FSE

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Heavy metal doors slid open with a loud hiss and clank, letting the wolf pass through. The soldier, a lieutenant as marked by the red leather patch sewn onto his battle armour, strode quickly down the metal corridor towards the next door. He gripped his laser staff much tighter than necessary making his knuckles shake and strain white. The door he approached was flanked by two guards in heavy armour, who saluted the lieutenant before one of them hit a panel on the wall making the door slide open.

The control room beyond the door was large and dark, covered wall to wall with button filled panels and blinking lights. The air was dense with the musty smell of electronics and metal. As soon as he entered the room, the wolf knelt and bowed his head.

"Lord Sever! Miz Esra wishes to speak with you. She is very... adamant." The wolf chose his words carefully when he spoke to his master.

In front of a control panel stood a large elephant with short tusks, dressed in a buttoned up leather jacket. A dark purple scarf was wrapped around his neck. He stared at a thick glass monitor that displayed the distant recording of a fight between several robots and what looked like a giant lizard. His left arm was completely mechanical, expertly constructed with metals and a heavy black material, whirring softly as it moved. Two small pads were affixed to the elephant's temples, connected to thin rubber tubes that lead behind his head and attached to the shoulder of his metal arm. A viscous fluid seemed to move very slowly through the tubes from the elephant's temples. His small eyes stared at the screen and watched as his creations failed and were reduced to useless scrap. He took a deep breath and slowly turned to face the wolf.

"What does she want?" His voice was soft and raspy.

"She's not happy with our-" the wolf was cut off, for at that moment the door slid open again and a commotion burst into the room. A creature strode in, a cloud of feathers trailing behind, and one of the guards from outside chased after it, screaming for it to stop. The guard's eye was also now bloody and bruised.

"I will not stop until I have an explanation!" the creature yelled back.

"Silence!" bellowed the elephant. Everyone froze. "You two," he pointed at the soldiers. "Leave us." The guard and the lieutenant quickly exited with curt nod of their heads. The creature stood and glared with piercing golden eyes. Most of her body was covered in long feathers the colour of tar, including two powerful wings that extended from her back and ended in sharp hooks. Two short, dangerous looking talons were where legs would be on other species. Her face, arms and chest were devoid of feathers, with grey mottled skin instead. Longer, velvet blue feathers grew from the top of her head and flowed down her back and between her wings. When she spoke, sharp, mangled teeth could be seen within her mouth. She was a harpy.

"My dear Esra. To what do I owe this most unexpected visit?" He gestured politely with his good arm, but his tone gave away his annoyance.

"I will have none of your false pleasantries, Sever! Are you not content with subjugating me, that you must subjugate my entire people?"

"Ah, that." His mouth flicked into a humourless smile for a brief second. "I was wondering when I would hear about this."

She snarled and flexed her long fingers that ended in sharp claws. "Explain yourself."

Sever narrowed his beady eyes at Esra. He tapped a few keys on a panel with his mechanical arm, making several metal cases filled with strange reels of tape start to whir. Green text quickly bipped across the view screen in characters that the harpy did not understand.

"I've studied your species quite thoroughly, Esra. I have always found the more mystical inhabitants of this world quite intriguing. I hope you can understand that, as a man of science, I have an urge of curiosity that must be sated."

"Get to the point, Sever."

Sever gave her a sharp look and his large hand briefly twitched into a fist. He suppressed the urge to hit the insolent creature. "Your breeding cycle is approaching, and I understand that normally tribes come from across the sea to mate. I do not want your people fraternising with groups that are not aligned with me or my goals."

Esra was horrified. "We need to mix with other tribes to keep our genepool strong!"

"Your people are already strong!" he shouted back. A little too strong.

"So you build a cage around my homeland, to keep us like a common parrot?"

Sever laughed at what he thought was an apt analogy. "My dear, please don't think of this as a prison. This is only to help protect your people, especially your new young. The energy barrier will only activate if an unknown party approaches. It is purely a defensive measure."

"And the armed guards that now patrol our borders?"

"Just a little extra security."

"We can defend ourselves!"

"In the past, maybe. But these are troubled times, and the world is changing."

Esra hissed and flapped her wings in anger. "And you are the one who is changing it!"

"Watch your tongue, woman," he warned. His patience with the harpy was starting to wane. "My purpose is beyond your pitiful understanding."

"I don't care about your damned purpose!" she spat the word purpose as if it were an insult. "Your blasted crusade is close to turning my people into slaves."

"They should be happy. They are finally finding their natural place in the world."

Esra's eyes widened in shock at the insult. "You bastard!" she screamed and leapt forward with wings spread, claws flashing with the blinking machine lights. Quickly, Sever pressed a button on his metal arm. A red light lit up on the back of his hand and Esra fell to the floor, her body twitching as a stream of electricity coursed through her muscles. It lasted for less than a second, but it was enough to leave the harpy thrashing on the floor. He reached down with his heavy prosthetic, grabbed Esra firmly by the throat and held her in the air.

"Don't you ever, ever, presume that you can touch me!" Sever roared. The pale fluid in the tubes bubbled as the pressure suddenly rose, pumping it into his metal shoulder. The harpy gurgled and flailed at his hand, her claws scraping uselessly at the metal. Before he could completely choke her, Sever released his grip and let her fall into a heap on the floor, gasping for air. "Your people will follow me. You will follow me. Or that disgusting marsh that you call home will be nothing more than a burnt out crater."

"Yes, my lord," she whispered, defeated. Her body shook, and she tucked her wings tightly against her back, unconsciously trying to make herself smaller.

"I will hear no more dissent from you. Your people look up to you and will follow your lead. But I am not above removing that leadership and replacing it with myself."

Esra looked up nervously. "They would never follow you. With respect, my Lord," she added quickly, shrinking away from his glare. "They will not follow an outsider, is what I meant."

"Perhaps. But I'm sure you know that I can very persuasive when I need to be."

"Of course, my Lord." She looked back down at the floor, fearful of what the elephant would do to her people if she refused him.

At that moment the control room door hissed open, and an old and overweight grey ferret shuffled in, a brown robe dragging along the floor behind him. He glanced briefly at the miserable harpy that knelt on the floor, then turned to the elephant and bowed his head.

"Lord Sever," he greeted. "You wished to see me?"

"Yes, Roland. I have need of your expertise."

Roland raised his eyebrows at the rare compliment. "May I assume that you have encountered some form of magical force?"

"In a manner of speaking." Sever turned back to the console and pressed a few glowing buttons. The small viewscreen flickered and buzzed for a moment, then started playing the previous footage of the battle. Esra, now feeling thankfully ignored, pulled herself to her feet.

Roland leaned in to see the screen better, his eyes not as young as they used to be. "My word," he breathed, taking in what he saw with amazement. "Is that...? It can't be."

"It's a dragon, Roland. Or at least looks like one."

The ferret didn't respond, he was so engrossed in the video of the magnificent creature. He jumped a little from his trance at the gentle weight of Sever's mechanical hand on his shoulder.

"Can you tell for certain if it is real? Not an illusion, or advanced mechatronics?" Sever asked.

"By all appearances it looks to be real." He squinted at the screen. "Is there a closer video? This is rather far away."

Sever shook his head. "No. They destroyed all twelve scout droids. Luckily, they never spotted the observer droid that was following."

"They?"

"The dragon has a rider." Sever tapped a key and paused the video. The image was blurry and shuddered in place. Roland looked closely at the dragon and could just make out a small figure. He gasped as the poorly detailed rider started to make more sense in his brain, picking out features of species that were intimately familiar to him.

"Where was this video taken?" Roland demanded turning to face the much taller elephant.

"Do you recognise him?" Sever asked calmly.

"No. He's too young. Where was this video taken?" he repeated.

Sever couldn't help but grin at the older ferret's demand. "Almost a thousand feet above Lasica forest." The elephant drank in the pained recognition on the ferret's face. He could almost see the memories and regret play out on his face like actors on a stage.

Roland nodded glumly. There was only one reason that Sever would complete reconnaissance over such a small, isolated area. "You have found metal deposits in the forest?"

"Not enough to be of any importance. The area itself is rather insignificant. But what I want to know is how your old tribe got their paws on a dragon."

"I know nothing of this. It's been nearly ten years, my Lord. Believe me, if I'd have known I would have told you years ago!" Roland raised his hands in defence, his eyes flicking to the robotic arm.

"Calm yourself, Roland, I believe you. But this is an opportunity that would be foolish to pass up. A dragon would make a fearsome weapon indeed." The elephant returned to the console and began tapping a sequence of buttons and switches. Rows of tape clacked and whirred into life, and lights flashed green and red. Other small screens around the room lit up with displays of maps and coordinates.

"You wish to capture the dragon?" Roland blurted out in disbelief.

Sever smiled and stared at the still paused image on the screen. "I will certainly try. But like any machine or power source, if it cannot be controlled properly, then it must be disposed of."

"I understand, my lord." Roland slipped his hands into the baggy sleeves of his robes. "I shall begin research on the beast immediately." The ferret bowed and exited the control room as fast as his aging legs would carry him.

"Good. And Esra, my dear. I have a mission for you."

Esra, who had moved back into a darker recess of the room, stepped forward and held her head high. All signs of pain and weakness had gone. "A suicide mission?" she sneered.

"Nothing so dramatic. You and a team of fighters will accompany a squad of skirmish droids. Test their defences. See what we might be up against. But do not engage the dragon, under any circumstances. I want it undamaged." He pointed his long trunk at the harpy, his fingers, both flesh and mechanical, still working over the console.

She bowed her head. "Yes, my Lord. As you wish."

"And Esra." Sever glared sternly at her. "I mean it. Stay out of danger. You are too important to me and the rest of your people to lose to some frivolous heroics."

She stared for a moment before turning away, the muscles in her face twitching slightly as she tried to keep her expression as blank as possible. "I had already sworn my loyalty to you, Sever. Some years ago, if you care to remember. Was that not enough?" she said as she stalked towards the door.

"No. I have been burned before," he shot back. His mechanical arm twitched. "I will not be betrayed again."

The door hissed closed and Sever was left alone in the control room, tapping buttons and checking information on the monitors. Outside the control room, several floors down, was a buzz of activity as wolves in grey jumpsuits worked to assemble several robots, preparing them for launch. They worked in the huge factory among the steam and smoke, sometimes dodging welding sparks or moving crane arms to prepare the droids, loading them onto the thick launching rails. Lights blared orange as heavy metal doors slowly opened, revealing the rocky landscape outside. The entire structure was a monolith. An enormous black and grey metal cylinder that rose from the peak of a mountain that had long been stripped bare of its forest. Small flying robots of all different shapes buzzed all around the outside of the monolith, making repairs and transporting equipment or information, while tank-like droids armed with heavy weapons patrolled the mountainside.

In control of it all was one man. One elephant. Lord Musith Sever.