From the Shadows

Memento Mori

"Do you know what this is, Drew?" Gray asked me.

"I think I have a clear answer."

"This is the biggest airship in the entire UPS airfleet. The flagship of the UPS. Well, they can go to hell, because it's ours now"

As the two of us walked into the command room, I could see various Furs operating the controls, and talking to one another. The flag of the UPS on the wall was replaced with the one of the AFC. Gray walked over to the control panel as I stood besides him, looking out at the blue sky.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Now, we wait. The whole purpose of this wasn't only to take The Elysium, but to anger the UPS even more. Maybe this will motivate Raeal to start a war." Gray replied, crossing his arms.

"I don't know, maybe it will."

From the corner of my eye I could see Mia walk into the command room. She stood behind me for a second as I turned around.

"Hey, Mia." I said

"Hey, Drew. Can you come with me for a second?"

From the dining room, Fang sat down at one of the tables as he could hear muffled bangs and moans coming from the kitchen. Fang groaned upon hearing this, and Gray walked in and heard it as well.

"Christ, they still at it?" Gray asked.

"Yep. Drew wanted to go for a second round. They've been going at it for 30 minutes." Fang replied as Gray walked to the kitchen door and pounded it various times.

"Hurry up with the cooking in there! We have shit to do!"

—--------------------------

"Lord Raeal, I'm certain you will be impressed with the prototype of the Uber. Here I will show you the jet that will will drop the bomb over Great Anthropolis" The lieutenant said to me as we arrived at a large gray jet.

Two engines on both of it's wings, and being as thin as a sheet of paper. This jet was war ready.

"With this, Operation Pridefall can commence. Has the Air General been informed?" I asked

"He has, Lord Raeal. We're scheduled to drop the bomb on June 1'st. Unless you wish to change the date."

"No, June 1'st is fine. It'll mark words into the minds of every Fur in the UPS. June, is a month of fear, not happiness. They won't see this coming."

"Indeed, Lord Raeal."

—--------------------------

I walked down the halls of the Elysium with a skip in my step and a smile on my face. I continued until I arrived at the War Room of The Elysium. It was bigger than the one in the cave, and there I could see Gray standing by a map of the world, with red and gray patches on certain areas of the world.

"Hey, Gray. You alright?" I asked, adjusting my pants.

"Yeah, I'm fine. You have fun with Mia, eh?" He asked

"Heh, yeah. You can already guess what."

"We already knew ever since you came to the cave. I could tell something was going on between you two. I just didn't know what. Now I know."

I didn't reply as I looked at the map with Gray.

"Map's changed." I spoke.

"All the red is what is controlled by the UFN and the UPS. All the black is ours."

"We've already got most of Australia, and some parts of Africa."

"But there's still so much left. We still have a lot to do. It won't end easily. We all know that."

I crossed my arms as I continued to look down at the map, then back to Gray.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask you something." I said.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Why are we here?" I replied with a sigh. "The Furries. The Protogens. Why are we here?"

Gray look down at the map again with a sigh.

"How old are you?" He asked.

"What?"

"How old, are you?"

"26."

A scoff. "So you didn't live during the Great War then. You don't know the things I do. The things I've seen."

"How old are you then?"

"51. The War was, at least, started, 39 years ago. I was pretty young at the time."

"You never answered my question."

"I'm getting there, don't worry."

I pulled up a chair and sat down as Gray did the same. We both sat by the table as he looked at me, and I looked back.

"The Soviet Army was running scared. Everyone knew that sooner or later, the U.S.S.R would fall, declaring the end of the Cold War. The Soviets weren't going to take that. It must have been Stalin's death wish or something, to open a gateway to another world. Another dimension. Researchers of the Soviet Union did it, opening a gateway to another dimension. We called it, the Here-Dimension. On January 28, 1983, the Soviets successfully opened it, believing that demons from other worlds could fight alongside the Soviet Army. We all know that demons are never to be tampered with."

"Who came out?"

"The Protogens."

Silence for a few.

"It was The Protogens who first came to Earth, over in Moscow. I was at Berlin at the time, but they came quickly, plowing through with their form of combat we would never expect. They would take turns attacking, and attacked quickly. Impossible to land a hit. Strike and fall back. Asia and Europe fell within the first five years of the war, and with Britain gone, America was the last hope to win the war. That was until The Protogens nuked New York. Everything went to shit from there."

"Couldn't have the United States hit them back with a nuke or something?"

"The Protogens targeted our nuclear weapons safekeeps. They were using our own nukes against us. We had nothing. There was nothing we could do."

I sighed as I looked at the map.

"The war ended in 2001. And now, I'm the last human. There were many others left in the world after the war, but the fuckin' Protogens killed the lot of them. Christ." Gray said

"So how are the Furries here?" I asked

"The Furries had a role to play in the war, but they came unexpectedly. We don't know a confirmed reason as to why they're here, but I believe that the Furries were 'failed experiments' made by the Protogens that were released in the wild. You're all Protogens, just without the cybernetic augments."

"So, we kill all the Protogens. It's because of the that humanity is gone."

"I promised myself that I would be the one who puts a bullet between Raeal's eyes. Raeal or Frenzy. It's because of them that the world has gone to shit.

"Let's go get em' then, Gray."