FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Feo stared at the wall of the Archive complex from her hidden location high on a rooftop not too far from it. Her unblinking eyes surveyed the brightly lit walkway on top of the wall, while the surrounding city was shrouded in inky darkness. Her purple eyes glanced towards another roving patrol making their way on their rounds, “Girls, we’ve got another two. Mark it at 0314 and eleven seconds,” she whispered in her mind to her AIs.

She paused for a moment, waiting for their response, before glancing at them when none came. All three were sitting around what looked like a holographic, multicoloured tesseract and were actively poking and prodding at it; Feo raised an eyebrow, “Come on, girls, I know how boring this is, but can you try to focus please?” she asked in an exasperated voice.

Senara harrumphed quite audibly, “Aww, but I was winning!” she pouted, before noting down what Feo called out before. Behind her, Errea and Maryn both looked quite relieved to be spared the loss.

Feo chuckled a little as she turned her attention back to the wall; she really couldn’t blame them for getting bored. After five days up on various rooftops, spying on the movements of the guards as they went about their patrols, the most interesting thing they had seen was a drunkard try to pick a fight with a guard by one of the main gates.

“Shadow, we’ve just finished unloading the last of the gear from the ship. What’s your status?” came Kanire’s voice over their cyber-comm channel.

Feo watched the guards continue along the wall for a moment before responding, “Just about to pack up and head back. How’d you get it back without being spotted?”

Kanire chuckled softly, “Phantom hacked the cameras, but it was a close call. We weren’t expecting that much security around the landing pads.”

Feo took a final look across the wall, before turning her back to it and taking a running leap off the roof.

A loud crash echoed from their lodgings as Feo approached in the dark. It gave her a momentary pause, before she slowly opened the door; the scene before her could only be described as a cacophony of strewn equipment cases in varying states of emptying. She raised an eyebrow as she surveyed the destruction, before glancing to Horon who had frozen in mid action.

Feo chuckled softly as she stepped through the threshold, “Please try to be a little more careful, Horon,” she admonished teasingly, as she stooped down to pick up a small electronic device from the ground. She peered at it closely, inspecting its matte black, cylindrical shell for any signs of obvious damage, “You know these are hard to replace, right?” she asked with a soft snicker.

“I’m sorry, my tail snagged as I was walking past, I’m still getting used to the blasted thing,” he explained, flicking it in annoyance as he started clearing up the mess he made. Meanwhile, behind him, Kanire was snickering to himself as he observed the whole debacle unfold.

But it wasn’t long before their equipment was stowed away again, this time along the walls and out of place, while Feo and her squad sat around the only table in the room, devising their plan of attack. Feo reached up and tapped at a building near the wall, “Alright, so Horon, Kanire, you’re our lookout here,” she began, creating a small, glowing orb at that point.

“Once Zarpa and I get past the wall and into the complex proper, I’ll find a workstation to hack into. From there, I can erase us from the cameras and send you a live feed; if you could watch our backs, I’d be appreciative,” Feo continued, before glancing at the crates of equipment around them, “What’s our armament situation?”

“Two long-range stun rifles, four volt pistols, and five stun grenades,” Kanire replied, his AI sitting contentedly on his shoulder as he listened, “Oh, and a pair of detonator packs, if it comes to it.”

Feo nodded, “Alright, you and Horon take a rifle and pistol each, as well as a grenade, just in case. Zarpa and I will take everything else, rifles won’t do us much good in close quarters, and those grenades can help if we get into trouble.”

She then turned to Horon, “Are you okay with all that?” she asked, offering him a smile.

The Aeteri-turned-Quanoci shrugged a little as he slouched in his seat, “Yeah, should be fine, Captain,” he mumbled, staring at the projection in front of them, before reaching out to brush at it, sending a tiny, almost imperceivable wave of distortions rippling through the rest of the hologram.

Feo inclined her head towards the hologram, “So, any questions? Or are we all set?”

Kanire frowned a little, “This is precious little information to go on, Feo,” he commented after a pause, “We don’t even have internal schematics. Don’t you think we should try to get more before we go in?”

Feo shook her head, “You were as successful as I was getting a look inside that place, Kanire. They’re being incredibly careful to control information about the complex, and we don’t have the time to waste trying to find it.”

“Don’t have the time to waste, or can’t be bothered trying?” Zarpa queried, a knowing glint in his eyes.

Feo didn’t answer as she glanced around at her teammates, “We’re going to launch the op at the shift change tomorrow night at 2400 hours, so I’d like to get all our gear in place beforehand. Make sure you’re all topped up too, there’s no telling how much power we’re going to have to use,” she advised, before standing up.

Kanire groaned quietly as he stood up too, “We’ll start moving it over there once the sun sets, just to avoid the greater part of being detected,” he said, watching Feo as she made her way to the window to gaze out at the street outside, starting to slowly fill as the great city started to wake. Kanire looked at his other squadmates, both of whom seemed to share the same concerned expression, and sighed defeatedly.

The twin moons of Zeroeth were high in the night-time sky, and while not full, were certainly bright enough to bathe the city in an ethereal white glow. Kanire was kneeling on the edge of a building close to the Array wall, watching the guards patrol below him. He turned his head to look over at Feo stepping out from behind a large vent, wearing something that couldn’t be further from her usual attire.

Instead of her military uniform, or even her casual clothes, she was garbed in a form-fitting, one-piece bodysuit, as black as the night around them. Only her head was uncovered as she strode over, tightening a utility belt around her waist.

The material of the bodysuit was difficult to describe; it had the flexibility and weight of neoprene, but the tensile strength of Kevlar, and if Kanire stared at it for long enough, he could almost forget that he was looking at clothing and not the sky above him. There were numerous hexagonal armour plates woven atop of the fabric’s surface, clustered around different parts of her body and down her spine, while a pair of cylindrical devices identical to the one Feo was handling earlier were slotted on either side of where her tail met the rest of her body.

Feo strode over to Kanire, the boots integrated into the suit making a muffled clacking with each footfall, and smirked at him, “Gosh, it feels good to be back in uniform,” she quipped, grabbing a pistol and sliding it into her thigh holster.

Kanire chuckled softly under his breath, “Are you sure about this, Feo?” he asked, his tone turning sombre, “It would be fine to let the Gladius know that we’re gunna be an extra week or two, you know.”

Feo shrugged a little as Zarpa emerged from behind another vent on the other side of the roof, wearing a similar suit, “There’s no guarantee that we’d have any more information about this place than we do now, Kanire,” she said softly, resting a paw on his elbow, really the highest part of him that she could comfortably reach, “I know you’re worried, and I’ve always appreciated your advice…”

Kanire raised an eyebrow as he looked at her; clearly he didn’t exactly believe that last part.

Feo sighed reluctantly, “Even if I don’t always follow it,” she added, “But I do appreciate it nonetheless…”

The towering Serani snorted softly under his breath, “I know you do, Feo, I know,” he replied, patting her lightly on the back, “But just remember, you do have people who care about you, you know?”

Feo nodded and flashed him a slight smile, “I know,” she reassured him, prompting him to shake his head in bemusement.

“Alright then, it’s getting close to the shift change, you two ready?” Kanire asked, glancing at Zarpa, still in the middle of getting his belt properly fastened.

Feo watched as Kanire walked over to the Ilfemyoo to help him get ready, before bringing up her holographic displays, “Maryn, run a quick system diagnostic, I’d like to avoid what surprises we can while in there.”

Maryn nodded and popped out of sight, while Senara and Errea both hovered over her shoulder, watching what Feo was working on. Feo looked over at Zarpa, “Let’s do a quick check of the stealth systems before we begin, okay?” she suggested.

At his affirmative, they both tapped a command into a small display hovering over their wrists, causing a black, featureless helmet to materialise around their heads. From the outside, they were the same matte-black as the rest of their attire; inside however, they had a completely clear view of their surroundings, augmented by a myriad of holographic displays feeding them system information, weapon status and heat levels, among other things.

Feo nodded at Zarpa as she tapped another command into the wrist-terminal; suddenly, it seemed like their outlines had gone fuzzy. In less than half a second, this blurriness was covering their whole body, before they faded away from sight entirely.

Feo looked up from her wrist over to where Zarpa was standing, and while she couldn’t quite see him, his outline showed up on her helmet’s HUD. She stared at him and blinked twice, opening a comm channel directly to him, “Zarpa, how is everything looking on your end?” she asked, before Maryn popped back into view, on her HUD this time.

“Systems running at 100%, Feo,” came the reply, before he disabled the stealth systems and faded back into view.

At her AI’s nod, Feo followed suit and took off her helmet, “Okay then, I think we’re ready to go,” she said, flashing Zarpa a smirk, before she felt Kanire’s heavy paw on her shoulder.

“Promise me you’ll be careful, Feo,” he said in his low, slow voice as Feo spun around, his eyes shining with concern, “Can you promise me you won’t do anything reckless?”

Feo smiled slightly at him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, “I’ll try, okay?”