions.

He enjoyed listening to music while he worked on his body, exercising in the small gym that was included in the bunker that could comfortably house ten. While lonely, he kept himself distracted by his studies and hunting.

Though the isolation was getting to him, he felt that he would be okay for a time. Certainly the thought of joining up with civilization in New Landon and becoming a Citizen were tempting. He could still keep the cache secret and lead a life of relaxation.

It was what awaited him there and all he had to do was become practically a pet of the benevolent dictator, Lady Eurynome.

The thoughts were nice and the result of previous meetings he had had with Enforcer missionaries: men and women dedicated to spreading the word about the safe environments provided by the ruler of New Landon to surrounding areas.

He had looked over their educational materials given to him once as part of a trade deal. It was all printed on laminated paper, which was no surprise since not everyone had solar arrays or access to buried power plants that survived the Digital Collapse to power machines capable of reading computer files.

Dutch was certain he could easily get New Landon Titles in many fields due to his studying. He could even apply himself to proving he had what it took to gain the title of "Adventurer".

The solitary man had studied the messengers from New Landon and could tell by the way they handled themselves and their equipment they were a small army. They moved about in groups of six total and operated in spread-out teams of two from what he had seen of them from afar when surveying his land's borders.

He had been wearing one of his sneaking suits covered with materials that made him capable of blending into his environment. He had numerous sneaking suits, modified clothing colored for each season; and used it while hunting or surveying his immediate area.

The Enforcers had spoken about establishing trade routes and asked if it would be okay if they left behind radio beacons. They had asked because they suspected Dutch would have found and dismantled them.

They were right.

He said they should leave one near the road about half a mile back and pay him a visit anytime they liked at his cabin.

They went on their way and stopped back a month later on their way back home. Their group was still six strong but the eyes of the travelers seemed to have been opened to something. That was when he was told about what they had encountered.

Mutant animals, something they had suspected would be possible but not so near to New Landon. Dutch had recalled his home was about a good three hundred miles away from the border to the collection of supposed mile-high city towers according to the coordinates they had given him. He was not surprised these people had hiked the entire way with the intention of living off of the land and their own supplies.

It was much more stealthy that way and he was certain they liked going unnoticed as to avoid contact with hostiles. He also suspected a few of their number were not human but kept that to himself. It was a feeling that had tipped him off and he never ignored his feelings.

Cyborgs or whatever they were aside. He was nonetheless yanked back to the present when he spotted an intruder that night creeping among his bushes. Or rather he had spotted the slight rustling and movement of the leaves covering the large leafy plants.

Dutch had deliberately left bushes for cover around his property for two reasons: to hide his own traps and alarms and to have a natural border to his lawn. Sure it was dirt, but it was his dirt and he did have a habit of meticulously moving around rocks in his yard as a way to provide alarm if someone came by when he was not around.

Dutch poured water from the opening of his canteen into his mouth as he nonchalantly checked out the intruder probing his bushes. He caught a flash of color and suspected they had something tied about their waist like colored rope maybe. Narrowing his eyes as he suspected a trap he glanced at his wristwatch.

Not quite a watch only it was a wearable computer tied in with his home's alarm systems. All of it was pulled from the data cache's defense kit and installed by him. He had hidden sonar, listening devices and cameras around his territory that only tracked and recorded the movement of anything crossing his defensive lines.

Currently the intruder seemed to be alone so Dutch only slightly relaxed his guard. The weight of the pistol at the small of his back and the knife in his lap made him remember the close combat techniques he had learned from his grandfather and videos within the cache.

He had the scars to prove he had underwent hands-on training from the old man back in his teens and even more from his living alone. But he had beaten everything that had ever attacked him so far. But he had never seen anything like the being that wandered in front of the path to his front porch after coming out from behind the bushes.

Certainly he had seen mutant humans before with other animal features; the New Landoners called them Alterhumans, but this one looked different.

It had the wide eyes of an innocent curious creature. Black orbs with bright blue pupils and dark irises locked with Dutch's own eyes from fifty feet away. She wore a simple sash around her waist and the man knew she was female from her figure, lacking in a bust as it was.

Her fur was similar to that of a raccoon and Dutch definitely suspected she was a mutant raccoon something or another considering her bushy black banded tail. She seemed a bit on the young side though if her frame was any indication. But he had no way of knowing her level of maturity from just looking at her.

She stared at Dutch before looking behind herself and uttering something in a guttural language. A fat raccoon with a bat lashed to his back wandered up behind her on all fours and pushed her aside. He stood and quickly brandished his clubbing tool.

Dutch would have laughed at the absurdity of being jumped by bandit raccoon mutants if he was not facing such a reality right in front of him. But something in the back of his mind told him there was no danger from them. Even though they appeared to be right in front of him some dozens of feet away.

He could easily draw on them and fire, but he held his ground and studied the enemy force before him. There were four of the slender ones and three larger ones along with the fat one in the lead for a total of eight.

They all wore some bits of cloth, noticeably those he suspected as female wore sashes about the waist while the suspected males wore necklaces of human bones. All were for the most part naked and he figured this was for the best due to their fur giving them natural camouflage.

He knew the bones he spotted were human from his anatomy studies; studies that he could also apply to the beings before him for maximum damage if it got down to a close range fight. But he wanted them to leave without a fight if he could help it. Sound carried and he did not want more guests drawn by the noise of a messy fight involving him easily firing from the hip and striking them all in their fuzzy faces.

He was not surprised that his alarm system had not triggered properly because glitches happened and he had skipped testing it that day unlike every other day. But something was up and he could feel it in his bones from the way the other mutants reacted to him. It was different from how the first one had reacted to him that he had spotted.

She still stared at him intently. It seemed as if she was burrowing into his soul, or just his skull and the brain within it. Dutch suspected treachery but not of the ordinary kind if there was such a thing. To test his theory would require guts on his part. But he wanted to be sure before he killed someone needlessly.

Sure his survival was paramount but the coons seemed sentient and organized. And the bone thing? Not proof of having killed a living human in combat to get them. Nature had a way of leaving things behind to be used by others once something's time was up.

Dutch briefly wondered what he would leave behind as he stood up to his full height. The raccoons advanced on him slowly, the females in the rear.

Dutch strolled forward, eyes never leaving the group, and picked up a rock and threw it at the lead raccoon mutant.

The rock passed through it and that was when Dutch knew the first one was likely the only one facing him that evening and he ran right for her.

She hissed and her illusions vanished and instead of running away she braced herself and brought her fists up in a human-like fighting stance.

Dutch skidded to a stop and studied the female and kept his own weapons sheathed while assuming a similar stance. Fists clenched, arms up, protecting the neck, knees slightly bent. The two fighters mirrored each other easily and Dutch suspected she had picked up quite a few things from someone on how to fight.

The two stared each other down with her blue eyes staring up into the dark green orbs Dutch had until the shorter creature backed away.

It was then that Dutch noticed the puma.

Said puma was not a mutant in the sense that it could walk upright. It was a mutant due to its sheer size. It was easily as big as a bear and had the muscle mass to take one on as well. Dutch's alarm systems had alerted him to its presence days ago and he had intended to put together a hunting party of one and some decoys in the form of smoke bombs to kill it in ranged combat with his heavier hitting guns. Said heavier caliber guns were in the house locked up and the only things he had on him were a knife and the revolver.

But the raccoon was in the way and the puma was about to pounce. Things became surreal as he watched the puma vanish and the raccoon dart towards him and punch him in the gut with a left jab followed by two quick shots to his face when he doubled over.

Dutch stumbled back, lip busted and the wind knocked out of him. For such a small thing she had strength on par with a fully grown human and she was easily half Dutch's size.

Dutch focused on the raccoon as she screeched, fangs gleaming in the twilight, and delivered a kick that he caught with his right shoulder as he tried to dodge her. The impact knocked him over and right on his back allowing the female to pounce on him and pin his arms to the ground.

She stared into his eyes again, searching, gazing once again beyond what was right in front of her somehow. Dutch felt it and realized she was not serious about harming him either.

Tense seconds passed before she released one of his arms but gave him a warning sneer with her gleaming teeth glinting in the twilight before leaping free of him and fleeing his property on all fours in a fast scamper.

Dutch sat up and checked himself over. Aside from the lip, his pride, and his clothing being dirty; his knife was missing, but he was okay. The mutant raccoon had startled him on more than one level with her appearance. She had dug into his brain to pull out a bigger fear than his fear of there being more of her kind.

That fear had fleetingly danced at the edge of his mind before she conjured the puma. A puma that he knew was real because mental illusions did not get picked up on camera unless it was a metaphysical thing, which would require testing. But aside from that he had evidence the puma was real from its droppings as well.

It was out there along with the mutant raccoon that had kicked his ass he had to admit.

"And the evening was so fucking fine without my ass being handed to me by the...." a shiver, followed by a cold chill crept over the back of Dutch's neck and he turned towards his home. Dutch looked up at the roof and spotted the deadly golden eyes of the real puma glaring at him as if it were in a tree ready to pounce upon unsuspecting prey.

His cabin was too sturdy and well built to creak and announce the arrival of the large beast that had climbed atop it to gain an advantage on prey it had scented days ago. With the arrival of the raccoon providing a distraction the beast had seized its chance to sneak up on the human.

Dutch uttered only a single word as the two locked eyes.

"Fuck."