Part 2: Shutdown
#2 of Chronicles of Drias
Part 2 of the backgroundstory and life of Drias, a normal average cheetah-anthro which ended up becoming a cybernetical hybrid.
He seemed to wake up again from his thoughts and shook his head for a moment. He peered back at the gun he was holding and inspecting before. He hissed and cursed suddenly; the pistol was no more. He seemed to have crushed it while being in thoughts. He muttered something incoherent, peered back at his victim and went on with the search. The man didn't carry a lot on him: some clips with glowing ammunition; probably for the pistol, a bottle with water on his side which Drias took for his own. He also carried some goggles which did seem quite advanced; it was outlined in all kinds of electronics. He found a small bag with which seemed food in powder form to dissolve. He immediately peered at the package of the powdered food, looking for an expiration date. That at least would give him a slight notion of the age/time where he was in. the only thing he discovered was a code with a lot of digits in one line on the side of to package. He hissed is some dismay and discarded that package.
Just when he wanted to continue to search something caught his attention; his ears perked at faint noises coming from the stairs. He immediately looked towards the entrance and to his surprise the HUD started to light up and several tracking circles appeared, pointing into several directions upwards above the staircase. Several humanoid and anthro forms one by one were outlined on the HUD. His HUD located at least 8 of them. His eyes narrowed as he stood up. The highlighting of the humanoid signatures showed they were armed and they were moving cautiously. He tried to concentrate on the noises as the signatures indicated that the humanoids were moving closer. "...Target interface is down; status unknown....retrieve project D.R.I.A.S,., priority number 1...." The voices were as if they were communicating by radio. Drias hissed once more. So some were still after Drias... He peered around for a moment, searching for any weapons that he could use. He grunted in dismay when he saw none but peered once more at his claws Now we'll see if Drias can still battle as we used to do... Drias stood silently, motionless as footsteps could be heard; more then one person descended the stairs. His HUD confirmed these movements. A couple of seconds later several advanced armored troops appeared in the entrance of the stairway. Their helmets completely covered their faces and muzzles; the mouth area was covered by some sort of gasmask-like configuration. The rest of the armor was bulky and heavy, covered in urban camouflage coloration. These troops seemed military; organized, armored and armed to the teeth. They however didn't raise their guns at Drias yet. His HUD indicated that some were guarding the entrance of the stairway upstairs; only 4 of them were in front of him currently. He concentrated and tried to break into the thoughts of the humanoids. He always had had this gift and he normally used it to fish for the motives of people. Somehow he didn't get anything; as if it just didn't work. What is this? Are they blocked? Is there something wrong with Drias??
One of the troops suddenly walked towards him and stopped a couple of meters in front of Drias. Drias could hear another voice communicating to the armored person: "Status report; is project D.R.I.A.S. damaged?" The anthro replied: "Negative, no external damage and mission target has been eliminated. Standy by for updates..." She then seemed to address Drias: "D.R.I.A.S., authorization signature "Gireg", access code THETA 70214, status report!"
Drias didn't reply but tilted his head to one side while his eyes narrowed slightly. So these people seemed to know more about Drias' current...function... The female that just uttered the accesscodes shifted to another foot uneasily and ordered: "D.R.I.A.S., confirm order! COMPLY!" Drias merely yawned all of a sudden; he was tired to be used again against his will and merely replied: "So...you're the organization responsible for Drias' new...configuration?" His voice seemed the same, was it not for the underlaying dark vibrating humming tone. Suddenly some stuttering could be heard over the internal radio of the soldier by the person who seemed to guide these troops: "No...this can't be...he can't have regained..." then a short silence, followed by: "New order: capture and retrieve project D.R.I.A.S., use any force necessary; target is unstable!" An "affirmative" could be heard as reply and almost in slowmotion the guns were raised. His more cybernetic eyepart lid up brighter for a moment, as if shifting mode, confirming the threat. Before the guns were aimed at him, the first of the four humanoids downstairs was down; Drias intended to claw at the neck of the soldier, however the damage done was higher than anticipated. His talonlike fingers sliced like a knife through butter through the armor and tissue of the neck and severed the head from the body with almost chirurgical precision. A gush of blood spayed up, covering Drias' face and chest with a streak of blood. The rest of the body fell down to the floor limp; some bodyparts had still a couple of spasms before all over. Drias licked his lips for a moment; the sweet taste of prey...
"Man down, I repeat: Man down!" was heard over the radio. Drias' attention now went to the soldier nearest to him. Another voice could be heard, commanding the troops: "Fools! Switch EMP, now!" Drias' claw landed on the head of the soldier, the talons grabbing over the helmet, encasing his whole head. He peered at the humanoid as he asked calmly: "Why?" A loud crack could be heard as the material of the visor in the helm shattered. More cracks started to appear around the base of the helm. The man started to scream in pain; it was apparent the helm wouldn't hold for long. More and more cracks started to appear as loud high pitched buzz was heard behind him followed by a bright blue/white flash. Drias' face tensed for a moment after he got hit;Ah...pain...then this is no dream after all....but a nightma... His thoughts didn't go further; sparks flew around as an electrical charge passed like a wave over his full body; starting from the centre where he was hit till the current surged outwards and dissipated. The blue lighting on his body stuttered and blinked a couple of times in a distorted way before the light in it dimmed and diminished fully. All of the lights on his body seemed to have vanished; he stood as if frozen in place.
Some of the humanoids that still remained sighed in relief and the leader once more communicated: "Target secured..."
The female that addressed Drias walked over to him and gave a hard push against his chest. Like a statue Drias tumbled over and crashed on the floor motionless and still in the same position as he was when he was still standing. She took of her mask and a red/white muzzled fox head appeared from underneath. Three long scars, like scratchmarks, traced down her cheek below her eye till her chin. Long red/orange hair wefted down over her shoulders. She appeared hardened and steadfast; a true warrior. She grinned for a moment, baring her fangs, and kicked against Drias' side: "Allright men, let's get this pile of scrapmetal back to the Sanctuary. .."