FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Boeing Manufacturing Site #8 Sector 4

Tarkel Jungle

April 11, 1984 RE

Colonel Miller had decided to give it another day before deciding to tackle his 900 foot tall opponent. Part of that was in hope that the eagle would grow just 100 more feet. If that would have happened the facility's own defenses would have handled the bird without putting anyone else in danger. No one really expected that to happen, but the Colonel also hoped that he and his own team might grow a little bit more to even up the playing field. The anthros had been having many growth spurts lately and they did have a couple since yesterday, but no one grew past 325 feet in height. That made the largest member of our group just a little over a third the size of the eagle. Col. Miller had really wanted to take the eagle on in unarmed combat since there was equipment that could apparently be damaged in the area the eagle was nesting in.

A couple of the members from my team had asked me to get and convince the Colonel to not use their guns and just use something like knives instead. They were under the impression that a bird stuck in a room could not have been that big a threat since it would not be able to fly around. Since birds looked much more awkward on the ground they thought that the only thing the Colonel and his troops had to look out for was getting caught in the eagle's talons. What they were worried about was what weapons fire would do to anything in the room since many of the guns that would be used were larger than artillery cannons. I had to enlighten them to the fact that, even if dealing with the eagle's talons was the least of the Colonel's worries, he still had to worry about its wings and its beak. There were a lot of geese where I had come from, not just anthros, but the feral ones too. One of them, a feral one, had taken a disliking to me while I was walking past a pond one day and hit me with one of its wings. That goose had been less than half my size and it had nearly broken my leg. This eagle was close to three times the size of anyone present. I had no doubt that a well placed hit from one of the eagle's wings would be fatal to anyone in our group.

There were other things for the Colonel to worry about too. He only had 21 soldiers left, including himself, and he still had three large prisoners to look after. The Galvantans were still being safely kept in the Col. Miller's pockets, but the two Firanelian scientists were over 150 feet tall and the black leopard soldier, who I found out was called Alpha Pro'Kir, was over 275 feet tall. Being an alpha made him the equivalent of a major within my countries military and it was likely that he was extremely well trained and very deadly. He was a little young to be an alpha, young enough that he would have probably had to win a few "honor duels" to achieve his rank. Those duels could be bloody affairs and a few of them did end in the death of the opponent. Many people back in Virania thought that the tradition was barbaric and that the Firanelian military was run by a bunch of blood thirsty brutes because of that tradition. I knew better and so did Col. Miller. The Firanelians may respect physical prowess within their soldiers, but they have just as much, if not more, respect for those with keen minds. In order to be eligible to make a request for an honor duel a Firanelian soldier would have to show a certain level of intelligence and cunning. To make it to the position of alpha at Pro'Kir's age he would have had to be the near perfect blend of mind and body as far as the Firanelians were concerned. The Colonel had at least three guards watching him at all times.

The Colonel planned on assaulting the eagle with nine soldiers and three of the remaining guides. Everyone else was to stay behind. His team was entirely made up of anthros since they were the only ones over 100 feet tall and the only ones that had a serious chance of doing any significant damage to the eagle. That left us with 12 soldiers, but only six of them were large enough to actually guard the prisoners we had. We had the remaining three scouts which were each over a hundred feet tall too, but each of them was a little banged up from the previous battle. Tracy was going with the Colonel, but I had at least found a way to watch her. Since my team had pretty much had an entire day to explore after Colonel Miller had had everyone step onto the tele pads and transported to the room adjacent to the eagle's room, we had all been exploring.

The tele pads had been fascinating enough. They could teleport a person to any other tele pad in its network at about 0.3 times the speed of light and one person had stayed up all night looking at the schematics for one of the tele pads trying to figure out how it worked. It was too bad that the theory behind how the pads worked was not available here. Col. Miller did not bother trying to stop my team from exploring. With all of the things around it was like scientist heaven. The Colonel would have had to kill my team to keep them from looking around. One interesting discovery had been an elevator for people my size that lead to a doorway that then lead to an elevated walkway above the room where the eagle was nesting. It was sealed in a clear material that one of the AIs in this facility assured me would be able to take any hit from the weapons Col. Miller's soldiers were carrying. I was informed that the walkway was protected like that to keep anyone touring the facility from being harmed by an industrial accident. When asked if there was any more of that material was left I was informed that there was, and that it happened to be in a room that the eagle was currently blocking off. That was one of the reasons why the AIs on this base could not build any ships. The eagle was blocking off the only room with spare supplies in it. It really was too bad that someone had left a door large enough for the eagle to fit through open a few thousand years ago.

I was just happy that I would be able to observe the battle if I could not be a part of it. Practically every one of the soldiers the Colonel was taking with him was someone that I knew. There was himself and Tracy, my alligator savior Hunter, as well as Lee and Reilly who seemed practically inseparable. I had also come to know the scouts Kurtis the wolf and Devin the raptor over time. It was tough watching everyone I knew here about to put their lives on the line once more while I was totally helpless, but I was not even the size of a large bug compared to that eagle. If I were to try and do anything I would have just been in the way. Tracy was more than happy to know that I was not going to be in any danger this time around.

"You just cheer us on this time and I'll be back to pick you up later," Tracy said to me as she was about to leave.

"I will. Just try not to get stepped on," I said with a forced smile.

"Funny, someone who's not even six feet tall warning someone over 200 feet tall not to get stepped on," Tracy said with the hint of laughter in her voice. "But don't you worry about that. I can't die until we've gone on a honeymoon somewhere far away from this jungle. And you're paying for everything."

"That doesn't sound too bad as long as you're around to honeymoon with," I responded.

"You say that now, but you just wait and see how much I can eat when I'm on vacation," Tracy said before giving me a parting kiss. Then we both headed to where we needed to be. Most of my team came with me to observe the fight. I think they had started to get used to the idea of having all those giant protectors around and they felt a bit uncomfortable while only having a few of them there. Pro'Kir also had a fairly unsettling gaze and gazing menacingly at humans was pretty much all he did. Nobody really liked being in the same room as him. Only four of my team members were not with me on the walkway. For most of my team it was their first time actually seeing the eagle. They were just blown away by the size of the creature. Things had been different with the members of the expedition. When they grew it had been in small spurts over the course of a few days. That gave everyone time to get used to everyone else's size. The eagle looked impossibly large to them since they had never seen any living creature of that size before. All sorts of equipment in varying conditions decorated the room, but there was still plenty of space for the eagle and those seeking to evict it. But, the room did not seem to be designed for anything much taller than 2000 feet in mind.

When the Colonel and his team walked into the room the eagle instantly took notice. It was almost possible to see the tension in the room. The eagle could definitely tell that the ones that had just entered its domain were not friendly. That could have been because a couple of the team members resembled predators within the eagle's natural environment. It already had its wings spread and it was puffing itself up to make itself look bigger. When something that was already over 900 feet tall puffed itself up it really puffed itself up. Its wingspan alone took up a good portion of the room. I was intimidated from my position of complete safety and I could not imagine what it must have been like for those that actually had to face that thing.

Just as the Colonel's team was about to go for a headshot to end things quickly the eagle lashed out. Col. Miller was barely able to avoid a wing that would have flattened him. The eagle did look a little awkward as it tried to move around, but it also looked incredibly dangerous as the Colonel's team attempted to avoid the raging titan. It was an odd thing to witness for me. I could see that the Colonel's team was yelling things at each other and that the eagle was screeching at them, but I could not hear a thing. The material I was watching the events transpire through was sound proof. It was like watching a movie where the speakers had broken.

Lee had managed to get herself into a good firing position to the eagle's side, but the eagle had spotted her. The next thing anyone knew a backwards swipe of the wing sent the 280 foot tall dragon woman flying through the air with ease. If it was not for the dragon's enhanced body she would have been dead as she hit a wall with bone crunching force. She only looked a little disoriented as she managed to get back up to her feet and inspected her weapon. It was useless to her as it was plain her gun had taken the brunt of the blow since it was bent hopelessly out of shape. That did not stop Lee from drawing a combat knife and getting right back into the action.

The Colonel's team was getting off a few shots at the bird while trying to avoid it at the same time. It was just unfortunate that it was so large it could take a few hits from weapons fire without taking much damage. At the moment the bird only looked angry at its smaller tormentors. It was kind of like watching a deadly dancing match. The eagle would stomp toward one opponent and try to corner its prey between a wall and its wings while the soldiers would take advantage of the eagle's distraction to put even more bullets into its feathery hide. It was too bad none of them could use any explosives in the room. The bullets and the eagle were doing enough damage already. If a grenade were to go off in that room it would take years to repair all the damage, if the damage could be repaired.

Then the eagle finally connected with someone that was not a dragon. Kurtis took a slight hit to the head. It was not lethal, but there was a shallow cut on his forehead and the wolf scout looked shaky. The eagle took advantage of the wolf's temporary disability and seized him in his beak. It was a spectacularly morbid sight as the eagle swung his head around and bashed the wolf against the wall, the floor, and whatever else happened to be available. By the time the eagle dropped the bloodied wolf I doubted that he would ever move again. That was not the only casualty the team would face. A water buffalo that had been trying to dodge one of the eagle's wings stepped on what looked like an elevated conveyor belt of some sort. The thing looked like it could have supported his weight, but it must have been much more fragile then it looked. It snapped under his bulk and the buffalo stumbled backwards, right into the eagle's on rushing wing. The solid hit to the buffalo's back shattered his spine, adding him to the long list of casualties that had been suffered by our team so far. After that, the eagle managed to corner a monitor lizard and seized him in its beak like he had done with Kurtis. I was incredibly impressed that he could keep firing his weapon while being held in the bird's beak. He was pretty much squeezing the trigger, but the bird bit down so hard the lizard was nearly cut into three pieces by the eagle's sharp beak. Even in death the monitor managed to hold down the trigger, and as a result gained a little bit of revenge on his killer. From that close up the monitor's weapon tore the eagle's beak apart. Its lower jaw was a mess and I doubted that it would be able to survive in the wild with an injury like that. That did not mean it was about to give up on the rest of its tormentors though. The injured bird of prey was still ready to fight with everything it had left.

Despite its many injuries the bird seemed to be moving even faster now. It came as a surprise to me to see the Colonel suffer its wrath next. The eagle was so close to him that it could bring its talons into play. It tried to pin the Col. Miller beneath its talons, but the Colonel was a bit too quick. One claw did manage to hook under the Colonel's shirt and tear it right off while leaving a shallow cut along his chest. He looked kind of like an action star down there as he dealt damage up close to the eagle while avoiding getting killed at the same time. The bird was getting frustrated with its opponent as it tried to crush the Colonel with wing and claw, but the Colonel managed to dodge everything. But, he did eventually make one mistake. Just because the eagle's jaw was disabled did not mean its beak was no longer deadly. The eagle stabbed down with its hooked beak and stabbed the Colonel through his leg. Its beak went all the way through his leg and I was amazed to see that he did not look like he was screaming, not even when the eagle viciously shook its head and severed the Colonel's leg from his body.

Just as the eagle was about to finish of the Colonel, something hit the eagle right in one of its eyes. There was pretty much nothing left of its eye as it screeched. I looked around for who had fired the shot and then I saw Tracy helping down a 25 foot tall Sgt. Taylor from a tall piece of equipment. That was surprising to see since Taylor looked uninjured, besides the missing legs, at the moment while he had been barely alive the last time I had seen him. It seemed that he had managed to get a pretty good, no, amazing shoot off right into the eagle's eye. After that it was pretty much all over. The wounds from all the guns might have been small, but they were taking their toll on the eagle. It was starting to slow down and the soldiers were taking ruthless advantage of the eagle's new blind spot. The wounded and confused eagle no longer stood a chance against the soldiers and it eventually succumbed to its wounds.

I started making my way back into the other room while the Colonel's team provided him with a little bit of medical attention. When Tracy came back into that room I wanted to be there to greet her. What greeted me in the other room was anything but smiling faces. Pro'Kir was gone. Two scouts and one soldier were dead on the floor. There were a couple of bloody smears on the ground were I had left most of my teammates as well. It looked like the young alpha had made a devastating escape and there was only one person left that would have been large enough to pursue him. That would not have been a good idea considering there were still people here left to protect. He was not the only one either. Tracy came back into the room carrying the Colonel's shirt with her. She was poking a finger into a hole that the eagle's talons had made in one of the Colonel's pockets before noticing what had happened in this room. She quickly took in everything before uttering a little curse.

"It looks like everything bad has decided to happen all at once," Tracy said.

I asked, "What do you mean by that?"

She showed me the empty pocket in Col. Miller's shirt and said, "This pocket used to hold Lockwood. It looks like he got out in the confusion and now we can't find him in that room. With any luck someone will peel the little bastard off the bottom of his or her paw, but I don't think that's going to happen."

"And the others?"

"They're still in their proper pockets and a little shaken up, except for Markham," she said as she opened up another pocket and dumped out a crumpled mound of flesh and clothes. "The eagle stepped on the part of the jacket that he was in. As you can see, he didn't survive."

That sight made me feel a little sick, even if I never cared much for Lord Markham. It brought back some bad memories from my time spent trying to escape Robertson when that battle dragon had attacked it. Tracy must have noticed because she instantly grabbed me up and hugged me against the soft fur at the base of her neck. "I'm sorry Larry," she said, "I forgot you aren't used to seeing stuff like that."

I gulped and tried to get myself back together before unsuccessfully trying to push myself away from her body. "It's alright. I'm fine. You're the one I should be worried about after watching that battle of yours. How's the Colonel doing anyway?" I asked.

"He's fine, but he'll be doing even better if you let him get some medical attention," she said.

"Me?"

"Yeah you. Some medical units showed up and fixed up Taylor, but they can't do anything else without your authorization. At least that's what Taylor told me. He said they can even make him a new leg," Tracy explained.

The facility seemed to be able to take my commands from anywhere so I just said, "I authorize that everyone present be given the medical attention they need and that new limbs be made for Sgt. Taylor and Col. Miller." A panel opened up on what had looked like a perfectly smooth wall to me and out came some pristinely white robots with big red crosses on their chests. They were also about the Colonel's size and I tried to stay out of their way. Then I asked, "Can you locate Pro'Kir and Lockwood?"

A disembodied voice responded to me saying, "I am afraid not. Neither of those two appear on this facilities scanners."

Tracy cursed, as did a few others. Then I asked, "Is there anyone else with these devices here?"

"That can only be determined by those that you talk to but none of us can detect. If you have been talking to those that have them in them then there are two more," said the disembodied voice. I was guessing that was the remaining two Firanelian scientists. Chances were that both Firanel and Galvanta had found more than just those flying devices wherever they had managed to find them. It was a good thing the Colonel had decided to fight both countries forces while we were still in the jungle. The last thing I would have wanted were large groups of enemy soldiers wandering around unnoticed in this place.

It was time for my team to get to work now. The Colonel's team had done theirs, now it was time to get this facility working. It would take a few days and the Colonel had to keep a constant watch out for danger with both Pro'Kir and Lockwood on the loose. Some of the things that were explained to us as we worked were incredible and the tools we were given to work with could have rendered every machine shop in the known world obsolete overnight. The Colonel's team was smart, but some of the things that were said confused even my team of certified geniuses. After the first couple of hours the soldiers just stopped paying attention to what was being said. My team put in as much effort as humanly possible to record every last word that was being said and I noticed the Firanelian scientists try to commit everything they heard to memory. The frustrated looks on their faces said that they were not doing very well at that.

While we were working at getting everything working again the Colonel's leg and Taylor's legs were completed. They were obviously mechanical in nature, but an injection of what the medical units said were nanites allowed them to control their new limbs. The Colonel's leg even came with shinny retractable claws that were made out of some highly advanced material that would probably be worth a fortune back home. After that the facility apologized for being unable to produce new organic legs for them and informed us that services like that were only available at an actual hospital.

We tried to work day and night to get things running again, but we occasionally needed to sleep. Most of the time I was not even aware that I had fallen asleep until I woke up sleeping in Tracy's fur with one of her hands placed protectively over me. That was a fairly nice way of waking up, but I always ended up getting right back to work despite Tracy's protests that I should get some more rest. All in all, it took about three and a half days to get everything running again. We would have celebrated if we had the supplies to do so. Our own craft was complete just as quickly as Terry had said it would be. It was now time for us to be the first people in space in over a dozen millennia.