Foxy and Inferno kept on running, making random turns
often.  Once in a while, they would hear a bullet ricochet
off a wall by them.  Finally Foxy halted.  He was not ran out
to the point of collapsing, but he wasn't exactly feeling
fresh, either.  He had some fun in leading the stupid humans
in a wild chase, but now he was tired of the game.
     Telling Inferno to keep watch, he took out his picks,
and started on a nearby door.  It was a side entrance to a
large apartment building, and very dark.  But he managed to
open the door in a few seconds, and went in.  He sniffed for
any humans, but the smell of them were permeating the room,
and it was quite useless.  But he didn't sense any, and
called in Inferno.  Once they were both in, Foxy shut and
locked the door.
     "Let's go to the top, find out where we have to go, and
then by then the humans will have lost us," said Foxy.
     They headed for the elevators.  Although not many AFF
liked being on one, the humans hardly ever put in stairs now.
They went to the highest room the elevator would go to, which
was about halfway to the top.
     When the doors opened, they found themselves in a
disorientating mass of large, elegant halls, with plenty of
lights.  There were no elevators nearby, and the two AFF had
no idea what to do now.  The hall went off in two directions,
both of them having no indication of having elevators.
     "You go down that way," said Inferno softly, pointing to
the left, "and look for the elevators.  I'll go this way."
     Foxy nodded, and crept off.  At the end of his hall,
there was a corner, and Foxy slinked down it, wishing that it
was darker.  A few more turns, and Foxy had located the
elevators, at the end of the hall.  He had turned to go get
Inferno when a door opened in front of him.  Foxy froze, but
had nowhere to run or hide.
     Out stepped what looked like a dog/human mix.  It was
bigger than Foxy, by a good margin.  The dog had a dark brown
coat, and alert looking ears, the kind that were pricked up,
not floppy and useless.  It was some domesticated type of
dog, and that made Foxy a little angry, and a little scared.
Domesticated dogs had been hunting foxes for all time, and
foxes, in any form, still ranked high on many dog's lists for
attacking.  So many unlucky foxes torn apart, or shot, and
put through incredible agony just for some stupid human
obsession with killing animals.  And if Foxy wasn't lucky, he
would just be another smear of blood in a long, deep river of
blood spilled over the ages.
     The dog shut the door, and Foxy saw that it was carrying
a bag for some reason.  The dog almost didn't notice Foxy and
walked down the hall (probably to a very messy death by
Inferno), but instead stopped at the last moment, then looked
behind him.  Foxy knew he was trapped now.  He started
backing off, slowly, feeling...  Well, he couldn't exactly
tell how he felt, but it was as if he had just made the
biggest mistake in his life, and was going to pay dearly for
it.
     The dog grinned.  "Well, what have we got here?  I
haven't seen one of yur kind fer a while."  The dog had sort
of a slur in his talking.  He also spoke in English, which
was a disgrace in Foxy's eyes.
     Foxy forced himself to stay cool.  "Oh really?  I
haven't really seen much of yours either," he said in Fox.
     The hound dropped his bag, and came a little closer to
Foxy, who retreated.  "What are you doing here?" asked the
dog, this time in his own dog language.  All canids had the
same basic type of speaking, like an American spoke English,
and so did a British human, but they were different.
Dialects, that was it.  Foxy didn't know why that popped into
his mind, but it did.
     A dozen things to say flashed through Foxy's mind, but
he knew none would please the dog.  His kind, and nearly all
wild animals had been exterminated or put into an outlaw
state.  "Err...  I was...looking, looking for a...friend."
This was true, in a sense.  Foxy was hoping Inferno would
come around here.  Even if the white Siberian Tiger had his
faults, he could save Foxy's life right now.
     "How stupid do you think I am?" said the dog.  Foxy
almost told him, but at the last moment, decided against it.
The dog continued.  "I know that yer kind are illegal.  I
oughta kill ya right now, just cuz you lied to me."
     "Uh... Why would you want to kill me just for that?  I
mean, isn't it a little harsh just for something that minor?"
Foxy played for time, still wishing for Inferno.
     "Being a wanted being is minor?" snorted the dog.  "You
have any idea how much you are worth?  `Five Hundred Thousand
credits for any one of these species, dead or alive.'  And
you are on the list."  The dog grinned again.  "There are a
lot of your type still running wild on some outer planets,
causing a lot of trouble.  And I know that some bounty
hunters are making a good living off of catching you."
     "Oh."  Foxy was back at the elevators now.  He thought
of escaping that way, but he remembered how slow the doors
opened and shut.  The dog would be able to get in before Foxy
was safe.  "So you're going to kill me?"
     "Yep.  If you don't struggle, I promise to make it
quick."  Foxy thought that was strange, or the dog wasn't
going to keep his promise.  That was probably more likely,
the dog would crack one of Foxy's arms or something, then
just take him apart at his lesiure.
     "But why would you want to kill me?  I mean, once you
get the money, it won't do you any good, and besides, we're
cousins.  We both are canines, right?  So, why would you want
to do that?  We're like family!"
     The dog snorted.  "That old excuse.  Your kind has been
using it forever, haven't you learned it doesn't work?"
     "Uh..."
     The dog bared his fangs.  "Prepare to die, little red-
furred weakling."
     Foxy shrugged out of his backpack, and bared his teeth.
They were white, sharp and deadly.  Foxy knew that in the
Colossuem, they had made a number of small disadvantages to
the wild animals.  The humans and domesticated ones didn't
have these.  So Foxy had a lot of experience fighting from a
disadvantaged position, as if being so small wasn't enough of
one.  But, he had never really been in a fight to the death
with something so big.  He had usually fought younger hounds,
or people, who were easy as long as they had no weapons.  He
had angered a tiger before, and Foxy considered himself lucky
to have lived.  But he was trapped now.  If he could slip
around to the other side of the dog, maybe he could run,
although he wouldn't get far.  He was trapped, and like many
other foxes before him, he had to fight his way out.
     Foxy feinted in, as if he was making the first move, and
the dog lunged out, snapping wildly.   Foxy darted back out
of the way of that, then back in, delivering a few nasty
gashes to the hound's face and shoulders, but missing the
neck.
     He took a fraction of a second too long in slashing at
the dog, and the dog managed to grab Foxy, and drag him down
to the ground.  This almost panicked Foxy.  In this close
contact fighting, he was at a small disadvantage, as he
preferred to stay out of harm's way, and attack when he had a
clear shot from a safe distance.  However, he was agile, and
good at wrestling like this.  The hound's jaws closed on his
shoulder, paining it considerably.  Foxy blindly retaliated,
and managed to sink his teeth in the hound's right hand.  His
teeth went clear through, and the dog yelped, and pulled
free.  However, he was back in the fight again in an instant.
When he yanked his hand free, the dog had also made Foxy flip
his head back, and almost roll over.  Now the dog had a
choice of neck or stomach, and opted for the vulnerable
stomach, as Foxy's head was coming back up, with all of it's
teeth.
     As Foxy sunk his teeth in the hound's ear-too high for
the neck-the hound had done a bloody number on his gut.  It
was bitten, not quite deep or large enough to spill out
Foxy's innards, but hard enough to hurt considerably.
     Foxy was trying to get up, and away from the close
fight, and run for Inferno.  He finally managed to get to his
feet for a moment, but then was viciously attacked from
behind.  He fell onto his face, and the hound jumped on
Foxy's back.  The hound struck downward with his jaws for the
back of Foxy's neck, which would break it.  Foxy was faster,
however, and managed to flinch out of the way.  The hound
went a little too far, and the side of his neck was wide open
for a shot.  Foxy's jaws closed on it, but missed the
jugular.
     The dog yelped, and jerked himself free.  Foxy rolled
over onto his back, which was a stupid thing to do.  The
hound was back on him like a flash, and doing a bloody number
on Foxy's front.  His previously white belly fur was now
stained red, and he was too tired to fight much longer.  He
was just scarcely able to protect himself.
     Then the hound made his mistake.  Instead of finishing
off Foxy by simply attacking his undefended stomach, he
decided to go for the neck.  Foxy was quick, and twisted out
of the way.  Then Foxy sunk his teeth into the hound's neck,
right behind where the lower jaw meets up with the rest of
the skull.  Foxy let go for a moment, then struck again
slightly lower.  He tore into the hound's jugular, and was
rewarded with a flood of blood gushing into his mouth.
     The hound gurgled, then tried to yank away, but if you
have one of the biggest blood vessels in your body rent open,
you were dead in less than thirty seconds.  The dog moved no
more.  Foxy pried himself out from under the dead thing, and
stood up slowly and painfully.
     He was a mess.  Foxy had a large number of gashes and
tears that were bleeding, and of course his head at least was
drenched in blood.
     "Good job," muttered a voice.  Foxy looked up painfully.
Inferno was standing at the end of the hall.
     "How long have you been standing there?" asked Foxy.
     "Ever since you started the fight."
     "WHAT?  I almost got killed, and you were standing right
there watching?"  Foxy dragged himself to his feet, and
stumbled towards Inferno.  "I'm going to rip out your dirty
throat!"  Inferno simply grabbed Foxy by the throat, and held
him at arm's length until Foxy's weak struggles ceased.
     "Let's try and do something about his body, okay?" said
Inferno, releasing Foxy.
     "Have fun," replied Foxy in a weak voice.  He started
licking one of his wounds.  Inferno started to protest, then
changed his mind, and dragged the dog's body into one of the
elevators.

               *         *         *         *

     The AFF fleet closed on the disoriented human fleet at a
combined speed of 100 MPS.  The AFF got off the first shots,
launching a wave of warheads at each human ship.  Hawks and
Eagles followed, firing their lasers at vulnerable points on
the human ships.  Falcons engaged the few human fighters.
     When the humans had jumped in, their shields were down,
and practically all of the warheads impacted on the thick,
armored hulls of the ships.  However, a few warheads hit
unprotected areas, like the bridge windows, the engine
exhaust ports, and one heavy bomb actually entered a
launching tube that was just opening, and exploded inside the
human ship.  As there was not very much armor inside a ship,
it did considerable damage.  As it was, four human ships out
of ten died in the first salvo, and so far, the humans hadn't
even fired off one shot at the AFF.
     Just like Commander wanted it.
     He prowled restlessly around the bridge, looking out the
windows, or trying to read some of the computer screens.  He
had an odd feeling that something bad was going to happen.
Suddenly, it did.
     "Commander, there's a new group of humans coming in
behind us!  There's at least double our number there!"
     Commander turned to look out the windows, but all of the
viewports only faced forward, towards the puny human group
they had already almost destroyed.  "Fire off a few salvos of
warheads at them," he said, then, "What type are they?"
     "Looks like a bunch of medium sized ones, like the
Formidable class, and plenty of those Voyagers, and a few
Lightning corvettes."
     This new human group jumped in in an orderly fashion,
not behind a huge wall of debris and the remains of the
biggest ship in the fleet.  As a result, they got their
shields up very quickly, and started coming in.
     Each group of ships launched their missiles and bombs
simultaneously.  The targeted ships started firing laser
bolts at the incoming warheads in an attempt to destroy them.
The AFF missiles did much better, almost all of them hitting
their targets, while the human's were decimated.  By now, the
two groups were within gun range of each other, and they
started pouring laser fire and a few warheads at point-blank
range.
     A few small capital ships maneuvered up for a massive
broadside to the StarLion, whose shields were about halfway
down.  They started in on their attack run, and 3/4 of them
were destroyed in the firefight.  Ironically, the human ships
served to shield the StarLion for a few minutes from other
fire, and one human ship even got destroyed by friendly fire.
     Commander was starting to worry, although he did not
show it.  The damage to his ship was piling up, though there
was, not yet at least, hull damage.  Then he got an idea.
Commander called out over the noise of the bridge, "Prepare a
jump!  A short one, just far enough away for us to get out
and recharge our shields!"
     "Calculating jump now!"  The jump officers tapped a few
more panels.  "Ready!"
     "Jump now!"
     The view out the ports showed the strange hyperspace for
a brief second.  Then it switched back to normspace, and they
were at least 10 minutes away from the battle.
     "Recharge those shields!, and see if you can get some
targets for our missiles," said Commander.
     "Okay, Commander."
     Commander relaxed back on his bed.  He looked at S.C.
"Say, what's the damage to our ship?" he asked.
     "Not much.  Just some shields wore down, and just a few
laser bolts managed to hit our hull, but nothing serious."
     "Alright.  Start moving the ship in, and wake me up when
something happens."

               *         *         *         *

     Foxy watched Inferno drag the body into the first
elevator as he licked one of his wounds.
     "Are you sure you can finish this mission?" asked
Inferno.
     "Yeah, I think I can."  Suddenly Foxy realized that he
hadn't had a drink in a day or so.  "Is there any water in
here?"
     "I saw a bathroom on the bottom floor.  We'll go there
when we get our bearings."
     "Now where?" asked Foxy when Inferno finished.
     "You wanted to go to the top of this building a while
ago, and see where we are," reminded Inferno.  So far, to
him, foxes had an extra-ordinarily short memory span for
certain things, and it ticked him off vaguely.
     "Oh, yeah."  Foxy staggered to the second elevator, and
pressed the button.
     "Are you sure you're okay?" asked Inferno.  Normally he
wouldn't have cared, but he was curious about the fight.
     "Yes, I'll be okay," snapped Foxy, wincing slightly.
"Just leave me alone, I've been hurt worse than this before."
Foxy then passed out onto the floor, just as the elevator
doors hissed open.  Inferno sighed, dragged Foxy's limp body
onto the elevator, and pressed the button for the roof.  The
doors slid shut again, and Inferno felt momentarily queasy as
the elevator started to move.  A few seconds later, the doors
slid open again.
     The room that they were in now was a huge clear plastic
dome perched on top of the apartment building.  They would
have been able to see quite far, if it wasn't dark.  But they
could still see a ways, and Inferno quickly located the
forest.  He dropped Foxy onto the clear plastic floor.
"Alright, that's where we got out of the forest, so we go
there, and then..." He searched for a moment longer.
"There's the place we're going to," he said, pointing at the
military base, and accidentally stubbing his finger on the
plastic.  Then he looked down, and realized how far up he
was.  Foxy came to, moaning softly.  He staggered up onto all
fours, then up on two feet.  Looking straight down, Foxy
yelped, backed up a few steps from the clear walls.  He hated
heights.
     "Okay, let's go then."  Inferno cast a quick glance out
the plastic.  "Hey, look.  It's those skagrans."  The
remainder of the human group was spreading out, looking
around corners and generally moving farther away from the
apartments Foxy and Inferno were in.
     Foxy snorted.  "They couldn't find anything if their
lives depended on it.  Come on, let's go."

               *         *         *         *

     The StarLion once more engaged the human ships.  A few
more capital ships had been wiped out, and a lot of fighters,
mostly human.  They were starting to run low on some of the
heavier bombs, but still had plenty of weaker ones.
     Commander was up again, and calling out orders.  He
noticed a severely damaged human ship start to disengage, and
try to escape.  He called out, "Target that ship, and destroy
it."  Immediately, a salvo of warheads rippled out from the
launchers, and the human ship was soon wracked with
explosions.  It started rolling, and then burst like one of
those human toys called balloons.
     The AFF still had an advantage in numbers, and that
advantage was still slowly increasing.  Finally, all of the
human ships that could started disengaging, while a few
others stayed behind to hold off the AFF.  Most of the human
fighters limped back to their motherships.
     "Signal all ships to launch all remaining bombers to go
after those," said Commander.  Soon, a few squadrons started
launching.  Commander could imagine how those humans would
look.  Soundly beaten, and the bad guys were still launching
more bombers.
     The fresh bombers raced towards the retreating human
ships.  A few human fighters got in the way, but the Eagles
were more agile than the slow human interceptors.  All of the
bombers lived, and launched their heavy bombs and rockets.  A
few human ships went in the first attack, and then the two
different groups were within gun range, although the Eagles
still fired more rockets.
     Meanwhile, the back guard was being demolished by the
AFF ships, which were all ganging up on the few remaining
human ships.  In just a few more minutes, all of the human
ships were space dust.  Just one severely damaged ship
managed to escape.
     It was a successful attack on Shargon.
     But it wasn't over yet.
     As Commander looked out at space where probably a
million humans just died, he noticed a lot of things which
didn't look like chunks of space debris.
     The StarLion was stopped to recover it's fighters, which
enabled Commander to get a good look at the thing as it
floated by.
     It was a lifepod.  With a human in it.
     "Hey, S.C.  Look at this."  S.C. came over from where he
was watching the recover process, and stood next to
Commander.
     "What am I supposed to look at?"
     "See that?  You know what that is?"  Commander pointed
at the little round lifepod.
     "I've never seen one," replied S.C.  He stared at it.
"What is it?"
     "I think it's a human lifepod."
     S.C. looked at it again.  "Hey.  Yeah, you're right.
Think it has a human in it?"  He licked his jaws.
     "Let's find out."  Commander turned to the AFF who
handled the sensors.  "Do a bio-scan for human life."
     The controller looked a little surprised, but did it
anyway.  "Commander, there is a lot of human life readings
out there.  Looks like...  Well, it looks like they are
floating in space."
     "Thank you."  Commander turned to S.C.  "Now what?
Should we take them or kill them right now?"
     S.C. scratched absently at his ear.  "I think we oughta
take them.  It might take awhile, though."
     "Yeah, you're right.  Oh, well, I'm going to get
something to eat.  You handle this whatever way you feel
like, okay?"
     "Sure thing."  S.C. went over to the recovery station
again, and gave a few orders as Commander left for the Deck.

               *         *         *         *

     Foxy and Inferno managed to locate Vix and Tigress
without too much trouble, after they had made a quick stop at
the restroom of the building they had been in.  Now the sinks
were slightly bloody, and the room was a general mess, but at
least Foxy felt better.
     Tigress and Vix were just a few blocks away from the
military base, and hidden in a very handy, and roomy,
electric maintenance shed.  As it was starting to get closer
to daylight, it was an unanimous decision to stay there for
the day.
     It wasn't as bad as it seemed inside.  The shed was
built into the side of one of the skyscrapers, and was about
50 feet wide and 75 feet long.  The sides of the walls were
cluttered with a lot of computer and electric stuff that they
ignored.  Tigress and Inferno took the side near the door,
and Vix and Foxy stayed farther away.
     Vix was unsettled by Foxy's wounds, and she spent a good
deal of time nursing the gashes and bites, Foxy stoically
standing it all.  Inferno watched with some interest.
Finally the wounds were doctored to Vix's satisfaction (and
Foxy's relief).
     Then they settled in to rest up, and awaited for the
night to fall, so they could strike.

               *         *         *         *

     S.C. had opted to capture as many humans as they could,
and then kill the rest by firing lots of electron cannons and
lasers around.  The electrons would fry the life support of
the pods, and the humans would get the slow miserable death
they deserved.
     They spent about ten minutes catching the lifepods, and
then got bored.  S.C. ordered the weapons to fire away.
Actually, they couldn't fire where ever they wanted, but in a
carefully planned out pattern that virtually guaranteed the
pods would die.

               *         *         *         *

     As the sun came closer and closer to rising, Hunter grew
more and more discouraged.  He would have bet that they had
those AFF or whatever they were trapped in the warehouse, but
they had slipped out, killing one of his friends and men.
     Predator suddenly stopped, and plopped down on the
sidewalk.  Hunter looked down at him questioningly.
     "Damn it, we're never gonna find those damn bastards!"
Predator shouted.  "They're gone!  We'll never find them,
even if we did have all of our equipment."
     Hunter laid a hand on Predator's shoulder.  "Look, I
know it seems helpless.  You take the rest of the men, and
hustle down to the White House, and warn them.  You know the
codes.  I'm going to find those freaks."
     Predator got up with a sigh.  "Alright then.  Maybe we
can get some new stuff."  He started off, and gathered the
rest of the team, who had also stopped nearby.
     When they had gone, Hunter started wandering around,
looking all over.  It was now almost 6:30, and he hadn't even
had a clue as to where those things were.
     He knew that if one of the drivers of the few supply
units that traveled around saw him, the driver would probably
either call the local police or just ignore him.  Hunter
hoped for the latter.
     As the sun moved higher into the sky, Hunter grew more
and more tired.  Around ten, four hours of fruitless
searching, he stopped to eat one of his NutraBars, which was
the official name of the military rations now.  The things
still tasted like all of any soldier's food that had ever
been invented, like the K-Rations in the 1900's, the 1950+
Navy's bug juice, or even that dried stuff sailors had on
those long journey's back in 1490...
     Suddenly Hunter realized that by now, Predator must have
gotten to the White House by now, and gotten some word.  He
wondered what was taking them so long.

               *         *         *         *

     Foxy and Vix were curled up together in the far corner
(the electric room had a very effective air conditioner that
refused to turn off, and it even cut through their warm fur),
and Inferno and Tigress were snuggled up together in the
opposite corner.  It was strange to see two tigers so close
at any time, even when it was their mating season.  They were
solitary animals.  It didn't make much sense to Foxy, but he
didn't care, either.
     The time was somewhere around 7:00, when the AFF, who
were light sleepers, was awakened by a lot of footsteps
outside their door, marching by.  When the steps had passed,
Inferno quietly opened the door.
     Outside was a group of five humans, the ones that were
hunting them the night before.  Inferno motioned to Tigress
to come out.  He slipped out the doorway silently, and
Tigress followed.  Vix went to the door, but didn't go out,
just watched.  Foxy just went back to sleep.
     Tigress rushed up, and smashed two of the human's heads
together.  Inferno was right beside her, slitting one man's
throat, and going for the other.  The first one turned at the
crunching noise of the two heads being compressed into one,
and just managed to get his gun up and leveled at Inferno as
Inferno grabbed the second man's neck.
     "Inferno, don't kill him," snapped Vix in Traditional.
"The other human won't shoot as long as he's alive!"
     Inferno barely stopped from ripping the man's throat
open, and instead snarled at the other human.
     "Let him go," ordered the human with the gun.
     Inferno snarled back again.  Vix slipped out of the door
and trotted up to beside Inferno.
     Suddenly, the human's brain kicked in.  "Good Lord, what
kind of freaks are you?"  He squinted down the gun barrel.
"You those AFF things?"
     "Put down your gun, and we'll let go of your friend,"
said Vix.
     "Screw you!  You'll just kill me then."  The human's
finger tightened on the trigger.
     "Shoot me," croaked the human that Inferno was holding,
with his big claws pressed on his throat already.
     "What?"
     "Shoot me, damn it!"  Both of them were thinking the
same thing: take the hostage out of the equation.  Besides,
it worked in the movies.
     The free human shifted his aim, and shot his comrade in
the leg.  He screamed, but Inferno didn't let go.  "Shoot him
again," suggested Vix happily.
     The human pointed his gun at Vix.  "How about if I shoot
you?"
     "Go ahead, make my day.  I've been hunted before, and
faced death before, I'm not worried."  Vix showed her teeth.
She didn't mention that if she died, there went the mission.
     "You kill her, you have a dead man here," said Inferno.
"I can slit his throat faster than you pull trigger."
     "No way."  The human pulled the trigger just a fraction
of a fraction of a millimeter.
     "Yes."  Abruptly, the human Inferno had was on the
ground, spurting blood.  The human hesitated for a split
second, shocked by the sight, and in that second, Tigress was
on him, slashing away madly.  In a few seconds, it was all
over.
     As for Hunter, he finally got fed up with the waiting,
and started off for the White House himself.

               *         *         *         *

     The StarLion and the other ships it had raided the
Shargon sector with were all getting a little low on warheads
and a few ships were damaged.  There didn't seem to be any
more humans left, or coming anytime soon, so the battle group
departed.  In a few days, some miner ships would come to
gather up some metal from the planet.  Then the AFF would
have enough resources to re-build the ships that they just
lost, and more.
     As Commander lay watching the hyperspace patterns
outside the viewports, he suddenly remembered that human
pilot that they had captured.  As far as he knew, no one had
even been down to that room the human was in.  He turned to
S.C., who was having an argument with one of the other lions.
In an another moment, they would be at each other's throats,
if Commander hadn't intervened.
     "S.C., have someone go give that human we caught some
food and water."
     "What human?" growled S.C. angrily.  "Oh, yeah, sure.
Hold on a minute, I'm going down there anyways."  S.C. looked
back at the other lion.  "We'll finish this later."
     As soon as S.C. had left, Commander decided to take a
nap.

               *         *         *         *

     The three AFF that had attacked the human squad came
back into the electrical maintenance room feeling good, and
dragging the dead bodies after them.  Foxy was disturbed out
of a good dream and growled softly at them.  Once they were
in, they settled down again to wait for darkness.
     About half an hour later, there was a lot of commotion
outside their door, so much that they did not dare look out.
Vix said that it was just the human pups going to school,
since it was too easy to cheat if they just linked in through
the CompNet.
     After a long tedious wait, night finally came.  The AFF
slipped out the door, and stalked off through the night,
heading towards the military base.

               *         *         *         *

     Jared was sitting in the miserable room that he had been
locked in for a long time.  He was very hungry and thirsty.
And he wanted to take a shower.  Each passing minute seemed
like an eternity, as much like the last one and the one
before that and the one before that.  He guessed that he had
pissed off those AFF thingies pretty good.
     Nothing had happened for a long time when Jared heard
some muffled sounds that he couldn't quite place.  After a
while they stopped.
     After another while, Jared thought he felt something was
happening.  He stood up, joints popping and creaking, and
stumbled over to the door, and listened.  He heard a couple
of other people yelling and cursing, and some growls.  Had
the things that caught him captured more people?
     His door opened, causing Jared to take a step back.
Light flooded in, hurting Jared's eyes, and giving him a
headache.
     A lion was standing in the doorway.  "Come human."  The
lion's voice projected contempt.  Jared just stood there,
slightly stunned from hearing something.  "Come, human," the
lion said again, this time with a definite menacing
undertone.  Jared unsteadily walked forward towards the lion,
and stopped at the door.
     The lion turned and strode down the halls a bit, and
opened a door.  "In here," he said.  Jared tottered out into
the halls, holding his hand up to shield his eyes from the
bright lights.  When he was next to the lion, the lion shoved
him into the cell, and shut the door.
     Jared sat up, rubbing his newly acquired bruises.  As he
listened, he heard more people yelling and things like that.
He wondered what was going on.  After a while, the noises
died out.
     He studied his cell in a moment.  All it was was a small
room with grass on the ground, and small lights in the roof.
There were no beds or anything like that.  He noticed a small
sliding panel in the door, but didn't know what to make of
it.
     A few minutes after that, the small panel in the door
opened, and a tray of food was pushed in.  Jared fell on it
ravenously, ignoring how it tasted.  He noticed that the meat
wasn't cooked all the way, and the lettuce or whatever
vegetable tasted funny, but he didn't care.  A small
container with a lid on it turned out to be holding water,
and Jared slurped it down.
     As he finished his meal, he sat back with a sigh.  Now
if he could only figure out how to either get out, or at
least talk to the other people.

               *         *         *         *

     The lions and lionesses that were handling the job of
taking the newly captured humans from the life pods to the
prision cells finished their jobs with the task of feeding
the humans, something most of the animal hybrids thought
unnecessary.  But they did anyways, putting the trays into
the doors.  Each tray had a chunk of meat (only slightly
cooked), and some plant matter like leaves and grasses, and a
few berries.  Actually, since practically all of the
StarLion's inhabitants were meat eaters, they had not much of
an idea of what the humans might like or get poisoned by.  Oh
well.  All of them were going to get killed sooner or later,
and maybe being poisoned would be less painful than the
deaths that the humans might face on The Planet were.

               *         *         *         *

     Hunter had stopped to rest soon after he decided to
start for the White House.  He was dead tired, and just
slumped down against one of the buildings, and went to sleep.
     When he woke, it was dark.  As his head cleared, he got
up, stretched, and yawned.  As he looked around, he realized
he needed to go to the bathroom.
     He found a restaurant, and walked in.  A service droid
powered up as he walked in, and said, "Hello sir.  What may I
get for you?"
     Hunter said, "Nothing, I just need to use the bathroom."
He walked towards the back of the restaurant.
     "Sorry, sir, you need to buy something to use the
facilities."
     "Okay, but first I need to go to the bathroom.  Get me a
soda."
     Hunter opened the door, and went in to relieve himself.
When he came back, the droid had a large soda ready.  Hunter
chugged it in one gulp, and paid for it.  Refreshed, he went
out.
     As he was walking along, he noticed a few shadows
moving.  At least he thought he did.  He stared into the
darkness, but they didn't come back.  Hunter shrugged, and
continued on.
     As he continued on his way, suddenly he felt the hair on
the back of his neck prickle.  He slowed, and yanked out his
gun.
     There!  Hunter saw four things crossing the street,
silhouetted by a light.  All four had tails...  He realized
these were those same things he was trailing last night.  He
ground his teeth.  One of the forms looked back towards him,
and Hunter shrank back into the shadows.  The form gave it up
and continued.  Hunter stole out, and followed them.  He felt
curious.  Where these things actually going for the White
House?  He never really believed that, but they were heading
in that direction.
     Keeping his gun pointed at the AFF, he followed as fast
as he could.  But those things Hunter was following moved
very fast, and he had to hustle.  He was afraid that the AFF
would hear his boots, but they didn't stop and come looking
for him.

               *         *         *         *

     "Inferno, we have company."
     Foxy and Vix were feeling uneasy, and Foxy had heard or
smelled something, a human.
     "What?  How many?"  Inferno kept on going.
     "There's a human following us; just one," whispered Vix.
     "And he has a gun; I heard him getting it," added Foxy.
He hurried up next to Inferno.  "Now what do we do?"
     Inferno didn't falter.  "Keep going.  I'll bet he
follows us, but tell me if he gets ready to shoot.  I'll see
if we can sneak up one him."
     "I'm not a psychic, but I'll try."
     "Good boy."  Inferno patted Foxy's head with his paw,
which Foxy snapped at.  Being petted made him feel like a
dog, which he hated.  "Come on." Inferno picked up the pace a
little more but kept on towards the military base.
     When they were just a few blocks away from the base,
Inferno turned up a street and jogged around the block at a
pace which a human would be hard pressed to keep up with.
When they were back on the way they had been going, Inferno
was disappointed to see that the human wasn't there.
     "Darn.  I was kinda hoping to sneak up behind him."
     They headed for the base at full speed, but silently.
At the entrance, there was a metal booth with car stoppers in
the road.  There was a sturdy, but not very intelligent,
guard droid at the booth.  As the AFF drew near, Vix slowed
them.  "We have to go in the gate, and then over there," she
said.  "But how do we get past the machine?"
     "Leave that to me," said Inferno, Tigress, and Foxy all
at once.  The two tigers glared at Foxy.
     "Sorry," he said, drooping his ears and tail slightly.
"I just know how to disable those things.  Go ahead."
     "Thank you."  Inferno and Tigress both strode up to the
droid.
     "Need identification, please," it whirred loudly.
Inferno swung at it.  His heavy blow left a dent in the side
of the droid's head, and nearly knocked it off.  But the
droid wasn't so easily put off.  It emitted two strong
shocks, then extended a gripping arm.  The arm grasped
Inferno's and locked firmly around it.
     "You are violating section 14.435 of federal law," the
droid said.  "Please calm down or I will have to use harmful
force."
     But the designers of the droid hadn't anticipated a
tiger being caught in the droid's grasp.  Inferno snarled,
and yanked as hard as he could.  The arm simply came off the
droid, trailing wires and sparks.
     "Ooo!  Blurplieaiedfaghfffblorrrrrrrrrrrrrrp!"  The
droid turned itself off as Tigress removed the droid's head
with a few solid swipes of her paws and claws.
     "See?  I told ya I could do it"  Foxy and Vix came up to
Inferno and Tigress.
     "You could have just hit the off button, you know."
Foxy nudged a red button on the side of the droid.  "That
would have worked well."
     "Boring way, though."  Inferno was trying valiantly to
pry the droid's hand from his arm, where it was still locked.
     "Let me look at that," sighed Foxy.  He took out a pick
as Inferno put out his arm.  "Just as I thought.  See, here's
the lock.  The hand can be used as a handcuff."  Foxy had the
lock open in a few seconds.  "There ya go."
     Inferno shook off the arm with obvious distaste of the
droid.  "Where's that human?" he asked suddenly.

               *         *         *         *

     Hunter was lost again, following the AFF around the
building corner, when they disappeared.  Looking around,
stumped, Hunter then heard a loud metallic crunch and a
droid's voice, and some snarls.  Apparently the AFF had
gotten into trouble with a droid, but where?
     The military base?  That had a droid, and would be a
good place to go if you wanted to invade Earth.  That place
had all of the weapons designs...
     Hunter started running towards that place as fast as he
could.  He knew that the base didn't have many guards, as
there was no one to take the plans; all nations were at
peace.  And there were no criminals or punks on the streets,
thanks to the very tough crime laws.
     The first thing Hunter saw when he came skidding around
the corner was the `dead' droid.  Making sure that he had the
gun loaded, Hunter slowly advanced into the base.
     Abruptly, an MP walked out of the shadows.  "What are
you doing, sir?"  The MP asked.  He saw Hunter's big gun, and
slowly felt for his own.
     "Listen.  I'm part of a special ops team.  We're
tracking down a group of...things.  They're on the base."
     The MP looked doubtful.  "Yes, sir.  Will you please
hand over the gun?"
     Hunter gave a wan smile.  "Sorry, I need it.  Now, will
you go please get some more troops?  My target is inside of
this base."
     "Sir, they can't get in.  The fence is heavily armored,
and that's a top of the line guard droid out there.  We have
several more around."
     Hunter shook his head.  "How the hell do you think I got
past that droid?  It's scrap metal right now."  He turned,
and pointed towards the booth.  "If you look, you can see
it."
     The MP looked, and saw the pile and pieces of the droid
on the ground.  "Good Lord!  That thing had an inch of
explosive-proof armor on it!"
     "I know.  See what I'm after?  Now, go get some troops!"
said Hunter impatiently.
     The MP hit the holo-link button on his lapel.  "This is
Captain Smith Darren.  Get me some men a the front gate, now.
I think we have intruders on the base.  They dismantled the
droid.  Yeah.  Get a few Battle Armors out here, too."
     A voice replied, and Darren nodded.  "Five minutes?
Very well."  He turned the holo-link off.
     "They'll be here in five minutes, and a couple of armor
suits are coming too."  As the captain spoke, very bright
sets of lights started activating all around.  A group of
soliders appeared, flanked by four Battle Armor on each side,
and started heading for the main gate, where Hunter and the
MP were.  (Battle Armor is an armored mechanical suit, a
smaller version of the huge Battle Mechs or STs used in main
battles).
     "We just got a new anti-intruder system installed," said
the MP.  "This is the first time it's ever been tested."
     The soldiers came up to them.
     "What's going on, sir?" asked one of the Battle Armor.
     Hunter said, "I'm part of a special-op group, tracking
down a group of things.  They're inside your base right now.
I can't tell you much more.  Oh, yeah.  Try to keep them
alive."
     "That's easy enough.  All we have right now are stun
guns and a few tranquilizer darts," replied the Battle Armor.
"Now, where are these... things?"
     "I'm not sure," admitted Hunter.  "All I heard was your
droid, then when I got here, there it was, and nothing else."
     "All right then, we'll have to do a full base search."
The Battle Armor turned to one of the other ones.  "You take
ten men, and search the buildings.  Darren, you go and get
the rest of the base up.  The rest of ya, come with me.  You
too, sir," the pilot said, once again talking to Hunter.  The
soliders immediately followed orders.

               *         *         *         *
     The AFF were hunched in a group of bushes, trying to
figure out where the download place was.  Just when they had
it figured out, the lights were activated.  The AFF were all
concealed to the naked eye for the moment, but those lights
meant they had been discovered.
     "Oh, boy," muttered Foxy.  "There's where the hole to
the download place is supposed to be."  He motioned to a
large building surrounded by a fence topped with razor wire
and with a few guards standing around it.
     "So where is the place?" asked Tigress.
     "Under there," replied Vix.  "Come on, it can't be all
that hard."
     "Wanna bet on that?" asked Foxy.
     "Sure, what do you want?"
     "How about..."  Foxy thought for a moment.  "How about a
free couple of meals once we get back to the StarLion?"
     "You're on."  Vix shifted her backpack to a more
comfortable position.  "Okay, now follow me."
     She crept forward, sticking to any shadows available.
But they only got ten feet before they ran out of shadow for
about a hundred yards.
     "Make a run for the building.  Inferno, Tigress...  You
two take out the guards, Foxy, you come with me.  We're gonna
unlock the doors, and get in."
     "Yeah."  Foxy flicked one of his ears.
     "Go ahead, you two."
     Inferno and Tigress dashed across the short grass and
pathways until they got to the fencing around the building,
miraculously without anyone seeing them.  Inferno paused for
a moment looking at the razor wire as if he wanted to go over
the fence that way, but then went on.  As soon as they went
around the corner to where the guards were stationed at the
front, Foxy and Vix took off.
     It was a ten second run, and they got to the fence just
as two Battle Armor came plodding along.  The two foxes
froze, as they were in a lit area.  One of the Battle Armor
stopped, and turned towards them.
     "Look!  There's something!"  The Battle Armor lumbered
toward the two AFF, who were rooted to the spot with fear.
The second one stayed back, covering the first.  A number of
guns folded out from the first Battle Armor's arms and chest.
     "What are you two doing here?" questioned the Battle
Armor.
     Foxy realized that the operators of the ten feet tall
machines were probably scanning the area in infra-red, so
they were having trouble locking down what they were,
especially with a bright flood-light right behind them.  "We
are," Foxy started, then realized that he didn't know quite
enough English to make the sentence sound proper.  He sort of
squeaked a noise that was above the range of human hearing,
but low enough for them to catch.  He only hoped that the
Battle Armor didn't have audio enhancement.
     "We are making sure that this building is secure,"
stated Vix in a professional human voice.  "With the alert,
we were ordered to inspect this one."
     The Battle Armor stood for a moment, as if considering
what Vix just said.  "Unacceptable response.  There were no
orders given to do that."
     Foxy glared at Vix.  She shrugged back fractionally,
then nodded towards the Battle Armor.
     "You are not allowed on this base without the proper
I.D.  As you do not have it, or proper orders, you are hereby
placed under arrest," droned on the mechanical voice of the
Battle Armor's operator.
     Suddenly Foxy leapt forward, and grabbed onto the leg of
the Battle Armor.  The Battle Armor was caught by surprise,
and it lacked any weapons that dealt with something that
small, so close.  So all the pilot of the Battle Armor could
do was flail it's arms and jerk around the body to throw off
the little thing.  The second Battle Armor held it's fire as
it might hit his friend.  Also, Foxy took care to stay on the
side opposite the second Battle Armor.  Now, if he could only
figure out what to do.
     He climbed up to the cockpit, but it was sealed from the
inside, and there was no way he could break the bullet-proof
plastic.
     As Foxy clung to the Battle Armor, frantically wondering
what to do, the pilot made a very stupid mistake.  The smooth
canopy swung open, and the person inside started to climb
out, his gun in his hand.  He turned to Foxy, bringing his
gun up.  "Alright, you damn thing, you're history."
     It was not to be.  Vix had already started climbing the
Battle Armor, and she was right below where the human had
leaned out of the cockpit.  She lunged up, snapping at the
human's throat, but was blocked by his big arm.  Then Foxy
joined the melee, and in a moment, they had fallen off the
Battle Armor.  The two AFF were on top of the human, who got
the wind knocked out of him from the fall.  The two foxes had
no problem finishing him.
     "Hold it right there," commanded a loud voice.  The
second Battle Armor was aiming it's own guns at the two AFF.
Foxy gave a half hearted snarl at it, and the Battle Armor
responded with a warning shot that dug a half foot deep hole
in the ground before Foxy.
     Suddenly Vix went like a flash for the de-occupied
Battle Armor while the second one was aiming a Foxy.  It
turned to track Vix, and Foxy took off after Vix, a bit
slower because of his wounds, but still quite fast.  The
person inside of the second one must have gotten confused,
for as soon as he saw Foxy go, he turned back towards him,
but missed both of them.
     As soon as Foxy was in, Vix shut the cockpit window.
"Alright, how does this thing go?" asked Foxy.
     "I have no idea."
     The layout of the Battle Armor was simple enough.  There
were two joysticks in front of them.  One was labeled
`WEAPONS', and the other `MOVEMENT'.  There were a lot of
various other shiny buttons on the console in front of them,
and a few levers.
     As the two AFF sat pondering, a full platoon of soldiers
came up behind the captured Battle Armor, and the pilot of
the second one contacted them on the holo-link.  As his image
focused, he said, "Get out of the machine, or we will fire."
"How to reply, how to reply?"  Foxy studied the buttons
quickly.  "Here it is."  He snarled into it, and gave the
human a quick study in most of the Traditional challenge
words and cut-downs.
     "Gimme the controls, Vix, I think I can do this."  Foxy
grabbed both joysticks at once.  He pushed the movement one
forward, and the Battle Armor took a few steps forward.  The
weapons one moved a crosshairs projected on the HUD on the
cockpit around.  Foxy centered it on the other Battle Armor,
and pulled the trigger.  As there were several other red
buttons by his other fingers, he pushed those too.
     The result was awesome.  Foxy and Vix's Battle Armor
seemed to explode with firepower.  They could only barely
hear it through the seals on their Battle Armor, but there
was a lot of things launching and detonating at once.
     "Whoa."  Foxy spun the Battle Armor around, and faced
the human soldiers, who were starting to fire at them.
However, the Battle Armor's armor was strong enough to
withstand the kind of machine guns and RPGs the soldiers had.
Foxy quickly mowed down a few before they began to scatter.
     "Hey, this is fun."  Foxy turned the Battle Armor to
another fleeing human, and pulled the trigger.
     "Let me try!"  Vix shoved Foxy out of the gunner's seat,
causing the Battle Armor to tilt precariously before the
servo-motors kicked in and righted the Battle Armor.
     Vix made the machine take a few jerky steps and fired
the guns at anything that moved before she got the hang of
it.  Quickly pivoting to where a stream of bullets were
pinging off the armor of the Battle Armor, she let loose a
barrage of missiles that would have destroyed a tank.  As the
missiles impacted, scraps of meat flew.
     Turning the Battle Armor around again, she saw Inferno
and Tigress gawking at the renegade Battle Armor.  "Here,
take over."  Vix scooted out of the gunner's chair, and
opened the cockpit.
     "Hey, it's us," she called to Inferno and Tigress.  "Did
you take care of the human guards?"
     "Yeesss," Inferno said slowly.  "How did you get that
thing?"
     Foxy moved the Battle Armor closer to the two tigers,
nearly making Vix fall out.  She gave Foxy a glare, before
turning back to the tigers.  "We killed the human inside, and
we caught it.  Come on, we have to go get the data."
     She slid out of the Battle Armor, followed by Foxy.  He
cast one quick glance at the Battle Armor.  The guns were
smoking, and in fact, some of them were glowing slightly red
from the heat.  There were a lot of little pock marks from
the human's bullets, but otherwise it was still okay.
     "Wow," he murmured softly, then took off after the
others.

               *         *         *         *

     Hunter jumped for cover as the BattleArmor went beserk,
firing seemingly at random.  Loud machine gun fire and the
roar of rockets nearly deafened him.  He heard explosions and
screams, before it was all finally quiet.  Crouching beside
Hunter, pistol drawn, was Captain Darren.
     "I thought you said you only had stun guns and
tranquilizers!" said Hunter.
     "So did I," remarked Darren, peering through the bushes.
"Come on, we need to get re-inforcements.  With heavier
weapons."  He got up, and ran towards a large concrete
building about 500 yards away.  Hunter cast one last glance
at the wildly gyrating BattleArmor before he followed Darren.

               *         *         *         *


     Inside the building (which was opened up courtesy of
Foxy) was desk, and a thick metal door.  Ignoring the desk,
the AFF started work on the door.  It put up a strong
resistance, but it finally opened, and the AFF went through,
locking the door behind them.
     There was a long hallway with doors spaced about twenty
feet apart from each other in front of them.
     "So where exactly is this computer?" asked Tigress.
     "Uhm..."  Vix took a few steps down the hall.  "I don't
really know, to tell the truth."
     "Oh."  Inferno and Tigress took a deep breath and shook
their heads.
     "Foxy, you start opening the doors; I'll see if they say
in here."  Vix took out the little laptop computer she was
lugging around, and powered it up.  Foxy sighed, and took out
a pick, and started to work on the first door.
     He had barely began his task, when he recoiled violently
from the door.  He slammed into the door opposite of the one
he was opening, and crumpled to the floor.  He sat up again
in a second however.
     "What happened?" asked Vix, looking up momentarily from
the computer screen.
     "Intruder resistant locks," replied Foxy.  "Ahh, that
hurt," he hissed, trying to block out some of the remaining
pain.
     "Can you still open the doors?" asked Inferno.
     "Maybe."  Foxy stood up weakly.  "I shouldn't have came
on this mission, you know.  Attacked by a dog, got lost, got
zapped by a lock..."
     "Here it is!" announced Vix.  "Room WB-371."  She shut
down the computer, and jumped up.  "Okay, where is it?"  Each
door had a label on it, and it didn't take her long to find
the door.  "This is it.  Come on, think you can open it?"
     "No."  Foxy picked up the charred remains of the pick he
had used on the other door.  "See?  Look at it.  That was my
most versatile one!  Now I'll have to steal a new set or
something."
     "Come on," said Tigress.  "Just open the door and stop
whining."
     "Yeah," growled Inferno, "Or you won't live long enough
to get a replacement."
     "Hmmph.  Fine then, I will."  Foxy took out a new pick.
"But how am I supposed to open this thing?"
     "You're the lock expert, you do it."
     Foxy turned back to the door.  "Well, I can't pick the
lock..."  He studied the door closer.  Seeing nothing, he
examined the little computer control of the lock on the wall.
He carefully pried open the cover when it didn't prove
useful, and studied the wires underneath.  He cautiously
rifled through the wires, and located the proper one.  Now,
he opened up his hand, and took out one of the power cells.
It went dead, but Foxy managed to snap everything together,
and in a short moment, the door slid open.
     "Ha!  I'm a genius!"  Foxy quickly stuffed the power
cell back in it's proper place, and went in the door.  Vix
followed next, and then Inferno and Tigress, who were eating
some food that they had found in their backpacks.  Inferno
mumbled, "I wouldn't bet on that, Foxy," to Tigress.
     As soon as they entered, the motion-activated lights
went on, and the door slid shut behind them.  The room was
filled with racks and racks of guns of some sort.
     "Where is it?" asked Inferno, gazing around.
     Vix took out the computer again, and turned it on again.
Quickly locating where they were, she turned up the detail
level, and said, "Between the third and fourth racks, about
halfway down."
     As the AFF started looking in that aisle, they heard a
muffled explosion.
     "What was that?"
     "It was that door out there," replied Foxy.  "I jammed
the lock in it, and they had to blow it up to get through.
We had better hurry."

               *         *         *         *

     Outside, the humans had indeed found the thick door
jammed shut.  They didn't have any laser cutters handy, so
they did the next best thing: call in the remaining two
Battle Armors, and have them blow the door down.  It took a
few missiles, but it went down.
     The twisted and charred remains of the door could not be
passed by the Battle Armors, so the soldiers were on their
own.  They went in, guns at the ready.  It didn't take them
long to find the door that Foxy had messed with, and the one
he had opened (Foxy had forgotten to put the cover back in
place, and had taken it with him).  But now the controls for
the door was missing, and the soldiers couldn't open it.
     "Now what?" growled one of the soldiers.
     "This."  Another one took out a small plasma detonator.
"Everyone out, these make big explosions."
     "Wait, that'll start up every other single weapon in
here," yelled another soldier.
     "Oh.  Yeah.  Then what?"
     The first soldier pounded on the door.  "Open up in
there!" he yelled.  No response.  "It was worth a try," he
shrugged.  "Go get some laser cutters, we'll open the door
that way.  They can't go anywhere if they're in there."

               *         *         *         *

     As Inferno and Tigress were trying to pry up the
carefully concealed trap door, the humans were pounding on
the door.  But it was thick, and didn't even shake.
     "Say, how do we get out of here?" asked Foxy suddenly.
     "I dunno," replied Vix.  "How do you think?"
     "Uhm..."
     The trap door creaked open then.  "There it goes!  Okay,
let's get the stuff and get out of here," called Inferno.
     "How do we get out though?" asked Foxy.
     "Worry about that later," scolded Inferno.  "Let's just
get the information first."
     The AFF slid down the hole that the trap door revealed,
closing it behind them.  It was next to impossible to wedge
it in perfectly, but they managed to make it pretty close.
     As was to be expected, it was pitch black down there.
But there was a quiet humming of a computer working.
     Vix located her laptop and turned it on.  The faint
light from the screen was sufficent for the AFF to see that
they were in a small compartment, with a door on one side.
They went through, and entered the computer room.  The huge
computer occupied a side of the stuffy room.  But the floor
was a smooth tile, and the room was nearly dust free.  Vix
used the screen to locate a light switch, and she flicked it
on.  A bright light, the kind that are tube shaped came on.
     With the added light, the AFF saw a tunnel opposite the
computer.  Scratched above it were some claw marks, and the
word, "EXIT".
     "There's your exit Foxy," said Vix, and then she went to
the big computer.  She quickly hooked up her computer, then
started the download.
     "It'll take about ten minutes to transfer all of the
information, and then we are out of here."
     Foxy was nosing his way into the tunnel.  "Have fun, I'm
going to check out our exit."  He disappeared in the murky
tunnel, which was not lit.  The others settled down to wait.

               *         *         *         *

     The StarLion and the rest of the AFF fleet that had gone
to Shargon tore their way out of hyperspace in a nice high
orbit around The Planet.  Soon, numerous supply shuttles came
and docked with the returning ships, re-arming and repairing.
After that part was done, a group of lions and a few other
AFF were sent to bring the humans that they had captured to
the hangars for transport to The Planet's surface.
     Most of the pathetic humans submitted easily to the
lions.  As the large group was taken through the StarLion's
corridors, passing AFF jeered at them, or faked an attack, or
bared their teeth at the humans.
     Once the group was herded to the hangars, they were
loaded into transports, and taken down to The Planet's
surface, just like the previous bunch had.
     Once the humans were gone, and the damage repaired, the
fleet broke up again.  The StarLion set a course for Earth.

               *         *         *         *

      Foxy returned when the download indicator said 90%.
Throwing a casual glance at it, he said, "The tunnel leads
out all right, but we have to go around the whole entire base
to get back to the forest."
     "So?  As long as it leads back.  I'm tired of this
place," said Tigress.
     "Yeah, I know."  Foxy yawned.  "It won't hurt to take a
nap, too."  Then they heard something alarming: the patter of
boots on the floor above them.
     "Uh-oh."  Inferno looked up at the ceiling.  "I think
the humans have gotten through the door."

               *         *         *         *

     Above them, the soldiers had indeed managed to laser
through the door.  They burst in the big room, and looked
around.  There was nothing out of the ordinary in sight.
     They slowly started spreading out, searching the place.
They were thoroughly puzzled until one young lieutenant
noticed the ajar trapdoor.
     "Hey, look at that!"  He ran over to the door, and
started to try and lift it.  Some of the others helped him
lift the heavy door.
     They managed to lift it in a few moments, and they
peered in.  It was dim, but not totally dark.  "Get out your
IRs, everyone," someone ordered, and they all slapped on
their infrared goggles.
     The first soldier slipped down into the dark room just
as a soft sort of bark or a yelp or some similar noise was
heard.

               *         *         *         *

     "Is it done?" hissed Foxy.
     "Yeah, go, get out of here!" snarled back Vix, as she
struggled to put the laptop into her backpack.
     Inferno and Tigress took off for the tunnel, and never
looked back until they were near the end.
     Foxy remained next to Vix, trying to help her, painfully
aware of the trap door being opened.
     "What are you doing?  Get going!" said Vix, almost mad
with fear and anger.
     "I have to protect you.  That's what mates do, right?
Come on, hurry up."
     Vix looked at Foxy for one baffled moment, then managed
to stuff in the laptop and close the backpack.
     A loud slap echoed through the chamber as the first
human soldier landed on the hard ground.
     The two foxes hesitated one moment, then dashed for the
tunnel, runnning for their lives, Foxy staying closer to the
humans, shielding Vix.
     They were four steps away from the tunnel when Foxy
heard a ffppt! and felt a lance of pain shoot through his
upper leg.  He fell forward.
     Vix made it to the tunnel, then looked back for a moment
at Foxy.  She almost started to head back for him, when Foxy
croaked, "Go!  I'll hold them!" before turning back towards
the humans.
     Vix's last view of Foxy was of him staring pathetically.
after her for a moment, then he turned towards the humans.
Then she was gone down the tunnel.

               *         *         *         *

     Foxy dragged himself to the tunnel entrance, then pulled
himself upright, staring after Vix.  When she disappeared, he
looked down at his leg.  A small dart was sticking out of his
thigh, and he pulled it out.  The humans then started coming
into the room, and came towards Foxy, guns at the ready.
Others went towards the computer.  Someone found the light
switch, and turned it on.
     The ones headed for Foxy stopped next to him, looking
down and wondering what to do with him.  One human started
giving orders.
     "He'll be out in a minute.  When he goes out, bring him
up."
     The human knelt down next to Foxy, who was struggling
not to go out.  But it looked like he was losing.
     As Foxy seemed to fall asleep, Hunter knelt down next to
him.  He remembered seeing these creatures from that one
scientist's experiments ten-or was it more?-years ago.
     On a impulse, he reached tentatively out to touch the
animal's fur.  He gently ran his fingers through the slightly
rough fur, noting how the creature had some wounds on him.
     To Foxy, the light touch felt like electricity on him.
He hated being touched or petted, and that revived him
slightly.  Opening one eye slightly, he saw that the human
petting him only wore body armor.  It didn't cover his neck.
Foxy knew that his long, sharp, white teeth in his narrow,
strong jaws could easily rip through unprotected human skin.
He lashed out and lunged for the human's throat, fully
intending to feel his teeth crunching through the neck.  But
he was slowed enough so that the human had time to put his
arm up in an instinctive block.
     Even though Hunter was wearing a few centimeters of
soft armor on his arm, Foxy managed to rip his way through.
Foxy grounnd down as hard as he could, and before the numbess
finally took over, he had tasted human blood.
     Hunter watched as the tranquilizers finally took hold of
the creature.  He turned to Captain Darren, who was crouching
down next to him.  "I wish you'd get your weapons right," he
said.
               *         *         *         *

     Vix caught up to Tigress and Inferno finally after a
long run in the dark tunnel, having ran into unseen walls on
the way.  She stopped next to them, and stood there, panting
heavily and with her heart beating furiously.
     "Where's Foxy?" asked Inferno in a slightly concerned
tone of voice.
     "He got shot by the humans back in the room," gasped
Vix.  "He told me to leave him, and get out of here as fast
as we could."
     Inferno nodded.  "Makes sense to me.  Let's go."
     They slipped out of the end of the tunnel, which was a
small concrete tube.  It led to a concrete chamber, with a
manhole cover at the top.  They climbed out of the sewer, and
onto the streets.  It was still dark, and they were out of
the military base's boundaries.  Moving very quietly, they
started creeping back to the forest.
     They were still walking when dawn broke, and they didn't
have somewhere to hide and rest.  They started going faster,
searching for a place to stay.  In a while, they located the
same electric room they had stayed in eariler.  Was it this
night that they had been in it?  It seemed so long ago.
     Relieved, the AFF opened up the door once again, and
settled in to sleep.

               *         *         *         *