The AFF group was hungry, and for a few minutes, they stayed by the bodies of the kids, eating them. The two tigers went first, then the foxes. After that, they returned to the ships, and got their stuff. "Wait a minute, what are we gonna do about the ships?" asked Vix, looking at them. "Wasn't there some button or something in the cockpit? I think it said `Cloak' or something like that," Tigress said. "Let me see." Vix climbed up into the open cockpit of her Spectre. She looked around, and then did something. Abruptly, the entire craft vanished, including Vix. "Wow," muttered Foxy softly. Vix slid out of the Spectre's cockpit and shook her head, as if to clear it. "It's the red button," she said, "On the left." The others went to each of their ships, and turned on the cloak or whatever it was. "That oughta do," said Foxy, as he climbed down from his ship. "How do we find them when we're coming back?" growled Inferno. "Easy. I'll just stay behind, and mark the area," replied Foxy. "You guys just get going, and I'll catch up." "Okay. Hope you find us," said Vix, and then they left. Foxy waited until they were out of sight and hearing, then turned to mark the place in true canine fashion. * * * * Jared was scared. As soon as his fighter had been pushed into a dark recovery tube or something, he felt a lurch as the capital ship made a jump. He was holding his gun in his hand as he cautiously took off his flight helmet off with the other. As he opened the cockpit, the lights suddenly came on as power was re-directed to other systems than the jump engines. He flinched with the sudden brightness. As his eyes got accustomed to the light, he saw that he was in a hangar. There were many other ships in neat rows beside his own. He wondered for a moment what was going on. It was so quiet for a hangar. Then he heard a clacking noise. He turned to face it, and was amazed to see an eagle that was taller than he was walking towards him slowly and warily. This was something from his nightmares. He hoped this was all a dream. Then again, he couldn't take any chances. "Hey, you," he called, waving the gun at the eagle. His voice echoed in the hangar. "Stop moving or I'll shoot." The eagle opened his beak slightly, and spread his wings a fraction of their total wingspan, but did not stop. "I said freeze," Jared called. He left behind Vader as soon as his ship was down on the ground. The eagle just kept on moving towards him, and now he was maybe 500 feet off. Jared leveled his gun, and rippled off a few rounds. The eagle ducked back behind a ship, and didn't get touched. "Stop your shooting," roared some one from beside him. Startled, Jared whipped around, and ended up with his gun aimed in the general direction of a huge lion, who had several other lions behind him. Jared's jaw dropped. "Put down gun, and I won't hurt you," snarled the lion. Jared noticed that he spoke a little slowly, as if he knew English, but hadn't spoken it in a long time. When Jared hadn't moved, the lion said coldly, "Your hrcath, how you say, friend is dead. Don't die as well." Jared felt the rage in him build up. Finally, he swung his gun up. The lions crouched a little, growling. "You damn bastards, you killed Scott!" He pulled the trigger just as the lions scattered. He managed to nail one in the shoulder, and it collasped. By now, all the other ones had gone. Jared checked behind him, and saw one sulking in a shadow. He fired again at it, and saw the bullet smash a hole in the ship the lion was hiding behind. Jared saw another just sitting there by a ship, looking over at the lion Jared had just shot at. Jared carefully lined up his gun, and started to pull the trigger. Then a large, strong hand grabbed his gun hand, and nearly broke it. Jared turned his head in a panic. The lion he had shot in the shoulder was holding onto the hull with one hand, and using the arm that had been shot to rip the gun from Jared's grip. As soon as that was done, he dropped down to the ground, and crushed the gun. "Thought I was dead?" snarled the lion as the other ones came out. The lead lion that was talking before nodded to the one that had been shot, and said something which Jared didn't get. The wounded lion growled back, and left. Jared looked at the lead lion. "What are you going to do with me?" he demanded. The head lion glared at him. "Just what all you humans deserve," was all that he said before the other lions dragged him out of his ship, and into an elevator. * * * * Tony was the first to stumble on the bodies. The first one he saw was faintly glowing in his goggles, almost as cold as the surrounding area. He ripped off his infrared goggles and knelt down by the body, fighting down the urge to puke. The kid's body had been slashed open in the gut and the throat, and it looked like whatever had attacked him had also eaten part of the teenager. Tony looked away, and swore as he got up. It was such a waste, in his opinion. The poor kid hadn't even gotten to get a car, and some sicko goes and kills the lad. "Hey, Tony!" called another one of the searchers. "I found one of them!" Tony felt some hope rise in him. "Is he okay?" "No." The word felt like a dagger. "Looks like something had tried to eat him." Tony walked over to where his friend was standing. "We'd better call the police. What kinda sicko would do this?" muttered Tony. As he was going over, he triped on something. Looking back, Tony saw it was the third kid. He looked like he had been smashed into the ground. At least he hadn't been nibbled. "I found the third one," he said glumly, sitting up, and turning on his hologen for long range. He dialed it for the police, and turned on the built in camera. "Hello? Is anyone there? This is Tony Realdman. Over." The hologen crackled slightly as the satelite adjusted. "This is Station 12. How can I help you?" asked a voice. "You know those boys in the Park that we are searching for? Well, we found them. Take a look." Tony aimed the camera at the bodies. "Can you send a squad over to check it out?" "Yes, a few officers are being dispatched. What is your location?" Tony looked at his GPS2 locator. "Grid number 23561- 1341. We'll be setting up lights." He looked back at the bodies. "And hurry up." He took one last look around. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something move, but dismissed it as his imagination. * * * * Jared was dragged out of the elevator into a dirty hall. He noticed that in this hall, there seemed to be grass growing on the ground. He was taken to the end of the short, crooked passageway, and they opened a door at the end of it. The head lion turned to him. "You stay in here," he rumbled. "I'll be back, and if there is any truble, I hurt you more." He said something to the others, who Jared assumed to be guards, and to his surprise, they started stripping him. "Hey!" he yelled, grabbing the bottom part of his flight suit, not willing to expose himself in front of these animals. "Stop," commanded the head lion. "We don't take chance with you hiding something. We might give you clothes if you good." "Go to hell," said Jared, "I'm not undressing." The lions all extended some long, cruel looking claws. Jared gulped. "Are you sure?" asked the head lion coldly. "I kill you now, I don't care." Jared slowly nodded, and allowed himself to be stripped. They didn't even notice his embarrassment and they slammed him into the cell. Now Jared was naked on a ship full of animals, with no hope of escape. What a crummy day. * * * * Foxy caught up with the others after a long run through the woods. He was panting some, but otherwise okay. The others had heard him coming, and Vix, having a sharper nose than both the tigers, had scented Foxy. So they stopped and waited for him, and he came up in a few minutes. "Whew," he breathed when he saw them. "Listen up. I was finishing marking the place, and I noticed a few humans looking around. I think they found the human pups we killed." "Uh, oh." Inferno growled softly. "Those skagrans. Did they see you?" Foxy snorted. "No, I'm not that dumb, contrary to what you might think." Tigress stepped inbetween the both of them. "We'll just have to hurry then, and get as far away before resting. Okay?" "Yeah. Whatever." Inferno glared at Foxy once before taking the lead position. Vix dropped back to Foxy. "You sure do make a lot of enemies, don't you?" she whispered. "Yeah." They could already hear the police HHVs circling up towards the site of the hunt. "We'd better hurry." * * * * Three police officers, a few coroners, and a man who looked like a Marine stepped out of the first HHV that landed. Tony was waiting. As soon as the turbines quieted down, they all introduced themselves, except for the Marine. "So, what do we have here?" asked one of the officers. "Three dead kids. We were searching for them when we found the bodies," replied Tony. "Where are they?" "Over there; I'll bring you." Tony led the way to the place he had found the first kid. "The other two are over there." The coroner guy was already taking holofilms of the bodies. Tony showed them the other bodies, and stepped back and let the police do their jobs. A few other HHVs came in a few minutes later, and soon police were flocking over the scene. Later on, closer to day, the coroner people place the bodies in large plastic containers for movement back to the city. Tony stopped an officer, and asked, "Do you guys know who did it?" The officer shook his head. "No, but we did find some animal hair around, but the problem is, there are no tigers around here." "Tigers?" Tony looked at the officer strangely. "Yeah," said the officer but he wouldn't say anything else. Tony gave up after a while, and walked away. * * * * The Marine-looking person was actually one, and assigned to check this one out. They had gotten a call from the Shieldors, saying that a strange ship appeared, and shot up two of their best pilots. They were afraid that the ship had launched a landing party. He was called Hunter by the others in his special group. The others were waiting back at the military base, fully armed and ready to go at his signal. Hunter walked away from the bodies, into a clearing by it. Looking up, he saw that there was a big hole in the trees, and he had a feeling that if there was a landing party, it would have landed here. He felt around on the ground, and found some depressions in the dirt. Landing skids? However, there were no ships around to make the marks. Hunter straightened up, and took one last look around. He noticed a faint set of tracks leading away from the site in the steadily growing light of dawn. He knelt down next to them, and gave them a closer look. They were too big for any animals living in this place. If there were any, that is. Hunter flipped the lid on his watch, and turned on the Link with the rest of the group. A small holo of Predator, one of Hunter's team members, appeared. "Get going," was all Hunter had to say, and all he needed to. Predator nodded, and the transmission was cut off. In a few minutes, his team would be here. * * * * Jared's cell was actually a large room. Too bad it wasn't lit very well. The only light source was a dim set of lamps in the center of the room. But after he walked around a bit, he decided that it was better dark. He had tripped over a thing, and when he picked it up, he saw it was a bone. The room itself was not very exciting. It was squarish, and the roof was high up. The ground was a mushy, smelly mixture of bones, and probably garbage. Either the animals didn't have a high standard of cleanliness, or they never came in here. Jared thought he knew who his captors were. He had heard rumors of a race that looked like these creatures, and who wanted to simply get rid of the human race. He sat down against a wall, not really liking the feeling of the ground, but he was tired. After he made himself reasonably comfortable (which wasn't very), he let his mind wander to try and get it off of his situation. He wished he had at least a pair of shorts to put on. Thinking back, he suddenly remembered a story in the news. A scientist had created these creatures. Then they all escaped. Jared remembered that, as he was part of the task group assigned to tracking them down. They had survived what? Fifteen years in a passenger ship? How? His mind raced, trying to figure it out. Then it hit him that this was the race with the message... And they were in the Solar System! Within easy striking range of Earth, the central hub of the human race. He felt a shiver run through him. He had seen how good their pilots were. They were too big for hand to hand combat. And no one else knew they were here. "Oh, crap!" He jumped up, and started pacing around, looking at the walls, hoping for a way to escape. He had been pacing for several minutes when the notion hit him that he was pacing like a caged animal. Now he knew why they did it. He probably looked stupid too. Jared looked up. There seemed to be a dark strip around the top of the walls, near the roof. One-way windows? "Let me out of here!" he shouted up to the windows. No one replied. He ran up to the door where he had come in, and pounded on it. It felt very solid, as if he was hitting the walls. After a few more hits, he stopped. If he was the only one who knew that the animal freaks where here, he had to get out soon. But how? He sat down once again to ponder this one out. * * * * Commander stood on the bridge of the StarLion, watching the strange patterns of hyperspace outside. They were going as slow as they could in jump, and should be pulling out of hyperspace any moment now. The great ship shuddered slightly, and they were back in space, near the ice planet the humans called Pluto. There was a small orbiting station floating around it, and that was nearly 2,500 miles away, or 50 seconds at their top speed. Commander knew that this kind of station only carried maybe 10 lasers at the most, and no fighters. A sitting human. Commander felt S.C. step up next to him. "Well, S.C., what should we do here?" Commander asked. S.C. looked at the station. "I say we destroy that thing over there." "Yes, I was going to do that. But should we disable the place, and go in for hand to hand, or just blow it away from space?" S.C. scowled. They were in human territory, like always, but quite deep into it. How long before a warship responds? he asked himself. Commander was giving orders to the helm crew. "Plot a course for the station, and if they launch any fighters, go ahead and wipe them out. Half speed." He turned back to S.C. "Well? We could get some company for the human we caught, and let them all loose on the Planet." "There's another ship coming in," cried a sensor operator. "10,000 miles aft. Lightning class corvette." Commander turned. "Where is it heading?" "Towards us. I think it's a supply ship, but it seems to be heavily damaged." The operator stopped for a moment. "Three more ships coming in. Two Voyager class, and one of ours, the StarHawk." "Show me here." A 3D screen appeared, showing a flurry of laser bolts and warheads screaming through the space between the ships. A few squadrons of fighters appeared in a moment. "Turn our ship around, flank speed. Get us into the battle. Launch all Eagles, and tell them to get over to the station, hunt it down, and kill it." A big blob of new signals representing the Eagles appeared. "Launch the rest of the fighters, and have them help out the Hawk. Get us into the battle." As more fighters appeared on the display, the Lightning corvette exploded from a spread of missiles. Commander grinned. "What's the status on all capital ships?" he asked. "The two Voyager's shields are at 50% each. The StarHawk is at 47%. We're okay." The Voyagers twisted around, and made a run on both sides of the StarHawk, delivering a large amount of damage. But now the StarLion was close enough to start firing warheads at the human ships. A huge spread of torpedoes, missiles, and RPBs flew at the two human ships. They stopped firing at the StarHawk, and started shooting at the missiles, making a protective screen around the ships. Too bad our missiles are shielded, and manueverable, Commander thought. Practically all of the missiles smacked into the Voyagers. Commander watched their status go from 50% shields to 25% hull damage. One of the Voyagers recived a few heavy torpedoes in the bridge area, and suddenly, it stopped moving forward. It spiraled out for a few seconds, then it suddenly detonated. The other Voyager decided that it had taken enough damage, and started to run for a jump point. The StarHawk activated its electron cannons, and after a few dozen shots, the Voyager stopped dead. The glow from the engines died out. The comm board lit up then, and Commander took it. It was the captain of the StarHawk. Hawks are kind of unnerving to look at, because of their large eyes that seemingly never blink, and they always had a stern glare on their faces. This one was no different. But at least Commander was his superior. Even though the hawk didn't act like it. "Commander," said the hawk, nodding. "What should we do with the human ship?" Commander looked out one of the viewports. "You can do whatever you want with it, but I would send a few boarding crews to kill the humans, then take the ship for our own use. But you can do whatever." The hawk made a clicking noise with his beak. "Thank you, Commander," he said, and then the link was terminated. Commander looked around the bridge crew. "Recover the fighters for re-arming, and then send them after the station over there, as fast as they can." The ship responded, and soon they were nearing the station. When they were about 10,000 miles away, the ship's engines were cut, allowing for a smooth stop, coasting most of the way to the human ship. "Take down the human's shields." Instantly, a number of warheads and lasers were filling the space between them and the humans. The station only mounted a token resistance, and the shields were down in no time. "Recall all fighters except those with electron cannons. I want the station disabled." While the fighters were flying back, a light lit up on the comm board. "It's the human leader on the station," reported the comm officer. "Put him through, voice only," said Commander. The ready light turned on. "Hello? Is anyone there?" It was the human. He sounded surprised, and scared. "What is it?" asked Commander gruffly. "We surrender," replied the station. "We don't accept the surrender. If you surrender, you die. If you don't surrender, you die. If you put up a good fight, some may not die right away." "Huh?" came the confused voice of the station. "Look, please. This station doesn't have any weapons. We only do scientific research. We pose no threat to any one. Please spare us. Who are you?" Commander growled. "This makes me sick." He switched back to Traditional. "Weapons, fire electrons at will." Over the link, the person on the other end screamed, then the link fell silent. "Good job! That one must have hit their comm center," said S.C. "All their systems are now disabled, except for internal power," announced someone. "Good. Dock, and get the boarding parties ready." The StarLion crawled closer. The station was much smaller than the StarLion, and they had no problems attaching to the human's docking bay. "Are you crazy?" whispered S.C. during this operation to Commander. "They'll be bound to have reinforcements on the way." "Yeah, you're right." Commander called, "Don't send the boarders on yet." Turning to S.C., he asked, "Do you think we can make a jump with this station attached? I don't want to lose this hunt." S.C. looked at one of the screens that was showing the docking maneuvers. "Maybe. Not very fast, but yes, we could." "Wonderful." He walked down to the cluster of officers who were doing the docking. "Secure them as tight as possible to us. We're going to try and jump with them, so we don't lose them." The officers looked at him as if he was crazy, but they gave the orders. "And send a group in to tear out their navigation. We don't want them to see where they are." * * * * In a few minutes they were ready. The StarHawk had already left, taking the crew in their prison holds. They had launched a jump probe into hyperspace, which would give them a few minutes warning of approching ships. "All ready?" Commander called. "All ready," called back the bridge crew. "Then let's jump." The StarLion twisted, and slowly, they started moving towards the jump point. "There's a lot of ships coming in, all bigger than us," snapped the sensor officer. "About 30 seconds away, coming in real close." "How long before we jump?" "45 seconds." Slowly, the seconds ticked off. On the countdown chrono the time read 00:16. The humans came in a second early. There were ten ships that were bigger than the StarLion, and numerous escort ships. They came out farther than expected, but within range of most warheads. "Fire all remaining warheads at them," yelled Commander. "Put up some warhead jammers." He glanced at a read out by his hand. Their warheads would take exactly 3 seconds more to get to the humans than the StarLion to the jump point. "Never mind the last one. I just want at least one of those ships to die." Commander would gladly have ripped out the human's throats with his own claws, but having them suck vaccum was okay. Then the countdown finished, and they were off with their load of human prey. * * * * Inferno, Tigress, Foxy and Vix decided to stop going and get some sleep. It was now dawn. They had heard quite a lot of activity from their lanidng site, and they all hoped that the cloaking devices didn't fail on them. Foxy settled down against a tree, with Vix beside him. Inferno and Tigress were sitting close to each other a little distance away, out of sight of Foxy and Vix. Vix opened her bag that she was carrying. Inside was a small pack of meat. She sniffed it, then decided that she wasn't hungry. This was true. In fact, she disliked the feeling of being full for some reason. It made her feel slow, drowsy, and sluggish. Of course, having a full stomach, curled up in a warm den, next to a loving mate... That wasn't bad. But being stuffed on a mission? No way. Foxy was watching the tigers in a strange way. Vix noticed, and asked him, "What's wrong?" Foxy shook his head. "Nothing. I was just wondering what month it is." "Either October or November, I don't keep track. Why?" Foxy's voice dropped, and he changed to Fox. "Look at them. They're snuggling up close. That is not what I heard how tigers acted. Second, if you were smelling around her... Well, she has that funny scent." Suddenly, Vix understood. "You mean she's in season, and the other, what's his name, Inferno is her mate now?" She glanced at the two tigers. "Wonderful. We're stuck with two lovers on a mission. Wonderful." She stretched out some. "Well, nothing we can do. Let's just go to sleep, and hope nothing happens." Foxy cast one last glance at the two tigers, then curled up for sleep. * * * * Hunter's team arrived in a few minutes. The HHV they had taken lifted off, and then they were all alone. Quickly, Hunter told them what was happening, and filled them in about the kids. The team nodded, and Hunter got into his combat suit, which the team had brought with them. The rest of them were already suited up. The team consisted of nine other people. Hunter was the leader, and the most experienced. The team, who had nicknamed themselves, "The Pack", was a special operation type of team. They were mercenaries, in a way. The UP (United Planets, a big brother of the United Nations) hired them to do many odd, and dangerous jobs. Their last mission was in the Trivion sector, doing sabotage. Now they had been hired to track down this fierce new race. Frankly, they had been doing a lot of traveling lately, chasing down rumors of the so called AFF. The members of this group all named themselves a kind of odd names. There was Hunter, the leader. The others were named Predator, Killer, Executioner, Slayer, Hacker, Ripper, Murderer, Terminator, and Slasher. They were all considered slightly crazy, but they were good at what they did. They crept forward quickly, aided by their helmet's night vision. This advanced form showed the world as it really looked like in daytime, in color, instead of the old model's black and green TV pictures. The image was projected onto their helmet's armored face mask. It was becoming closer to daytime, and they had to soon turn off the night vision, or the light would damage the optics in the system. It was going to be a cold, cloudy, windy day today, as this area wasn't in a envioment controlled system. But though they could hear the wind from the audio pickups, it didn't come through their armored suits. In fact, the battle armor could be used as a space suit if needed. But they were light, and not bulky. "Look sir, over to the left," said Predator's voice in the commlink between their helmets. "I think I see 'em." Hunter looked in the direction given, and saw one of the AFF. "Load your tranqs, guys, and remember, they want them alive." * * * * Foxy woke up about an hour after he fell asleep. He hadn't slept well, and as he woke, he felt there was something wrong. A look around from where he sat didn't reveal anything, and Vix was still sleeping peacefully. Foxy uncurled, then streched quickly, and yawned. He sat down, like a regular fox would. It was going to be a cold day, and he felt the wind blowing through his fur. He shivered slightly, and looked around. It seemed quiet, but then again, it had been quiet ever since he had landed. It was too quiet, in fact. "FREEZE!!" Foxy jumped, and twisted around in mid-air, landing on all fours, crouching and growling. There were ten humans, six of which had their guns leveled at him. The other four were aiming at Vix. It was an unpleasant waking for her, with four guns aiming at her. She was trapped in the little hole she was in under the tree roots. The humans around Foxy started moving to surround him. He kept turning around, snapping at them occasionally. The mission was blown, and they were captured. To the AFF, it was a total disgrace to be captured by the humans. They probably wouldn't even take him back if he escaped. If he was allowed back on board, he would probably be killed. Which explained the reason why no AFF had ever been captured. They killed themselves first. The only problem was, if he tried to do that now, the humans would have that time in which to get a hold of him. As he was trying to figure out what to do, there was a chorus of thin, but loud, screams, distorted by the humans' helmet voice amplifiers. Tigress had dropped on the four humans, who were clustered together, and nearly crushed them. As the humans around Foxy stared at the scene, or started to raise their guns, Inferno charged out of nowhere, and slashed viciously at the ring of humans still standing. Foxy lept for the nearest one. In just a minute at the most, all ten humans were on the ground, probably unconscious. They couldn't open up the armor to make sure that the humans were dead, though. They couldn't even disarm them, as the weapons were permanently mounted in the arms of the armor. Inferno and Tigress did their best, trying to take the guns off the armor, though they failed in the end. After that, they grabbed their stuff and ran. The AFF could make amazing time if they felt like hustling, and now, they did. * * * * The StarLion dropped out of hyperspace near the Planet. Groups of lions had been sent into the station they had captured, and was still attached to them, to get all the humans. It had taken a while. Some of the humans had revived from the stun, and were wandering around. When they had seen the huge lions prowling the halls, most had positively freaked out. A few had tried to fight. However, an unarmed human scientist is not even a challenge to a healthy lion. But all the humans had been rounded up, and prepared for transfer to a large underground room on the Planet for prepreation for relese into the hunting grounds. The humans had been all loaded into large metal boxes, and a tug had delivered the boxes to a transit station, where they were moved down to the room. Once there, they were stripped, and placed in shuttle like craft for placement on the planet's surface. The captured station was taken off of the StarLion's hands, and sent off to the ship-building yards, which were even further out than the Planet. Commander leaned on the window, watching all of this happening. As well as the offloading of the human skagrans, they were also getting more data for resupply areas. They needed more warheads, as most of them had been launched at the human fleet. Soon all this was finished, and the StarLion turned around for the jump. After they had started the jump, Commander turned to S.C. "I'm going to look at that human we captured now," he said. * * * * The human scientists were distributed on The Planet by a group of amused looking AFF. The humans were all dropped at least 10 miles away from each other. One was dropped in a savannah area. As the shuttle craft flew away, the human watched it as it disappeared. Then he looked around at his surroundings. There was a lot of tall grass around him. To his left, about a mile away, there was a group of strange animals native to this planet. He saw a huge lioness/human crouching in the grass, intent on the prey. The human gulped, realizing that there could be more of those animal/human things around. As he stumbled over a hill, the human ran right into the middle of a pride of lions snoozing in the midday heat. The dominant male was awake, however, licking one of his paws lazily. He looked up at the scientist, who turned and ran. The lion, growling, got to his feet and bounded off after him. In a few minutes, screams and yells came floating to the ears of the drowsing lionesses. Most of the other humans fared the same fate, some living longer than others, some not. * * * * Jared pounded at the walls of his prison. He had been without food or drink for nearly a day now. In fact, he hadn't even seen another one of those freaks. He was getting desperate to get out soon. The door clanged open, and Jared heard one of the things that had got him growl at the doorway. He was near the back, and the room was dark, so maybe the thing couldn't see him. Jared could see the creature though. It took a few steps in, and looked around. Then it shook its head violently, and came in further. After a few more steps, the thing noticed Jared cringing in the back, and came towards him. "Stand up human," it said. Jared quickly complied. The panther (that's what it was) unsheathed some wicked looking claws, and told Jared to exit the room. Jared didn't getting out of the room, but he had better ideas. He walked slowly past the large cat, quickly sizing it up. It was only about his height, and quite strong. It was covered with shortish black fur. Jared lashed out with his fist, catching the panther right in the jaw. It yowled loudly, and stumbled back, hissing and snarling. "Yeah, come on, bastard," said Jared, putting his fists up. The panther stalked around him a bit, then attacked, making a lightning quick jump, slashing with its claws, aiming for the neck. Jared stepped back, and let loose with some of his own punches before the panther spun out of range. It circled a bit more, then jumped again, this time attempting to tackle Jared to the ground. Jared caught the panther, but the thing weighed a lot more than it looked. Jared fell, and the cat landed solidly on top of his chest, knocking the wind out of him. Stunned for a moment, Jared couldn't do anything as the panther roughly sunk his claws into Jared's biceps, snarling viciously. Jared noted with some satisfaction that the panther was bleeding slightly from its lip, where one of its own teeth had cut it. After the cat's breathing had slowed some, it allowed Jared to get up slowly. It said, "This way," and started pushing Jared along. Just as they got out of the doorway, a huge lion appeared in front of them. Jared sensed the panther tense up, but it said something to the lion, who replied, looking closely at Jared. He threw out his chest, and tried to look defiant and haughty. The panther said something else, and the lion made a short reply, and strode off. The panther pushed Jared back into the room. "Hey!" he said, just before the door slammed shut, sealing off the fresh air and light. "What did I do?" * * * * Foxy and Vix finally slowed down some. They were leading the way with all of their evading tricks that were instinct. Inferno and Tigress were following them as well as they could. "Well," panted Foxy as Inferno and Tigress came up, "I think that's good enough for now." "Yeah. They'll need some hounds to follow that, at the least," affirmed Vix. "Okay," said Inferno. "Now what?" The two foxes looked at each other. It was obvious what they wanted; a little time to rest. Being nearly killed had woken them up some, running like that to avoid being caught again was tiring. Besides, they were mostly active at night, and it was dawn now. Inferno and Tigress didn't feel as tired, but a few hours of sleep to accompany the hour or so nap they took would be nice. "Let's rest for a while," he said. The foxes were gone and asleep practically before he had said that. Inferno turned to Tigress now that the two little guys were gone. They had some business to attend to, namely the continuation of their species. * * * * Hunter woke up a few minutes after something had hit him. He sat up, and popped the seals on his helmet, and removed it. He was sweating, aching, and bleeding some. He rolled his head around on his neck a few times to work out some of the kinks in it. A glass of water would have hit the spot, but these suits didn't have a food supply built in. As Hunter slowly felt better, he happened to see his arm. The gun mounted in the armor was mangled, and useless now. Further inspection showed that everyone else's guns were totalled, and a few of them had broken arms. "Hey, guys," Hunter tried to say, but it came out as more of a croak. He licked his lips, and said it again. louder this time. Predator sat up next, slowly and painfully. He was holding his head, and in a few moments, flipped off his helmet. Hunter saw that the thick, extremly tough plastic armor of the helmet had been cracked slightly. "You okay?" Hunter called. "Uhh... Yeah, I guess so. Man, my head hurts like hell." He tried to stand, and succeded by clutching a tree. "What happened?" he asked, weaving slightly. "I-I don't know," replied Hunter truthfully. He shook his head. "Let's get the others up." He and Predator woke the others. Most of them were okay, but Hacker was dead. He was the one that Tigress had dropped on, and his neck was broken. Slasher and Ripper's right arms were both broken from the mangling of their guns. When Hunter found this, he was not happy. "Okay, Murderer, you stay here, with Slash and Rip. Call in for some medics. The rest of you come with me. We're gonna go after those bastards that killed Hacker." They grunted agreement, and got to their feet wearily. They started off a few minutes later. Although the gun mounted in the arm was gone, they still had a few backup guns each. Hunter was the only one left with a gun that had a tranquilizer left, but that didn't matter. Shooting the freaks in the legs would have the same effect of keeping them from fighting back. The beginning was easy, as there were lots of pawprints to follow. However, a few yards off, the trail disappeared. If their helmets were not screwed up, they could have tried the infrared to pick up any heat from the animal's paws touching the ground, but the system was beyond use. They managed to make a little way from finding stray prints, but soon they stopped altogether. Discouraged slightly, they stopped to figure out what to do. "Now, what?" asked Predator, sitting down on a stump. "Uhm... If you were one of them, where would you go?" said Hunter. He had not the faintest idea. He had seen that two of the things they found, presumably some AFF, were giant foxes. He only knew that the things that attacked them were white and black striped. A zebra? "Were those things that AFF we were chasing?" asked Executioner, rubbing his head. "I guess so," replied Hunter. "Then I think they would try to do what their message said-Kill the human race. So they maybe are heading for the city." "Nice idea, but anywhere they go is the city." Hunter thought a minute, then something hit him like a wave of cold water. "What if they are going after the President?" he asked. The others looked at each other. That's it! All of them thought simultaneously. They popped on their helmets, and took off for the direction of the White House. * * * * There was a big commotion at the AFF shipyards. All of the Earth Sector and the Sirus Sector ships were there, reloading and restocking. It had been decided that they would need to draw away the attention from the little raid on Earth. So, they were coordinating a large attack on the relatively undefended Sirus border planets. Most of the colonies there were small and insignificant, but one planet, Shargon, was a main resource planet. It was a solid ball of a tough, strange metal that was perfect for starship hulls. The humans used the high quality metal that made the planet for the human capital ships. This was the only planet in that area that had a good defense, and it was a good target. Commander was ready now. The little `talk' with the human was pitiful, and he had already forgot about him. The last of the resupply ships left the last capital ships, and the navigation computers had already been programed with the proper jump points. All that remained was the jump in, and the quick, easy battle, and yet another victory for the AFF. Soon, the entire mass of ships turned for the jump, and the count-down finished. They were off. * * * * None of Hunter's group's holo-links worked, which they discovered when they tried to call in to alert the military base near the White House. Which meant that probably Murderer's radio didn't work. Which meant that no one knew that the AFF were coming. Which sucked. All of which combined to encourage the battered group to go on faster, and hurry to get to the city. However, no matter how urgent the situation, you must sleep sooner or later. Most of this group had not slept two hours in the past 72. They were reaching their limits. So, when they were throughly exhausted, they had to stop, and sleep. Which spelled certain doom for Earth. * * * * Commander just loved battles. He liked the hand-to-hand kind better, but being in command of something that could kill a human, or a thousand of them, just as easily as his claws, that was enthralling, even if he couldn't have the satifaction of feeling his claws ripping through flesh or... He shook his head. Better to concentrate on the battle. His huge armada had jumped into close Shargon orbit. There was a pitiful little Shieldor Battle Station close to them, but that had been wiped out in a matter of minutes. A number of ships were all attacking the other planets simultaneously, and undoubtably causing great havoc. The humans were so soft and unprepared, even with all of the raids they had already pulled. It was appaling, their unreadiness. But then again, they haven't had a major war in a hundred years or more, just little riots on various planets. Now, some heavy ground based weapons and fighter racks started launching, and the StarLion prepared some heavy bombs to do some damage down there. Shargon didn't have a good atmosphere, and was a rather new colony. As a result, most, if not all, of the human homes were in armored capsules, or Biospheres. One bomb within a mile of a settlement could blast in all the windows with the pressure of the blastwave. The human fighters were engaging Commander's own, and he could see the flashes of vaporized ships in the distance. Then one of the sensor officers called. "Commander, we have a large repair dock or some other human ship of comparable size just coming into range. There does not appear to be any ships around it." "Send some Eagles after it," Commander said simply. In a few seconds, another flight of Eagles launched. They didn't even have to worry about human interference. Most of the humans were dead by now. Abruptly, a human ship jumped in. It was a big one, and vaguely familiar. "It's one of those we fired at when we jumped out of Pluto," commented S.C., who was standing quietly on the bridge. It looked heavily damaged, and a large section of its hull was missing. "Send the NovaWolf after it. They should be able to handle it." As Commander watched, the NovaWolf turned towards it, and accelerated. The human ship made an attempt to turn for the jump out and safety, but apparently the damage was too great. From Commander's viewpoint, it looked like one of the engines exploded, further crippling the huge thing. The NovaWolf slowed, then came to a complete stop a ways away from the mangled ship. The NovaWolf loosed a few warheads, and the human ship blew in a spectacular fireball. It quickly went out, however, as the oxygen dispersed in space. "Tell the NovaWolf to stay there, in case any more come in," said Commander. "Commander, it looks like the humans are surrendering," called one of the bridge crew. "They just sent a message saying so." "What? Already? We haven't even got to start." Commander allowed a malicious grin. "Disregard it. Fire off a few more bombs." This was done. "They sound even more panicked now," said the crew member, with a sharp display of his teeth. "I'm not sure, but I think they are almost all dead. At least, that's what this human is saying." Commander sauntered over. "Do you have a picture of this human?" A holo came up, showing a fat man, with a hat and a cloak on. Commander instantly disliked him. "Open fire, and wipe them all out." In a moment, a thick hail of bombs and rockets were fired from all of the ships. The comm link between the StarLion and the planet went dead. "And that's that." Commander walked up to his position that he usually took on the bridge. It was a raised platform thing, with a good view of the bridge, and a wonderful view of the space outside. Lions liked that kind of place. It had a soft covering, as did most of the floor in the bridge. In other places, they had grass growing, but grass would have gotten in the computers up here. "Well, S.C., what do you think we should do?" S.C. yawned, then sat down on the bed, where Commander was relaxing. "I say we hang around for a while. We aren't damaged at all, and the humans may be foolish enough to send re-inforcements. We could stay and mop them up." "Good. Signal all fighters to head back for the bays of all ships, then have everyone raise cloaking shields. Drop them every ten minutes to check for visitors." With that, Commander fell into a light sleep on his bed. * * * * Foxy actually got a full day's rest, this close to the human city. He didn't sleep the whole day through, of course, but rather took a lot of short, ten or twenty minute naps. He found that more refreshing. After he woke, he would yawn, look around, stretch, yawn again, then go back to sleep. Now it was dusk, just starting to get dark. This time, he stayed up, and looked around for something to eat. To his disgust, there wasn't a single thing around. He had to scrounge around in the bags for one of the packets of meat, and eat that. Foxes don't actually chew their food like humans, they shear off chunks with their carnassial teeth into little chunks small enough for digestion. Inferno apparently never knew that, and watched Foxy eat the pack of meat. After eating that, he got up and stretched fully. Then Foxy trotted off a few yards into the woods, and urinated against a tree, before coming back. Vix was the next up, followed closely by the two tigers, who had once again bedded down a short distance away from the two foxes, even though Foxy could care less about what they did instead of sleeping. In a few more minutes, all of them were ready to start off again. According to the computer map, they only had a few more miles to go before they got to the city. An hour later, they were at the tall wall surrounding the forest. It was easy enough for them to scramble over it, although Inferno got an unpleasant surprise. The wall had a small electric strip running along it to keep people out, and he got shocked by it, much to the amusement of Foxy. Once they had climbed over the wall, they looked around. "Why aren't there any people out here?" wondered Tigress. She was right. The streets were deserted, and silent as an open grave. "All the humans stay inside all the time. They link up to some computer or something when they wake up, and stay in until they go to sleep. It's nearly impossible to get them out of those macines," explained Vix. "We should be safe, unless they have some police patrols or something." "So where's this place we hafta go to?" asked Inferno. "Down this way a couple of blocks, then make a turn, go few blocks, then turn again, then we keep going," said Vix. "I think. Don't worry, we'll find it." They moved off silently through the streets. They were not brightly lit, and there were many shadows that the AFF could hide in if necessary. Many of the buildings around them were tall. Very tall. And they were all coated with plastic, maybe to protect them from the rain and snow. But it was the quietness that got to Foxy. Although he liked it being quiet, this was too quiet. About the only thing that could be heard was the soft humming of the air scrubbers. When they had gone about two blocks, Foxy heard a rustling behind them. He turned, and saw to his amazement, one of the human soldiers clambering over the wall. He growled an alarm, and they quickly scattered into the shadows. Inferno was huddled up next to Foxy. "What's going on?" he asked in a subdued voice. "I didn't hear anything." "The humans are coming." He looked for Vix, who was crouching a few yards away. "Vix, me and Inferno are going to try and lead them away. We'll catch up to you." "What?" hissed Inferno. "Come on," growled Foxy as he stood. "Maybe you'll get to kill a few of those humans." Inferno stood up eagerly. * * * * Hunter just managed to climb the wall. That damned electric strip couldn't shock him through his armor, but it could go through his gun, and then through his arm. However, it was just a minor hindrance, and he made it over. As he landed on the hard durament, he thought he heard a soft bark. Instantly, his gun snapped up. The others dropped down, and pulled out their guns. "What?" whispered Predator. "There they are," murmured Hunter. "In front of us. Two blocks. Predator, you come with me, the rest cover us." Hunter and Predator crept slowly down the street. Suddenly, a shape darted across the street. Hunter's bullets tracked along just a foot behind the shape before the shape ducked behind the corner of the building. His gun had a silencer on it, and the only noise it made was the sound of the trigger getting pulled back, and the bullets smashing into the streets and building walls. Hunter swore, and moved in closer, Predator next to him. He turned the corner, finger tighting on the trigger. But no one was there. He and Predator exchanged looks. Then the rest of the team yelled. Turning back, they saw the shadow crouching at the corner. Hunter yanked up his gun, and almost fired, but the shadow had gone again, this time down that street. Hunter called, "You guys go follow him," to the rest of his team, then he and Predator ran down the street, made a right, and hustled down that block. Now they were on the same street they just saw the shadow on. Sure enough, there it was again. Except now there was two shadows. * * * * Foxy and Inferno waited for a moment on the street corner for the humans, then dashed off again. The humans followed like they were on a leash. As soon as the humans came within view again, the two AFF waited a moment before scampering off again. It was kind of boring, as it took the humans an inordinate amount of time to catch up, it seemed to Foxy. But then again, he was used to being chased by other AFF, and before that, hunters with trained dogs, and with a small homing beacon on him for the hunters. The next time they crossed a street, Foxy noticed that there were a few more humans in the streets next to theirs. At least they weren't total grhirrs (roughly same meaning as skagran, only in Fox), but then again, all humans were. "Come on Inferno," Foxy hissed, and then darted forward a few blocks, then made a right turn, and ran as fast as he could. He was still wearing his backpack, and it was starting to wear him down a little. They must have caught the humans by surprise, as they didn't start shooting until the two AFF were halfway across, and then it was too late to get off more than a few quick, inaccurate shots off. Foxy made a couple of erratic turns and twists in his course, with Inferno on his heels. After five or so minutes of hard running, he stopped, and listened for the humans, tounge hanging out. Inferno didn't seem to be all that winded. As soon as Foxy caught his breath again, he said, "I think we lost 'em." "Maybe," said Inferno, casting a look around. "Do you know where we are?" "I haven't got the craziest idea!" growled Foxy. "All I know is that we go that way for a while, and sooner or later we'll find the forest." Suddenly he and Inferno froze. Both of them could hear a lot of rapidly approaching footsteps. "Come on!" urged Foxy, and he ducked into an alley. It was a dead end. Literally, a dead end for the two AFF. The wall at the end of the alley was at least twenty feet of smooth plastic stuff, perfectly unclimbable. And the street was now hazardous to their health. Now, their situation was a next to hopeless one. And the natural thing for a hunted fox to do when he is cornered is to attempt to take a few of them with him to hell. However, Foxy didn't care to try and attack ten men who were armed. And he still wanted to live to be Vix's mate. And being shot into a pile of bloody fur, then maybe being turned into a coat or something like that was not the way he wanted to go. Foxy looked wildly around, realizing that you didn't always get what you wanted. Too bad, it would have been nice to stay with Vix for a while, but... Then he realized that the alley was some store front and it had quite a few doors. He ran up to one, and tried to open it. Locked. A big, heavy duty lock. He snatched one of his picks, and in a few seconds the door was unlocked. He pushed again, then, when it didn't open, pulled. Nothing. Growing slightly panicked, he finally managed to slide open the door. He jumped through, and then realized that Inferno was gone. He heard a bullet whistle through the air, and an outraged snarl. "Inferno, get in here! I found a way out!" Foxy called. Inferno followed in a few moments. "The humans are by the end of the block. They're starting to come faster now." "Then let's go!" snarled Foxy impatiently. He lead the way into the building after slamming shut the door and locking it. The scant lighting of the building interior revealed that it was a warehouse of some sort. There were lots of heavy plastic crates stacked neatly up to the ceiling, which was about a hundred feet up. And Foxy's foot claws clacked quietly on the hard floor, making him wince. He disliked making too much noise. As they scooted around the perimeter of the building, searching for the exit, the two AFF soon heard the door they came in clang open, and the louder clacks of the human's armored boots on the ground echoing. As the two AFF finished searching the third wall, they knew that there was now only one way out, and as they peered around the corner, they knew it was guarded. A single guard stood by the door, holding a big gun. His helmet was off, but otherwise he was suited up like the rest of the humans. "Okay, Inferno, you go and take him out. I'll stay behind. Just do it quietly, okay?" whispered Foxy. Inferno said nothing, but started down the aisle, going from shadow to shadow. Soon he was within ten feet of the human, who didn't even know Inferno was there. All of the AFF (except the birds) could move their ears like any regular animals. Foxy's caught the sound of approaching footsteps behind him. About a second before he had a chance to move, Inferno pounced on the human. Maybe pounced was a poor word. Crushed was more like it. Imagine about 300 pounds of sleek muscle and claws shoot out of nowhere and rip open your throat within about one second. Another second later, the young human's skull shattered from a devastating blow to his head, the bone utterly failing in its role of protecting the brain. The body fell with a loud clatter to the floor, and all the rest of the humans couldn't have failed to hear that. Foxy got up and ran for the door. A human looked up at the sound of armor falling on ground, and saw Foxy running. He leveled his gun and managed to get a few shots off at the fleeing shape. Suddenly Foxy felt a few thumps on his back. Fortunately for him, the backpack he was wearing was a very tough material. It acted very much like a bullet-proof vest, and kept the bullets from doing much more than momentarily knocking Foxy off balance. After that, he fled through the open door, and followed Inferno into the streets again. * * * * "Sir, we have a slight problem." The sensor tech on the Grazer, a scout ship that went from place A to place B to see if place B had any valuable materials, and report back to place A. It was currently scoping out MX-1308, the main star of the sector where the StarLion and the other AFF ships were attacking. "What is it?" "A very, very big armada just attacked Shargon, and smaller groups are attacking every single other planet with a colony on it in this system." "You don't say? Get a SOS out, and call for backup. Hurry. Then get us out of here." * * * * A lot of ships and planets heard the SOS, and soon a number of ships were headed for the Sirus system at full speed, including a task force from the EDF that included the mighty Invincible. * * * * Commander woke ten minutes after he fell asleep. As he woke, the cloaking shield was de-activated. Commander yawned, then looked out the viewports. The NovaWolf was hanging off by the planet, and as Commander watched, a smaller ship, the MoonHawk, and escort carrier, de-cloaked. One by one, the nine other ships de-cloaked. After a minute, nothing happened, and their sensors hadn't picked up any human ships. "Cloak," called Commander, in disgust. Just then something happened. "We got a human ship coming in!" yelled someone. It came in, decelerating right into the MoonHawk. Commander watched, open mouthed, as the huge human ship stopped, about half of it crumpled and most of the rest heavily damaged. It also looked like the huge ship was none other than the powerful Invincible! However, the ship now looked far from invincible. When something rams into another something at very high speeds, and only one of them has its shields up, there will be a very messy explosion. The MoonHawk exploded after it had gone halfway through the Invincible, causing more damage. In a few seconds, the Invincible's reactor saftey mechanisims blew, and there was a magnificent explosion. As the last wisps of flame died in the vacuum, a sizeable human fleet jumped in behind the remains of the Invincible. "Attack speed, power up shields, and launch fighters," called Commander. "It's time for a human hunt." * * * *