FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Krystal and Chase: Iron Sight

Part four: Special Delivery

As the robots approached quickly, Chase glanced around him, looking for anything he could use as cover. Quickly, the fox ran behind a compression tank, lowering himself against it as his handgun pointed around the side. But as he did, the scorpion-like robots began to open fire! Green streaks of energy raced towards the three, beating against what little cover they had found. The groan of burning steel slowly weakened the cover they had found, but the three did not retreat. Instead, Krystal and Echo One waited for Chase's mark to begin returning fire. As the robots drew closer, Chase finally gave the word to fire back. As he did, the fox fired the first shot, sending a robotic scorpion-like unit to it's knees as the bullet cut through its left legs. As it fell, the robot fired a few more shots before a blaster shot penetrated it's shield and tore into the bots back. * * * Krystal was being careful about her shots. Firing off a single round with each pull of the trigger, the vixen's aim was proving deadly. So far, several of the robots had been crippled by her armor piercing shots, with more than one now laying headless in their tracks. But with each fired round, the robots continued to draw closer, undeterred by the loss of their comrades. "They just keep coming!" Krystal thought to herself, squeezing off another round that tore through a robotic scorpion's cannon, causing it to explode, "But that seems to do the trick." The explosion caught a second robot that had been too close, flipping it onto it's side just in time for Echo One to take it out with another shot to it's underside. Glancing back at the tigress, Krystal smirked to herself, glad to have someone watching out for her. Suddenly, something caught the vixen's attention out of the corner of her eye. Krystal ducked down, just in time for several rounds of green energy to fly past where her head had been! Glancing back up, the vixen moved her rifle to fire upon the robots that had just crawled out of more ruins to her left. She couldn't find any other cover close enough to move to without being targeted. Instinctively, Krystal called out to Chase for help as she returned fire. Hearing her call, Chase turned to find his partner under attack. With a growl of anger, the fox fired off another three shot burst at the first group of robots before reloading. Only one thought pulsed into his mind, igniting years of suppressed fear turned rage. No one hurts Krystal! Chase got up and ran at the new group of bots, activating a short term over-shield to power up his basic unit. This shield would not remain active for long, but it would prevent any and all laser fire from penetrating the basic shield that protected him while it was active. But after that trained instinct had acted, full blooded rage kicked in with a primal instinct to fight, surging adrenaline into the fox's system. For a second, the robots were confused. They had been programmed to handle targets at long distance, not close quarters. As their software searched for close combat programming, the robots stopped firing momentarily. But that second's hesitation was all the fox needed to do some damage! Chase let out a growl as the first robot was cut down, his blades cutting through the bot's body and up along the tail cannon, sparks erupting along the cut. The robot fell as Chase twirled around, slicing apart another robot with a quick series of slashes to it's legs and tail cannon. As some of the robots fired back, Chase's shield flickered quickly, absorbing the energy as the fox's rage filled eyes locked onto a third bot, this one more focused on his partner. But before he could attempt to attack it too, Krystal had fired off another burst, bringing the robot down. Glancing to her, Krystal simply smirked to Chase before turning her attention to the first group of scorpion-like robots again. When Chase felt a burst of energy slam into his back, the fox's fury returned as the offending robots fired again! Chase pulled up his handgun, firing several rounds that cut into the robots, bringing them down as the fox moved quickly to strike at another robot that had tried to move away from him to get a good shot. With a quick slash of his blade, the robot fell to the ground, it's right legs having been removed before the blade was brought down through it's main CPU. As Chase placed his boot against the bot, he fired off another burst of gunfire, taking down an approaching bot as he pulled his blade free. * * * Firing from her spot, Echo One had removed several of the robots from the situation. Being skilled with double-tapping, the tigress was finding that the robots were going down easily. They didn't seem to have any real plan, almost like they were just cannon fodder to make the three use up their remaining ammunition. Luckily, due to the still intact structure of the cockpit and canopy she had found cover with, the tigress was not in too much danger of being hit. The robots energy bursts seemed to strike everywhere except within the small, broken section of the canopy she was firing out of. "This is too easy." Echo One thought to herself as her energy rounds dispatched another robot that had strayed into her line of sight, "It's almost as if they're just distracting us." As the robots continued to move slowly closer, the tigress took a second to let her side arm cool down. But as it did, she thought of something else hat had come up during her briefing. This colony was supposed to have been completely destroyed during the attack twenty years ago. If that as the end of the story, why would the Sevfel want to build an outpost here? "It must be pretty important for them to do anything here with this kind of force." The tigress thought to herself as she returned fire once again, bringing down two more robots as the green energy pulses struck all around the canopy that protected her, "Too much so to be simply xalphidium related." Glancing at the vixen across from her, Krystal was firing at the same group, cutting down more of the robots before reloading. The tigress smiled to herself, taking aim at another bot. Right now, whatever it was the Sevfel were after didn't matter. What did matter was eliminating the robots that were here. * * * Chase slashed through another pair of robots. As he speared a third with the arm blade, the fox released the empty magazine from his handgun, letting it fall to the ground as his rage filled strikes cut down a fourth robot in it's tracks. His shield was flickering wildly, on the verge of failing all together! The amount of energy it had been straining to disperse was too much for the unit to handle. Chase knew he had to fall back behind cover soon. Chase moved quickly, leaping aside as more energy bursts passed by him. As he hit the ground, the fox rolled, slicing the legs out from under another robot. Before it could fall, the robot began firing wildly, trying to hit the fox that had cut it down. Instead, Chase cut the tail off, rendering the robot unable to attack, before finishing it off with a devastating slash across its torso. As he dropped the robots tail, Chase felt several more energy rounds slam into his back, pushing him down as his shield took the remaining damage. Finally, the shield failed all together, popping gently as it tried to recharge. As soon as it had, Chase ran for cover. As he ran, the robots continued to fire, a few of the rounds cutting across Chase's arms and legs. Two shots slammed into his back, burning into the armor as the fox leapt behind the supply crate Krystal was using for cover. "I think we might need back-up." Chase observed as Krystal shot down several more robots from the opposite side. "I agree." Krystal replied, ducking down as energy blasts passed over her. "I can third that." Echo One stated. Chase glanced out quickly. As he did the fox realized the scorpion-like robots had stopped moving closer! "Must be at their minimum range." The fox thought as the robots continued to fire. The last robot of the first group fell when Krystal took a carefully aimed shot, tearing through it's head. But as the vixen shifted her focus and tried to fire on the second group, she clicked the trigger of her assault rifle uselessly, hearing the dull 'click!' 'click!' of an empty clip. "I'm out." The vixen stated, ducking down again. Chase handed her his Stinger, "Keep the fire on them." The vixen nodded, taking the second handgun and firing again, this time at the other group that had suddenly appeared from within the ruins. As she did, Krystal felt close to giving up. All they had left were two Stinger 9mm handguns and these robots just kept coming! They needed a miracle. Suddenly, the roar of a drop ship's engines could be heard over the gunfire. Krystal looked up to see a giant, black craft slowing down as it came over the airfield. For a second, it simply hovered over the ruins of a terminal. Then, it opened fire! Streaks of blue-gold pulse laser rounds tore into the robots below it. As the bots scattered, trying to retreat into the ruins once again, the drop ship slowly began to orbit the airfield, the pulse cannons blazing. Bot after bot was cut down by the pulse lasers, some toppling back as they fell from the ruins while others simply exploded into orange-gold blossoms. But, once again, many of the robots managed to escape into the ruins, using the debris as cover from the deadly hail of energy. The drop ship's pulse cannons finally stopped firing as the last of the robots was cut down. With that fight ended, the craft began it's descent, dropping a large ramp as it lowered it's landing gears. The roar from the engines was deafening as the drop ship landed, the three on the ground covering their ears to protect them from the roaring engine. As the engines were finally cut, the three approached the drop ship. As they did, Chase smiled quietly. Their back-up had come, and now they could finish the mission once and for all. Walking up the ramp, the fox laid eyes on his favorite vehicle. While it had been shrunk down a bit for transportation, the Frontal Assault Vehicle was still one of the biggest ground vehicles created for a combat purpose. The now three meter tall tires were lined with protective steel plating. With four tires on each end, the massive vehicle could easily traverse the debris-strewn streets of the colony. The body of the FAV was still as long as a greyhound bus, and still twice as wide. But now that it sat a slight bit lower to the ground, the turrets on top were easier to climb up to. The heavy armor the vehicle was built from had proven itself more than once since the initial test on Sauria against Apariod forces. Most known weaponry could not even dent the thick plating, let alone penetrate it. Heavy anti-vehicle rounds and missiles were the only weapons that could begin to damage the goliath war machine. But, when deployed, the vehicle was susceptible to aerial assault. The main armaments for the FAV still remained. Four, quad-barrel, minigun turrets on each corner of the machine and one central mounted, duel pod, missile launcher, filled to the brim with high explosive, fire and forget missiles. With these as the main display of the war machine, it was very easy to forget that those were only toys compared to the massive energy cannon folded up within the body of the vehicle. In the hands of the right team, the FAV could be unstoppable. But, due to it's high production cost, this was one of only three that had ever been produced since it's initial testing. Looking over the beast of a machine, all Krystal could say was, "Wow." Echo One nodded in agreement. She had never seen anything like the FAV before. Chase smiled as the two rear gunners undid the fastenings around the wheels of the machine. They nodded to him and then took up positions on the mounted guns on the ramp of the drop ship. "Alright, we know what to do." Chase explained, "Ronin-2, take up a forward turret and get it online. Echo One, same to you. Make sure you keep those barrels spun-up." Krystal and Echo One nodded, climbing up a set of ladders on the side of the vehicle and into the turrets. As they got inside, Chase popped open a hatch on the side, climbing inside before shutting the hatch. Inside, the cockpit was illuminated by multiple lights, the many screens displaying information about the outside world. With the cockpit placed strategically beside the folded cannon, inside the body of the vehicle, Chase needed as much as he could get to drive the machine. Strapping in, the fox activated a few of the monitors around him, letting the outside cameras show him the world the vehicle was pointed to, as well as where the missile pod was pointed. With a smile, the fox patted the controls. "Time to show the Sevfel that they have messed with the wrong fox one too many times." Chase thought, deactivating the safety protocols on the missile systems, "Revenge is not best served cold. It's best served by a barrage of unrelentingly destructive missiles and an ion cannon." \* \* \* Climbing into the turret cockpit, Krystal couldn't help but think of the last time she had been inside the FAV. That day she had been with the two males that she loved the most, Fox and Chase. Now, she only had Chase, and there was still something very wrong with him. Now, as the vixen went over her training and activated the turret, Krystal couldn't help but wonder about something Dagger had said near the beginning of the mission. For a long while, it had been at the back of her mind in order to focus on the mission at hand. But now that they had a quick bit of down time, the thought came back to her. "Now that I think about it," the vixen thought, strapping herself into the cockpit of the turret, "When Dagger said 'I keep forgetting you survived that' I wonder if they were talking about something that happened here. That would explain how Chase knew there was a service tunnel into the airfield. But whatever it was must have dramatized Chase. He's been acting so...unlike himself." "Ronin-2? You receiving me?" A voice asked, interrupting the vixen's thoughts. "Y-yeah. I can hear you, Ronin." Krystal replied quickly, "Just...trying to figure out the new controls." "Ok, well there's two triggers. The left one sets the spin-up for the turret gun, the other fires it." Chase explained, "Those pedals by your feet are to rotate the turret. Left, right, up, and down. Other than that, you should be ok." "Simple." A tigress said, appearing on the screen in front of Krystal, beside Chase's image, "I like that." "We have limited intel as to exactly what it is we're going after." Chase explained as images of the Sevfel building appeared on screen, "SOT's sent a few images of the building, but not enough to tell what it is. Our mission is simply to destroy it and any Sev`fel forces within it. We have authorization for the main cannon's useage. With this thing, that shouldn't be too hard." Krystal nodded, thinking along the same lines. Remembering what the FAV had done to the Aparoid forces on Sauria, the vixen knew that they no longer had much of a problem. It was finally time to end this fight.