FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

** CHAPTER 24** Supernova: Part 3

I couldn't believe my eyes. It was probably the greatest surprise that Fx and I have had. After Pioneer001 landed on the surface of the planet and opened its rear gate, we saw our team mates walking outside amazed by the incredible surroundings. But after K9 and the twins made it out, there was still movement inside the ship.

We saw another one exiting the ship slowly, until we saw its face. It was a black Evocanis, incredibly similar to our Captain. But it was who walked behind him who took us by surprise.

It was like staring at myself through the mirror. I instantly knew who she was... I turned to Fx and he had the happiest look on his face. His eyes were shining with joy. She soon noticed us.

"Hey, guys." She said smiling. "You weren't expecting me, right?"

I couldn't believe it. It was Hasky.

"What are you doing here?" I yelled while running at her. I finally got to her and held her in a hug. Fx was by my side and also joined us.

"You thought I was going to leave you by yourselves?" Hasky whispered to us. She had her eyes closed as she pressed harder on us. Feeling each other's scent was probably the most soothing sensation I've ever felt. That's what I needed; that's what the three of us needed.

Poor Fx was crying. I never saw him act that way. He had been away from Hasky more than I did, so he really felt Hasky's absence. I was also full of all kinds of beautiful feelings at that moment. It was our Hasky... She meant everything to us, and now she was there. Our trio was complete and that's all that mattered.

"Hasky, but what were you thinking? Why didn't you tell us, you crazy blue eyed husky thing!" I said to her while I gently pushed her playfully. I didn't know if to laugh or to cry.

"And what, ruin the surprise?" Hasky replied, pushing me back. She then sighed. "I don't know guys. I really don't know what's going on anymore. It was horrible when you left." She said while looking at Fx. "And then you..." She then said pointing at me. "...It was then when I realized that I will never be ready to be separated from you guys, even if it's temporary."

"Of course you were not! We are team; the three of us." Fx said. "We've always been."

"And always will be..." Hasky replied. She smiled at us and messed up the fur of our heads.

It was a very beautiful moment. We felt playful, but at the same time we knew that we needed to keep ourselves serious.

After we had a little time to calm ourselves down, meet our new friends, we remembered why we were there. We had work to do now.

"I'm glad that you are finally reunited." Zonda told Hasky, Fx and I. "But I'm afraid that you'll have to leave your greetings for later. We have a mission to fulfill."

That's perfect! That's the type of ship that we need... At last we will get out of this hellhole...

Greetings over, we got to business. Zonda had just received a message from R105. Silver gave him the order to proceed with the mission without the exploration team for now. Reluctantly, Zonda had no option but to proceed. He only wanted to end this mission as soon as possible and get out of that planet.

"Unfortunately, our exploration team has suffered an inconvenience." Alpha informed us. He was usually more communicative than his older brother. "They will probably be joining us later on, but even if not, we'll have to do this by ourselves. Our defense team however, has been ordered to join us immediately. They should be leaving R105 in a short while. All of you should have the location in your ComPods, Am I correct?"

"That is correct, Alpha." K9 confirmed. "I've studied the place with the information that my pilots gathered. It shouldn't be difficult to get there on paw. It's about 600 meters from here."

"Good. Our Captain is really impatient about our progress, so she wants us to go get moving right away." Alpha told us.

"We understand, Alpha. We are ready."

"Perfect. Let's get moving then."

There wasn't much to say. K9 gathered a couple of scanners and other devices and we got on our way.

I wouldn't take us long to arrive, but we were feeling the heat of the planet getting almost unbearable which would make the walk very uncomfortable. We wanted to be as discrete as possible, as we didn't know what we would encounter, reason why we left our ships.

We walked through a rocky plain until we got to the border of a hill. According to our Eco Scanner, the place that we were interested in was just a few meters beyond the hill.

"This heat... It's grueling." Hemi said.

"I think you're right, buddy." I replied. "It wasn't like this when we descended."

"Whoa. Temperature is peaking at 98 Degrees Fahrenheit." Kala informed when looking at her ComPod.

"This is the first time you've ever been in such heat, right?" Alpha asked us. "Lusceonis Alpha, the planet which I was named after, is hot in summer. But it's never this hot."

We all agreed with the red eyed Retcan. The cold temperature of Canis Major is what we've been used to all our lives. This was completely new.

"Wait a minute..." Fx said. "My ship's prediction on temperature was not right, then."

"What do you mean, Fx?" K9 asked seriously.

Fx suddenly remembered that the temperatures were in the high 70's and raising at less than a degree per hour. We had only been there for 50 minutes and the temperature had already risen more than 20 degrees. Something was not right.

"We better hurry and get out of here. If we don't find anything in an hour, we are leaving." Zonda ordered. He seemed unsettled by something. His sharp senses told him that there was something really bad threatening us in the distance.

Back in R105, things we not getting better. Titan was still working hard to fix the probes remotely, but unfortunately they didn't want to cooperate no matter his efforts.

"Any progress?" Silver asked.

"No."

"Do whatever you can."

"Silver, is there any point now? Zonda and the team are heading to the place now."

"If they don't find anything right now, then we need those probes ready for when our team arrives later."

Titan sighed exhausted from the mental stress. His body felt weak, because all the walking he was doing between the control bridge and his lab. He was wearing his armor, so that made it more exhausting. "Do we really need to continue?"

"Just a little bit more, Titan."

Suddenly, a worried voice yelled through Titan's ComPod. It was Cobalt.

"What is it, Cobalt?"

"Titan! Tell Silver that we need to get out of here NOW!"

"Easy, Cobalt." He said. He stood up and listened carefully. "Tell me what's going on."

"Our friends... Doko and his team... They found something."

"What, Cobalt?"

"Get them out of that planet, Titan! We found the probable cause of the probe's system failure... We don't know what it is but it's a huge energy mass that's accumulating near the planet... It seems to be at critical point now." Cobalt's cries went directly to Titan's heart... A burst of fear and adrenaline flooded his veins. Silver heard the conversation and was now standing in front of her brother.

Minutes before this happened, we managed to get to the area where those strange structures were. Indeed they were built structures.

Everything was corroded and falling apart. The whole scenario was surrounded by a strong hot breeze that carried dust all around as well as dead twigs and dry chips of wood that fell off from the anemic desert foliage. This place was dry and sterile. But some of the larger buildings were still standing.

"It looks like some sort of hangar!" Alpha said as we walked close to a very large building made mostly of metal. He raised his voice a bit because of the strong breeze.

"This might have been an industrial area." Zonda replied.

"There is a faint energy emanation coming from inside this place!" Zulu confirmed. "Probably residual."

The strong breeze was getting dust in our eyes. We needed some refuge while it went away. At the same time, we might've been in the correct place after all, so we needed to check inside.

Zonda was strangely quiet. We knew by now that he was of few words, but still, it didn't felt normal. He kept himself at a distance from us, gazing around the area almost motionless. There was something that bothered him.

Something is not right... We are being watched by something. He thought to himself. But he couldn't really tell what it was since there were too many things happening at the same time. Maybe I'm wrong... It's just this strange environment that I've never been into.

Alpha took out his Lanthracit Saber and managed to cut the hinges of the large door that kept us from advancing into the hangar-like building. The time had been merciless with that structure and the corroded door fell quicker than we expected.

As the heavy desert dust settled, the interior made itself visible. We finally made it in. There were many holes in the roof and vent shafts that helped the sunlight flood the interior.

As we walked inside the large building, we noticed how everything was covered by a thick dust layer. The few things that were partially free of it showed heavy signs of corrosion. This place was probably an industrial facility of some sort, just like we speculated before.

There were large pipes running around the place not before going though strange large machines that were hooked to control panels.

"These look very familiar." K9 said as he approached one of those panels. "Zonda, do you remember?" He asked the grey Retcan. Zonda was standing in the door, keeping guard. He turned to K9, and approached him after he insisted him.

"You are right, K9. These look just like the ones in the mine."

"So you did encounter alien technology in that comet?" Hasky asked.

"Yes. As a matter of fact we explored an abandoned mine. There were panels just like these. It all makes sense now." I replied.

"You're right." Fx then added. "The look that these machines have are very similar to the ones in that mine." He looked closely at a large machine that was almost identical to the generator that we managed to activate back in the comet's mine.

It was now obvious that the ones in control of that comet did come from this planet, or at least they've been into it at some point.

"By the looks of it, it doesn't seem like if someone has been here for a very long time." Alpha said.

"So is this it? This is what we needed to know, right?" Hasky asked. She already knew how unnecessary this mission was, and besides being calm, she felt the urge to get out of that planet.

"To be honest, we don't really know what our Captain wants." Zonda replied. He was close to us now, but kept on staring at the door. "She wants to make sure that there is no one in possession of the crop. Somehow she feels that if we are not able to find any evidence that there is life in this planet that would prove that the crop belongs to no one anymore."

"What about the energy signal?" Alpha asked.

"It's probably residual." Zulu responded. "Captain, take a look at this."

K9 approached one of the large machines and confirmed that the scanner detected a very faint energy signal that corresponded to the one that we detected earlier that day on our first flight.

"These must be generators, just like the one we brought back to life in the comet. The technology of these beings is extremely rustic, though the way that they put it together makes it incredibly reliable. It would be no surprise that this generator is still producing a very small amount of energy." He theorized.

It made sense. We were already witness of how strong these machines were. The conditions in this planet were probably less harsh than in the comet, which probably made these machines keep their functionality for longer.

"Fair enough." Zonda said. "Unless we plan to sweep the whole planet in search for life, which we won't, this is enough evidence for us." He concluded. He knew that wasn't really professional, but due to the circumstances that we were in, there was no other choice.

"Before we go..." Andy suddenly walked towards Zonda. "I found this..." He confessed. He felt nervous and wasn't sure if to tell the rest. He fought with the decision of getting rid of the object a while back, but couldn't.

He took the metallic object from his belt and showed it to Zonda. He thought that the Retcans would know what it was.

Zonda's expression was of discomfort. He didn't look happy at all. "Were did you find this, Evo?"

"Up in a hill; in the shallow part of a lake." Andy confessed. "I saw something... a glare of some sort. I know it wasn't this, but when I got there this is what I found. It's strange that it's not corroded at all."

Zonda wasn't sure of what it was, but he had an idea. He immediately threw the object to Alpha so he could confirm his suspicions. K9 wasn't too happy with what Andy had done.

"I'm not sure, Zonda. But I think I know what this is." Alpha said as he took a closer look to the object. It was around 10 inches long, made out of metal, really heavy and it had two small cylindrical objects inside. "It's an ammo magazine of some sort. It's ballistic, without any doubt."

Alpha's words made Zonda's feel a chill down his spine. This was not good. Everything that he had perceived since we headed to the spot now made sense. "We need to get out of here now." Zonda ordered.

We immediately agreed.

But as we turned back to exit through where we entered, something stopped us on our tracks. Adrenaline rushed through our bodies as we saw something that we never expected to see.

A large being was standing at the entrance of the building. He was pointing a strange device at us. The device looked like our E.M.P pistols but so much larger that It carried it with both arms. Zonda and Alpha drew their E.M.P pistols so fast that we couldn't even notice. We kneeled down and also readied our pistols. It was the reaction that we were trained to have.

"Whoa..." The being spoke. He was very large; taller than Anubis and apparently much heavier. He emanated a very unpleasant scent. "Easy there..." He lowered what I concluded was a weapon.

The being was very strange. His face was flat, with no muzzle. He had no fur at all. What I found to be really disturbing was his gaze. I could feel nothing but hostility coming from those eyes even though he was talking really calm. He also knew our language which made it even stranger. We've definitely never experienced something like that before.

"Calm down..." He said in a strangely false tenderness. "Do you understand my words?" He then asked. With his palm opened, pointing it at us, he walked closer. This made Alpha and Zonda ready their weapons again. The being stopped... "I don't want to hurt you. I just need to talk... Do you speak 9051?" He asked. That was the language we spoke. Zonda gently gave us a gesture not to speak.

"No speaking, then... Well, I think you understand me well." The strange being said. He spoke with a strange friendly tone. It didn't feel real. "So what are you doing in this forsaken place? It's not the best vacationing spot, if you know what I mean." He said, letting out an eerie laugh.

The being walked slowly inside the building, smiling at us while he looked at his strange claws that didn't seem like being claws really. "So, I believe you are explorers of some sort, huh?" He continued with his unsettling way of speaking. Zonda and Alpha slowly placed their weapons away and stood up.

"Let's go, Evos. Don't make eye contact and be aware of any hostile movement." Zonda whispered. We slowly followed him to the exit that was about twenty meters away.

The creature slowly walked to the entrance, blocking our way out. He was laughing and acting really strange. "Hey, where are you going? We need to talk, remember?" He said. This really made me feel nervous. He wasn't letting us go for some reason, even if he didn't intend it. "Look... I have a deal for you, critters. I've been stuck in this shithole for years now, and I've lost my patience. I somehow thought that I was going to die here, and to be honest I was kind of accepting it already." He then laughed again. He made really exaggerated body gestures. "You have what my men and I need. And we might have something that you might like in exchange."

The situation was growing more dangerous. We tried to walk outside again, but he stopped us again. This time, he placed his hand in the weapon that he was carrying.

"You have a very nice ship. If maybe you could make some space for us, you could help us get out of here." He made his proposal. We were shocked that he knew of our ships. He wanted us to help him out. I didn't see a reason on why not doing it.

"I am sorry. That's not going to happen." Surprisingly, Zonda replied to the being.

"Oh, so you speak? Bravo!!" He said as he struck his hands together making a strange loud noise. "Isn't that something? You have evolved to speak like us. Evolution can be a bitch sometimes, huh?" He babbled. His statement didn't make any sense for me.

"Look, fuzzy; we really have no time to discuss this. We are stuck in this planet and you are the only ones that can get us out of here. Like I told you, if you help us, we will give you something in exchange."

"I said no." Zonda insisted. This somehow irritated the being. But he just chuckled again.

How do I get to this beast...? He mumbled but I could understand his words. "Are you really capable of leaving another living being here? I know your kind. You are most of the times pathetic little animals that have evolved out of control, and somehow think that you can live at our same level. It's disgusting, but we are not discussing that. I know that you won't leave us here."

"I know your kind too, unfurred one. What makes you think you're superior to other living organisms in the universe? The answer is no. Now let us go in peace." Zonda replied to the being.

"Feisty, aren't we? It seems that you haven't been taught on where you belong." The large being said. Now his irritation more obvious. "Fair enough...I will not loose my time talking with animals. Get out of here you filthy beasts..."

Thankfully the situation didn't end up worst than it already was. We slowly walked to the entrance again while the large being stood aside. He kept on staring at us with those hostile eyes.

"Evos," Alpha directed to us quietly. Zonda walked in front of us readying his E.M.P again. "What's about to happen might put our lives at risk. I know you're scared, but we are scared too, and that's a good thing. You are warriors, Evos. You are strong. Remember your training and try to keep focused at all times. We will be by your side always..."