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Teasing and sexual themes may still be present, but no explicit sex happens.", "count": "40", "submission_left_submission_id": "2349407", "submission_left_file_name": "3432007_XPAuthor_birds_eye_view.doc", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/3432/3432007_XPAuthor_birds_eye_view.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/3432/3432007_XPAuthor_birds_eye_view.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/3432/3432007_XPAuthor_birds_eye_view.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "2399221", "submission_right_file_name": "3513426_XPAuthor_caged_rat.doc", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/3513/3513426_XPAuthor_caged_rat.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/3513/3513426_XPAuthor_caged_rat.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/3513/3513426_XPAuthor_caged_rat.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "80", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "79", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "80", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "79", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "80", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "79" } ], "description": "This is an OLD story of mine I wrote up way back in 2012. Heavily inspired by the story mode of Unreal 3. It was meant to be the start of a series, but ended up being a one shot. Might go back to it.\n\nTouched up and slightly edited to my current standards, but I think it still holds up for the most part.\n\nMild language and nudity, and some graphic violence, but no sexy here. Sorry.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "This is an OLD story of mine I wrote up way back in 2012. Heavily inspired by the story mode of Unreal 3. It was meant to be the start of a series, but ended up being a one shot. Might go back to it.

Touched up and slightly edited to my current standards, but I think it still holds up for the most part.

Mild language and nudity, and some graphic violence, but no sexy here. Sorry.", "writing": "[center][b]Unreal Furnament[/b][/center]\n[center][b]Banshee: Origins[/b][/center]\n[center]Story by XP Author[/center]\n\n[i]Unreal Tournament and all related themes belong to Epic Games and Midway. The story and characters are mine. I do not condone violence for the sake of violence. The characters are works of fiction and should not be used as role-models. However, should someone get their hands on any of the weapons used in this story, please tell me. I'd love to see a weapon from the late 23rd century.[/i]\n\n[center][b]*** Part 1 - The Attack ***[/b][/center]\n\nThe girl had just gotten home, watching the powered door slide shut behind her as she stepped out of her shoes. \"Beatrice? Is that you, dear?\" She hated that name. It was so... girly. The flowery voice that had called to her came from the top of the stairs next to the main entrance. Despite the tone, she knew her mother wanted something. She always wanted something when she acted nice.\n\nWith a sigh, the 12 year old red fox called back \"Yes, Mother! It's me.\" Her tone was one of mild annoyance. She bit back the question of what the woman wanted. She didn't really bother waiting for a response, taking off her brown jacket, hanging it in the hall closet. It was then that she noticed there was a third coat hanging there. She lived alone with her mother, and she could tell by the size and style that it was a man's coat. This got another sigh from her. Her mother had brought yet another man home. Doubtless he was some smooth talking guy that would last a few days before she moved on.\n\n\"Be a dear, would you? Bring us up some drinks. You know my usual.\" There was a pause, and then the flowery voice was heard again \"Make it two.\" Beatrice sighed again. She had brought someone home.\n\nHer mother's 'usual' was a gin and tonic double with a twist of lime and a dash of something bright red and sweet the young girl had never learned to pronounce. She headed to the large kitchen and made two of these drinks, and set about bringing them up. The house was very large, and very old. More of a mansion, it was a relic from some 100 years or so before her time. Her father had been an investor in some mining company that struck it big. He died of an illness when she was still an infant, so she didn't really member him. After that, her mother had gotten all of it; the money, the estate, everything. She then proceeded to squander it all.\n\nThe girl finally reached her mother's bedroom, and pushed the door open. What she saw made her cover her eyes, nearly spilling the drinks. Her mother was laying on the bed, stark naked, burnt-orange fur bare for all the world to see, along with everything else. \"Oh, God! MOTHER!\"\n\nThe older vixen turned to her daughter and tossed her blond hair over her shoulder almost dismissively. \"Oh, there you are dear. Now don't be such a nuisance. Come here and give me my drink. Don't forget to give one to Jacob, too.\" She gestured to the person beside her, who sat up in the bed to look at the young girl.\n\nThe man was a black furred cat, and was as nude as her mother. He was very well muscled, and as he moved, the muscles rippled with both obvious power and precise control. When he looked at her, she saw typically feline iridescent yellow-green eyes, his gaze hard, though not mean. He was smiling, as well, hidden slightly under a full beard of grizzly black hair, matching the short hair atop his head. He said nothing as he took the drink, just nodding to her, and then sipped at the concoction.\n\nShe must have been staring, for after a moment her mother's voice roused her from her thoughts \"Beatrice, don't gawk at the man. You've delivered the drinks, now go along and give your mother some time with her friend.\" The girl would have laughed if she didn't fear what punishment she would get for it. 'Friend.' Right. This man was her friend in bed for a while, then forgotten when she found someone more interesting. Like so many other 'friends' of hers.\n\nShe sighed and walked off, heading to her own room, trying to forget the image of her mother naked. This was easy, as she thought instead of the man named Jacob. He seemed different from most of the men she brought home. Something about him was hard, and it wasn't his muscles, or his manhood that made her think this. His eyes were filled with something dark. He was obviously a soldier, which would explain his muscles, but there was something different than most soldiers she had seen. And he looked vaguely familiar, too.\n\nOnce in her room, she stripped out of her school uniform, tossing the thing into an undignified pile the corner. She was glad to be out of the silver blouse and blue, girly-looking shirt. She slipped instead into a tight fitting pair of black leather pants and a similarly colored shirt, torn along the bottom to show her cream-colored belly-fur. Her blond hair was pulled out of the standard fashion for her school and pulled, instead into a tight ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror. She hated that she looked so much like her mother, all the way down to the blond hair and green eyes, but at least this way she looked less girly.\n\nBeatrice made her way back through the old house, hating the eye-hurting red carpet and wooden walls. She hated everything about her home, her family, her school, and where she lived. The planet was some kind of rich resort world or something. Wealthy families paid lots of money to live next to other wealthy families. Most of the children of this place were high-brow ass-hats who looked down on everyone else. She hated them, too.\n\nShe heard sounds from her mother's room as she walked by; sounds that meant her mother was getting fucked roughly, though the moans were enough that people outside likely knew she loved that rough play. The girl blanched at the sound, and quickly headed down the stairs. Grabbing her coat and her hoverboard, and headed out into the cool, autumn air. Her mother wouldn't be happy when she realized she'd gone, but she was never happy when Beatrice snuck out like this. She would yell and probably smack her once or twice, and that would be it. Nothing new there.\n\nShe went to meet her friends. She hung out with what most would call the 'wrong type of crowd.' They smoked greenstash, a type of mild drug that was very illegal, though easily procured. They were the kind that vandalized public property, spraying gang tags, or bashing windows of hovercars. Sometimes they got into fights with other gangs. She had become quite a good fist fighter because of that, despite her short stature and young age. The leader of the little gang called herself Nitro, a 16 year old redheaded feline girl, fur died a matching red. Nitro had been teaching Beatrice how to wield a pistol recently, as well.\n\nMost of the gang was just a bunch of kids of rich parents, like herself, that hated the lifestyle imposed upon them. Many of them had nicknames like Nitro, but they had to be 'earned' in some way. Beatrice had not quite earned hers yet, but she hoped she would soon.\n\nToday, however, they were just at the local park, meeting by the emptied pool with hoverboards to do tricks, or watch the others do tricks while they got high. She spent the remainder of the day with her friends, until it was dark. She parted company with the group and hopped on her hoverboard to head back home.\n\nThe sun had set by this point, and stars were blinking to life in the sky, obscured by the lights along the street. She was taking her time in getting home, knowing her mother was either still fucking her new 'friend,' or passed out drunk. Either way, there wasn't much reason to hurry.\n\nShe stopped to look up at the sky again, and that was when she saw movement of some sort. At first, it looked like one of the stars was moving, then six, then a dozen. The stars got bigger, and brighter, and after a moment, burst into streaks of flame. They were ships of some sort, descending into the atmosphere. Why would there be ships coming in the middle of the night, and why so many? They were getting closer, too.\n\nSome instinct in her told her that something something was wrong. They weren't heading to the space dock, but the city itself. She tried to make out their outlines, but it was hard to see a ship so high in the sky at night, especially ones moving as fast as they were. All she did see was their engine trails. That is, until one of them passed in front of the full moon.\n\nFear grabbed her when she saw that silhouette. True fear. The body of the ship was long and pointed, like an arrowhead. Trailing behind were several metallic tendrils, giving the ship the appearance of a giant, metallic squid.\n\nShe knew the design only from text books and stories; it was a Necris ship. She had heard about the Necris. Anyone in the colonies would have. They were ghostly-white humanoids, looked like zombies with cybernetic parts. They invaded planets to expand their empire, using something called 'Nano-Black' to corrupt planets at the very core. She had no idea what that was, but knew it was not good.\n\nThe Necris also used mercenaries for invasions, the worst of which were the Skaarj race. The Skaarj were reptilian beasts, just smart enough to follow orders, but dumb enough to control with little effort by the Necris. They were also brutally vicious.\n\nQuestions were racing though her head, namely where she should go and who she should tell. She didn't have to worry about any of that for long, however, as moments later a dozen beams of searing light shot down from the sky, striking different locations. Houses, streetlights, buildings, everything all around caught fire as the beams shot down again and again. She had to dive to the side to avoid being burned alive as one of those beams swept down the street near her. She still felt the incredible heat from the brilliant beam of pure inferno singeing some of the fur on her tail and arms.\n\nThe girl scrambled to her feet and found her hoverboard lying a few feet away. She grabbed it and hopped on, kicking the thing into its highest speed and headed back to her house as fast as she could. Along the way, she saw other burning houses, some were even completely destroyed, just burning piles of rubble. People were running everywhere, screaming in their panic. There were a few burnt remains along some parts of the road, people who had been caught by surprise in one of the blasts. And the smell... she'd never forget that smell of burnt fur and flesh and bone. She had to swerve to avoid another one of those blasts as it strafed across the road in front of her.\n\nFinally, she reached her street. There were fires all over, but her house looked to be in good condition. There was some smoke, and a little fire on the roof, but it must have been from one of the surrounding buildings. The girl leaped off the hoverboard and barreled through the front door as it slid open, and shouted, \"Mom?!\" She didn't hear anything. This worried her. She rushed up the stairs and burst through her mother's door, and froze as she was met with the muzzle of a pistol pointed at her nose.\n\nThe gun was lowered a moment later, and Jacob, still in his nude glory, let out a sigh of relief. \"It's only you, girl.\" His voice was so deep that it seemed to shake her. She had frozen at the door, ears folded back with a look of fear, even after the gun was lowered. Jacob then pulled her into the room and shut the door. Once in the room, she saw her mother, still nude, lying on the bed, though breathing. Before she could say anything, Jacob spoke \"She's alright, don't worry. Just passed out from the booze.\" The girl let out a sigh. She should have known.\n\n\"Mister Jacob... what's going on?\" the girl asked, vainly trying to wake her mother up by shaking her.\n\nThe man shook his head \"I don't know, but it looks like an invasion. Necris ships, but their aim is too bad for the Necris themselves. Probably a merc force.\" He was pulling on his clothing as he spoke, a green jump suit with some golden symbol on the arms. The symbol looked like a human skull in a circle with wings. Military of some kind, or maybe he was a mercenary, too.\n\nJacob looked back at the girl, who was still trying to get her mother out of the bed. He holstered the pistol in his recently attached belt, and walked over. The girl looked up as he approached, and suddenly felt even shorter than she already was. She stood only at five foot, three inches, but it might as well have been two feet next to him. He must have been at least six and a half feet tall, maybe even seven. He brushed her aside gently, and then bent down, picking up the naked woman on the bed. \"Help me get her dressed so we can get you two to safety.\"\n\nThe girl narrowed her eyes \"Safety my ass! They're attacking my home! Sure I never really felt much for the place, but it's my turf!\" She was getting a rather bland colored shirt and pants out of her mother's closet while she said all this. She may argue leaving, but she would not argue about having her mother no longer naked in front of her.\n\nThe man didn't laugh, or do much of anything, other than take the clothing and begin to dress the still unconscious vixen \"Turf, huh? Well, kit, those people out there aren't another gang you can beat up in a fist fight. They're heavily armed fighters who wouldn't think twice to shoot a little girl down if she got in their way.\" He hefted the now clothed woman over his shoulder, taking his pistol back in his other hand once more. \"Besides, someone needs to stick by your mother and protect her while I find us a way to get off this rock.\"\n\nThe girl was suddenly struck by an idea \"You mean a ship? I have an idea, but you'll have to wait here a minute.\" Before the man could argue, the young fox ran from the room, darting down the hall in into her own. She rummaged around through the piles of clothing and random bits of junk lying around the messy room. After a moment of her search, she found what she was looking for: a small keycard with some family crest upon the front. She ran back to Jacob, who she found at the stairs, carrying her mother down them. When he looked at her, she held up the keycard \"I know where we can get a ship.\"\n\n[center][b]***Part 2 - Escape!***[/b][/center]\n\nJacob was definitely a soldier. The way he moved, low and looking around always, his pistol at the ready in his free hand while he held the girl's unconscious mother over his other shoulder. Beatrice, still dressed in her black leather, was leading the large man along the back paths, behind houses that were now on fire. The paths were hidden within bushes and trees, most of which were also on fire, but it was safer than risking the open streets. The ships still flew overhead, and those beams of death still shot down at whatever moved.\n\nEventually, she got them to the edge of the paths. It was several dozen blocks from her house when the forested area ended, and the path continued in the open. She turned to Jacob and looked up at the large feline \"Alright. We're close.\"\n\n\"Close to what, child?\" he asked, with some annoyance in his voice. He had been following the girl for almost an hour, not saying anything, but she hadn't volunteered any information, either.\n\nHer ears perked up and she held up the keycard she had retrieved from her room before they escaped \"One of my gang mates gave me this a long time ago. It's the keycard to one of the richest family's private hanger. We were planning on stealing one of the ships, but we never got the chance. Nitro was the only one who knows how to pilot anything.\" She was suddenly struck with worry for her gang mates. They were her friends, and she did not know if any of them were alright. Probably not, most of them had been out when the attack started, so it was more than likely they were caught in the attacks.\n\nJacob nodded to the girl \"Good plan. Let's just hope that there's still something there. Where is this place?\" She gave him the directions, and fell in behind him, letting the man who obviously knew how to fight lead the way. They darted from cover to cover, hiding behind buildings, rubble, burning vehicles, and anything else that might hide them for a moment.\n\nThey went about doing this for near another hour, before finally they neared their destination. Unfortunately, it seems the invaders had some previous information on the city. No less than ten men stood around the entrance to the hanger, mostly humans, a few felines, canines, and one very large bull. They all wore in medium and heavy armor, all painted dark grayish-blue, an insignia emblazoned on the sleeves that looked to be a hawk's talons. Jacob recognized the symbol, and scoffed as he set the girl's mother down. \"Huh. Mercs, alright. It's the Hawke's Talons. They're nothing, but it's still ten on one, so it could get tricky.\"\n\nThe girl again narrowed her eyes at him \"Hey! I can fight, too!\"\n\nJacob shook his head \"No, you can't! Take a closer look, girl!''\n\nBeatrice took another look at where the men were standing and her breath caught in her throat. She saw bodies piled up against one of the intact walls of the building. There, tossed aside in the same way she had thrown her school uniform, were several of her friends. They had the same idea she did, come to the hanger, steal a ship. And they had been gunned down and thrown away. On top of the pile was Nitro, the hole in the center of her forehead still smoking. Beatrice felt sick. \"No...''\n\nJacob patted the girl's shoulder, his expression both empathetic, and hard. \"You stay here and guard your mother. Here, use this if you have to.\" He pulled the pistol from his belt and handed it to her. It was an old model Enforcer pistol that looked modified a bit. Heavy, but balanced, she found it was easier to hold than the old gun she had been learning to shoot with.\n\nBy the time she looked up, Jacob was already heading toward the group, staying low and hidden. In fact, if she didn't know exactly where he was, she would not have been able to see him at all. He was good, and his black fur and dark clothing helped to keep him out of sight. She lost track of him after he slipped into a shadow. The next thing she knew, one of the men was dead, a thrown knife in the side of his head. The others scrambled suddenly, shouting to each other, cursing, looking around for whoever had killed their comrade.\n\nShe spotted Jacob again, for only a moment. He was running low, past the body of the man he had killed, and grabbed the man's dropped rifle. The men hadn't noticed anything. They did notice, however, when a stream of bullets took down another of them. They also returned fire.\n\nThe girl watched, but suddenly heard the sound of movement behind her. She raised the gun and turned in a panic, but saw it was only her mother, rousing from her alcohol induced slumber. The elder vixen groaned slightly \"What the.... Where am I?\" The woman looked around, saw her daughter, and scowled at her \"Beatrice, what have you done? Where are we?\"\n\nThe woman was about to stand up, but the younger vixen pulled her back down \"Stay down, Mother!\" she tried to yell and keep her voice as a whisper at the same time.\n\nThe still mostly drunk woman would have none of that, though, pulling her arm away from her daughter and standing up anyway, baring fangs at her threateningly. \"Beatrice! What the devil's gotten into you, child? You tell me where we are this instant!\" She was shouting now.\n\nThe girl grabbed her mother's arm again, and again yanked her down to the ground, hard enough to actually pull the woman off balance and bring her to her knees. \"Mother! Be quiet! I'll explain everything later. Right now, you need to shut up, or those men over there will come over here and shoot us!\" she pointed to the firefight going on a short distance away.\n\nThis seemed to get her mother's attention \"Oh my god! What the hell is going on?\" After a moment, she gasped \"Is that Jacob? Oh my god, are those men dead!?\"\n\nThe girl sighed and looked back at the fight, then swore. Two of the men had apparently heard them. She told her mother to stay back, and to try and hide. She got the pistol ready, aimed at the closer of the two men, and pulled the trigger. The gun was definitely modified. The kickback nearly broke her arm, and sent her to the ground. Surprisingly, the sound from the shot was not as she had expected. It was somehow both deafening and muffled at the same time. She figured it probably had some kind of sound suppressor on it. \n\nShe was struggling to get back to her feet, to try and hit the second man, but before she could even get up, something hard and metallic struck the side of her head, sending stars to her eyes, and knocking her face into the grass. She heard, though muffled from her dazed state, the shout of a male voice, directed at her \"You little bitch! You nearly hit me!\"\n\nShe had missed. So much for all the practice she'd been doing. She shook her head to try and get her senses, but her head was suddenly filled with pain again, this time as the man reached down and grabbed her by the hair, lifting her up off the ground by it. She started to kick about, and let out a shriek of pain and rage and fear, trying vainly to strike at her captor.\n\nThe second man, a grey furred feline, had struck the girl's mother with the butt of his gun, knocking the semi-drunk vixen back into unconsciousness. \"What should we do with these two, ya think?\"\n\nThe first man, a human, still held the girl by the hair and laughed \"We 'ought to kill 'em, but I say we keep 'em for ourselves, if y'know what I mean!\"\n\nThey both had a hearty laugh at that, but the feline shook his head \"Nah, mate. We don't have time. That big guy might come looking for these two.\" He looked down at the unconscious woman, and shook his head \"Shame to do this to a pretty woman, but we got a job to do.\"\n\nBeatrice saw what happened next as if it were in slow motion. She saw him aim the gun at her mother's still form, pull the trigger, and could have sworn she saw the bullets move through the air before piercing her mother's back. She watched the blood spray out of the wounds, counted as they struck, 2, 3, 4 hits, all through her lungs and heart. Her mother's body twitched and convulsed after each hit, but did not move anymore after that.\n\nThen time came back, and she screamed. It was a shrill, high pitched shriek, so loud and visceral it tore at her throat. A scream filled with horror for what she just saw, and pure rage at the man that had done that to her mother, at herself for failing to even wound these men. She struggled even more to get out of the man's grasp, twisting and kicking back at him. The feline called to his friend \"Fuck, mate! Silence that banshee child already before the big guy hears!\"\n\nThen came a voice behind the both of them, deep enough that it seemed the air vibrated with the sound. \"Too late.\" Before either man could say anything, Jacob struck the feline hard enough to send him to the ground, dazed. The human had to let go of the girl first before he could bring his gun up, so by the time he had raised it half way, Jacob had already put a bullet between his eyes with the pistol the girl dropped when she was grabbed.\n\nJacob walked up to the young fox. She had been dropped to the ground, and was now on her knees, crying, and punching the dirt. She then let out a scream of pain, the kind of emotional agony that no physical wound can compare to. When she realized that someone was standing next to her, she looked up, tears soaking the fur on her face, as well as some blood from where she had been struck. What she saw was a dark furred hand holding the handle of a pistol to her. She took the gun, and looked where Jacob pointed. The man who had shot her mother was starting to come round, but still dazed on the ground. \"He's all yours.\"\n\nShe could not even think. She didn't want to think. She didn't try. Pure rage filled her in that moment and she rose to her feet, walking over to the dazed man with purpose. She kicked him in the head as he rolled onto his back, dazing him farther. \"B-bitch...\" was the only word he managed to groan out at her, then spat out blood. She aimed the gun down at him, and pulled the trigger, shooting him through the chest. She was ready for the recoil this time, so it didn't knock her back. She pulled the trigger again, and then again, and again, shooting the man over and over. She heard him yell in pain after the first few shots, but he was silent long before she emptied the rest of the clip into his chest.\n\nWhen the gun clicked in her hand, the clip empty, she threw it to the side. Her rage was not gone, only stronger. She fell to her knees, teeth bared, hands balled to fists, and started to pummel the now dead man's face. She punched him over and over with all her strength, screaming again. The shriek filled with her rage and agony echoed around her for any and all to hear and fear.\n\nEventually, she became aware of the pain in her hands and arms. She looked down at them through tear-filled eyes and saw her hands were bloody and cut. She had been beating the remains of the feline's skull, the broken bone having cut into her skin. Her arms were sore and tired from the repeated force of her blows. There wasn't much left of his face at this point. She sagged, her rage and energy spent, and looked about to fall over, but a large hand was rested on her shoulder to keep her steady. She looked up, and saw Jacob. \n\n\"Come on, girl. We need to go.\" His voice was quiet, and he did not look at her with any sort of judgment for what he just watched her do. If anything, he looked understanding and sympathetic... and sad.\n\nShe looked back at her mother's blood stained body. The elder vixen's head was turned so she could not see the face. That was probably a good thing. She just stared at the woman who she had despised most of her childhood life, and felt truly horrible for hating the woman who was her mother. She would never have the chance to apologize, either. So she said a silent good bye to her, and stood up to follow Jacob to the hanger they had just liberated.\n\nBeatrice was in a haze as she walked, not seeing the bodies of the men Jacob had killed. She didn't remember entering the hanger, barely hearing Jacob voicing his worry that the ships might not be fueled. She didn't remember getting on the small scout ship that Jacob had picked. She did remember leaving the hanger, though. The ship was small, with room enough for a crew of three at most. She was strapped into the copilot's seat. This gave her a front row view as Jacob did twists and turns to avoid the ships that started firing at them, instead of the ground. He slipped past easily, and with some fancy flying, and also managed to slip through the blockade in orbit. Soon, the little ship lurched with pseudo-movement as hyperspace engines kicked on, bending the laws of physics around them as they shot into faster-than-light travel. \n\nBending the laws of physics. She thought that was fitting. But even breaking the fundamental laws of the universe would not help her escape what she had just gone through. Finally, after several minutes of silence, the young vixen broke down and wept.\n\n[center][b]*** Part 3 - The Offer ***[/b][/center]\n\nBeatrice calmed eventually. She remained silent for a long time, just staring out at the vortex of colors that was hyperspace. Blue, white, red, green, yellow and black swirled around the ship in a great spinning tunnel of energy. Despite the fact this was the first time she had ever seen the hyperspace vortex first hand, she was not really paying much attention to it. Instead, she was trying to sort out the vortex of thoughts within her head. Questions, doubts, anger, sadness, confusion, and through it all, she kept seeing her mother being shot. That scene replayed in her head over and over. Then the man she had killed. She was not horrified that she had actually killed someone. It had actually felt good to her, and that thought scared her more than any other. She rationalized that it was because it was the man that killed her mother, but she knew there was a different feeling with it; a feeling of power that seemed addictive and terrifying.\n\nAfter hours of not talking, she finally voiced some of the questions that were swirling around in her head. \"I'm never going to see my home again, am I?\" Her voice sounded hoarse and raw. Jacob, who was reclining in the pilot's seat, just shook his head. He knew that the Necris would convert the planet into one of death within weeks. By the time any force large enough to oppose them came, it would be too late.\n\nShe looked down at her hands, which Jacob had bandaged for her at some point. She didn't even remember him doing that. They still hurt, and she saw a little blood seeping through the bandages, but she ignored the pain, thinking for a moment before asking \"Mr. Jacob... how- how well did you know my mother?\"\n\nJacob smiled for the first time since Beatrice had met him. \"First off, it's just Jacob. You can drop the Mister. Anyway, I've known her for a long time. Since before you were born. I knew your father, too. He was one of my first sponsors in The Tournament.\" He said the last two words with enough importance that she knew it was a name, not just a title of a competition.\n\n\"The Tournament?\" she asked. \"What tournament?\"\n\nJacob looked at her with surprise. \"You mean you didn't know? I thought that's what that shocked look was the first time you saw me. Thought you might have recognized me.\" She shook her head, though she had thought he looked familiar. This caused him to laugh lightly. The dark furred feline set about hitting some controls on the flight panel, and a picture box appeared on the front view screen. The box filled with static for a moment, then filled with the image of Jacob, holding a trophy as tall as he was. Under him were the words \"Unreal Tournament Grand Champion\" and a date some 5 years prior.\n\nSuddenly, something she heard a long time ago came to her. She had heard of the Unreal Tournament in school. It was some kind of ultra-violent fighting match. It used portable instant cloning units called 'Respawners' to, in effect, keep the players alive after being killed. She did not know the details of how it worked, though. \"You're the Grand Champion?\" she was impressed and amazed. That must have been where she'd seen him from!\n\nHe laughed again \"I [i]was[/i] the Grand Champion. I'm retired now. Figured it was best I leave while I was on top.\"\n\nShe was suddenly struck with an odd question \"Wait... if you knew my mother when Dad was still alive, then why were you... um-?\" She did not know quite how to ask the question tactfully.\n\nJacob figured it out anyway \"Why was I sleeping with her?\" She nodded, blushing a little, glad that her dark orange fur hid this from view. \"Your mother did love your father, very much. When he died, something inside of her... broke. It's why she drank so much.\" This was all information she had figured out on her own. \"He died a long time ago, though. And your mother was still a woman.\" He smiled broadly then \"And a great fuck, at that.\"\n\n\"AH! Gross!\" she shuddered, remembering all those sounds from her mother's room. She blushed again as the memory of when she first saw the feline swam through her head; his naked, hugely muscled body, covered in dark fur, and his well endowed and exotic looking manhood. It was true she was young, but she was not ignorant about sex. She thought upon what it might feel like to have someone as large as he was take her, and decided that it would probably hurt, since he was so much larger than her.\n\nIt struck her as odd that she was thinking these lewd thoughts, so soon after what she had just been through. Her mind was trying to avoid the despair and focus on something, anything else. It then also struck her that she had been in the ship for hours and still did not know where they were going. \"Mis- uh, Jacob, where are we going, anyway?\"\n\nThe large man smiled. \"We're going to the planet Telmeron. I've an old friend there I'd like you to meet; woman by the name of Blaze. She runs one of the groups in The Tournament: Venom. An all-female group.\"\n\nThe girl looked at him, utterly befuddled. \"Why?\"\n\nJacob laughed \"Because, as the former Grand Champion, I can see potential in people. And I'm something of a talent scout for new blood.\" He smiled to her \"And the way you were screaming when you shot and beat that man... Damn girl, you're a real banshee. You keep that rage and you'll have a shot at champion yourself. With training, that is. That's where Blaze comes in.\"\n\nShe thought about this for a while. \"What... what if this Blaze won't train me?\"\n\n\"She will.\" He said this with certainty. \"She owes me more than one favor, so she'll accept you.\" Again the girl just thought for a while. She should have said no, should have been horrified at the idea of being in a tournament where the goal is to kill people, even if they don't stay dead. Her thoughts were interrupted by Jacob again. \"Necris compete in The Tournament. I think Hawke, the guy in charge of Hawke's Talons, is still gunning for the top, too. Might get your chance at gunning them back.\"\n\nThe rage hit her again as she heard those names. But it felt more controlled this time. Directed. Her eyes hardened, and she refused the tears that threatened her. She looked at Jacob with the same hard gaze he had had since their first meeting. \"Yeah. Sounds good to me. I'll do it.\" \n\n[center][b]*** Part 4 - Her True Name ***[/b][/center]\n\nBeatrice did not know how long the trip was, exactly. After hours of sitting and thinking, saying very little to Jacob, she found herself drifting off to sleep. It was not a restful sleep, however, as nightmares came to her through it all. She had visions of her mother being shot, herself shooting people, herself shooting her mother, her friends' bodies refusing to die and begging for help, and the dead men around the hanger. Everything was twisted in the way only a nightmare can manifest.\n\nJacob just watched the girl's restless sleeping in silence. He had been through something similar when he first witnessed death as a soldier some 25 years prior. He knew the pain of watching people you considered family be killed right in front of you. He knew what it was like to kill for the first time.\n\nThe girl woke up several times, only to drift back to sleep. She kept up the restless sleep for most of the trip. Eventually, though, something woke her up; a lurching and shuddering feeling throughout the ship. She opened her eyes and saw blearily as the tunnel of hyperspace faded away around the ship as they dropped back into normal space. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and gave a good look out the view screen. Dominating most of the view was a large planet, mostly covered in blue waters, with splatters of green and brown land, all partially hidden under swirls of white clouds. \"Is that Telmeron?\"\n\nJacob nodded \"Yes it is.\" He set about making the ship enter the atmosphere. Flames erupted around them as they made the descent through the ozone. Once the ship was through, Jacob aimed it for one of the small island-like continents. The ship descended at a rapid pace. Soon, the girl saw what looked like a city. Once they got closer, she saw it was, in fact, the ruins of a city.\n\nThe ship slowed as it flew over burnt buildings, most of which had chunks missing from what looked like heavy weapons fire. It looked like a war happened here, and the city paid for it. There was no movement down there, either. No hover or ground vehicles, no people walking. No other ships in the sky, either.\n\nEventually, there was a building that looked intact in the distance. Obviously a hanger, the grey cube of a building was huge, at least forty stories tall. She guessed it had to be half a mile across, and just as long. Massive bay doors opened for them after Jacob typed something into the communication panel, and the ship flew through. Once inside, she saw there were lines of other small ships, all docked in small lots, like a parking garage for spaceships. Jacob landed the ship in one of the empty lots and set about the shutdown process.\n\nThe girl unstrapped herself from the seat, and stood up. She found her body was stiff from the long journey, but the cabin was far too small to stretch out, so she waited for Jacob to finish shutting down the ship. Once he was done, he got up, walked past her, and opened the ramp. Following him out, she stretched, and then nearly stumbled. It was the first time she had ever set foot on a different world, and she found the gravity was different from what she was used to. Similar, but just slightly heavier. Jacob managed not to chuckle at her, which she was very thankful for.\n\nAfter composing herself, she looked around at her new surroundings. She did not recognize any of the symbols on the ships sitting in the hanger. Each ship seemed to be a different design entirely. There must have been over a hundred ships, and every one was something different.\n\nAt Jacob's beckoning, she followed him to a large set of doors, leading to an elevator, which shot downward an incredible speed once the doors closed. By how long it took to go down, even at this speed, she figured they were underground when the doors finally slid open again.\n\nShe followed Jacob out, and found herself in the most technologically advanced room she had ever seen. There were key panels everywhere, flashing lights, screens that looked like panes of glass, all flashing some information or another. The walls were lined with lights and monitors, all showing something different. People of all sorts of races, dressed in a myriad of uniforms, none of them matching another, were at the monitors or stations, all typing into keyboards, or speaking to someone through a headset microphone. What the girl guessed was the main wall was covered in a screen depicting the planet in a wide, orbital view. She realized, suddenly, that they must have been watching their ship the whole time.\n\nAs she looked around, someone approached them. She turned when she realized the person was coming to them. The woman was a feline, and tall, around six feet, and wore a red jumpsuit, covered in what looked like armor. Red with gold trim, hard, but flexible as she moved. Her face was pretty, but just as hard as her armor, with blue eyes cold as steel. The flame colored hair atop her head was short and spiked slightly, and her fur matched in color, with streaks of orange in a tiger pattern. She reminded the girl of her friend Nitro, something that sent a twinge of grief through her for a moment. On the woman's right arm sleeve was an emblem that looked to be a cobra head, framed in a gold circle. At her hip was a belt, with a pistol holstered in it. The girl could not help but notice that the pistol was the same as Jacob's.\n\nJacob smiled as she saw the dangerous looking woman \"Blaze! Been a long time.\" He looked like he was going to hug the woman, but when she got close enough, she slapped him across the face, and hard. The girl was surprised by this, but Jacob just laughed \"Yeah, I guess I deserved that.\"\n\nBlaze's voice was deep and powerful, and she had a slight but noticeable accent Beatrice could not quite place. \"Damn straight! You go off and abandon me. Again I might add! And then come back here and expect a warm welcome?\" Beatrice looked worried; Jacob had said this woman was a friend. Then, something unexpected happened. Blaze pulled Jacob into a kiss. A very deep kiss. What the hell was going on?\n\nJacob just laughed through it all, even the kiss, though his laugh was muffled to a chuckle. Once the woman pulled back, he spoke \"Well, it seems you haven't changed a bit. Still the fiery tempered kitty I remember.\"\n\nBlaze smiled, and it seemed her anger was just an act. She punched Jacob's shoulder, though it did not look held back any, as the large man actually moved at the hit. The woman then seemed to finally notice her. \"Who's this? She's a vixen, and the fur's wrong, so it can't be one of your illegitimate child. A fan of yours?\"\n\nJacob shook his head \"This is Mariel and Doug's daughter.\" Those were her parents names. Blaze seemed to know who her parents were, too, as she just nodded. \"Her home was attacked. Necris-hired mercs.\" He paused for a moment before adding \"Mariel's dead.'' He nodded toward Beatrice. \"She witnessed it, too. Hawke's group did it.\"\n\nThe girl looked down as she was reminded of it all again, but then looked up as Blaze approached her. \"Tough thing for a kit to witness. I'm sorry about your mother.\" She looked then to Jacob, and asked \"Why'd you bring her here?\"\n\nJacob looked to the girl, then to Blaze \"This kid's got potential. She gunned down one of the mercs, and then beat his face into mush once the clip ran dry.\" Blaze quirked an eyebrow and looked at the girl's bandaged hands, which still hurt a little. Beatrice unconsciously flexed her fingers. Jacob continued. \"You should train her. She'll make a good addition to Venom.\"\n\nBlaze scoffed \"A scrawny little kit like this? It's going to take a lot of training, Jacob.\"\n\nJacob just laughed \"It took a lot of training to get you up to your level, too. Or do I need to remind you again?\"\n\nBlaze glared at him \"Fine, I get the point.\" She then looked at the young fox, who had remained silent this whole time. \"What's your name, girl?\"\n\nShe hesitated a moment before answering, \"Beatrice.\"\n\nBlaze shook her head \"Hmph. You say that name with disgust and detachment. It's not yours. So tell me: What. Is. Your. Name?\" Every word was said with purpose.\n\nThe girl looked at her, a little surprised. It was true that she hated the name given to her. It was girly, and not her at all, but she had just accepted it. Now she had the chance to give herself a new name, like she had wanted back with her gang. But what? She thought for a moment, and came back to the same thing every time. She remembered what the mercs had called her, and what Jacob had said to her. So she looked up at the woman, green eyes hardening as she looked into Blaze's steely blue gaze, and told the woman her new name. Her true name.\n\n\"My name is Banshee.\"\n\n[center][b]*** End Chapter ***[/b][/center]", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Unreal Furnament

Banshee: Origins

Story by XP Author


Unreal Tournament and all related themes belong to Epic Games and Midway. The story and characters are mine. I do not condone violence for the sake of violence. The characters are works of fiction and should not be used as role-models. However, should someone get their hands on any of the weapons used in this story, please tell me. I'd love to see a weapon from the late 23rd century.

*** Part 1 - The Attack ***


The girl had just gotten home, watching the powered door slide shut behind her as she stepped out of her shoes. "Beatrice? Is that you, dear?" She hated that name. It was so... girly. The flowery voice that had called to her came from the top of the stairs next to the main entrance. Despite the tone, she knew her mother wanted something. She always wanted something when she acted nice.

With a sigh, the 12 year old red fox called back "Yes, Mother! It's me." Her tone was one of mild annoyance. She bit back the question of what the woman wanted. She didn't really bother waiting for a response, taking off her brown jacket, hanging it in the hall closet. It was then that she noticed there was a third coat hanging there. She lived alone with her mother, and she could tell by the size and style that it was a man's coat. This got another sigh from her. Her mother had brought yet another man home. Doubtless he was some smooth talking guy that would last a few days before she moved on.

"Be a dear, would you? Bring us up some drinks. You know my usual." There was a pause, and then the flowery voice was heard again "Make it two." Beatrice sighed again. She had brought someone home.

Her mother's 'usual' was a gin and tonic double with a twist of lime and a dash of something bright red and sweet the young girl had never learned to pronounce. She headed to the large kitchen and made two of these drinks, and set about bringing them up. The house was very large, and very old. More of a mansion, it was a relic from some 100 years or so before her time. Her father had been an investor in some mining company that struck it big. He died of an illness when she was still an infant, so she didn't really member him. After that, her mother had gotten all of it; the money, the estate, everything. She then proceeded to squander it all.

The girl finally reached her mother's bedroom, and pushed the door open. What she saw made her cover her eyes, nearly spilling the drinks. Her mother was laying on the bed, stark naked, burnt-orange fur bare for all the world to see, along with everything else. "Oh, God! MOTHER!"

The older vixen turned to her daughter and tossed her blond hair over her shoulder almost dismissively. "Oh, there you are dear. Now don't be such a nuisance. Come here and give me my drink. Don't forget to give one to Jacob, too." She gestured to the person beside her, who sat up in the bed to look at the young girl.

The man was a black furred cat, and was as nude as her mother. He was very well muscled, and as he moved, the muscles rippled with both obvious power and precise control. When he looked at her, she saw typically feline iridescent yellow-green eyes, his gaze hard, though not mean. He was smiling, as well, hidden slightly under a full beard of grizzly black hair, matching the short hair atop his head. He said nothing as he took the drink, just nodding to her, and then sipped at the concoction.

She must have been staring, for after a moment her mother's voice roused her from her thoughts "Beatrice, don't gawk at the man. You've delivered the drinks, now go along and give your mother some time with her friend." The girl would have laughed if she didn't fear what punishment she would get for it. 'Friend.' Right. This man was her friend in bed for a while, then forgotten when she found someone more interesting. Like so many other 'friends' of hers.

She sighed and walked off, heading to her own room, trying to forget the image of her mother naked. This was easy, as she thought instead of the man named Jacob. He seemed different from most of the men she brought home. Something about him was hard, and it wasn't his muscles, or his manhood that made her think this. His eyes were filled with something dark. He was obviously a soldier, which would explain his muscles, but there was something different than most soldiers she had seen. And he looked vaguely familiar, too.

Once in her room, she stripped out of her school uniform, tossing the thing into an undignified pile the corner. She was glad to be out of the silver blouse and blue, girly-looking shirt. She slipped instead into a tight fitting pair of black leather pants and a similarly colored shirt, torn along the bottom to show her cream-colored belly-fur. Her blond hair was pulled out of the standard fashion for her school and pulled, instead into a tight ponytail. She looked at herself in the mirror. She hated that she looked so much like her mother, all the way down to the blond hair and green eyes, but at least this way she looked less girly.

Beatrice made her way back through the old house, hating the eye-hurting red carpet and wooden walls. She hated everything about her home, her family, her school, and where she lived. The planet was some kind of rich resort world or something. Wealthy families paid lots of money to live next to other wealthy families. Most of the children of this place were high-brow ass-hats who looked down on everyone else. She hated them, too.

She heard sounds from her mother's room as she walked by; sounds that meant her mother was getting fucked roughly, though the moans were enough that people outside likely knew she loved that rough play. The girl blanched at the sound, and quickly headed down the stairs. Grabbing her coat and her hoverboard, and headed out into the cool, autumn air. Her mother wouldn't be happy when she realized she'd gone, but she was never happy when Beatrice snuck out like this. She would yell and probably smack her once or twice, and that would be it. Nothing new there.

She went to meet her friends. She hung out with what most would call the 'wrong type of crowd.' They smoked greenstash, a type of mild drug that was very illegal, though easily procured. They were the kind that vandalized public property, spraying gang tags, or bashing windows of hovercars. Sometimes they got into fights with other gangs. She had become quite a good fist fighter because of that, despite her short stature and young age. The leader of the little gang called herself Nitro, a 16 year old redheaded feline girl, fur died a matching red. Nitro had been teaching Beatrice how to wield a pistol recently, as well.

Most of the gang was just a bunch of kids of rich parents, like herself, that hated the lifestyle imposed upon them. Many of them had nicknames like Nitro, but they had to be 'earned' in some way. Beatrice had not quite earned hers yet, but she hoped she would soon.

Today, however, they were just at the local park, meeting by the emptied pool with hoverboards to do tricks, or watch the others do tricks while they got high. She spent the remainder of the day with her friends, until it was dark. She parted company with the group and hopped on her hoverboard to head back home.

The sun had set by this point, and stars were blinking to life in the sky, obscured by the lights along the street. She was taking her time in getting home, knowing her mother was either still fucking her new 'friend,' or passed out drunk. Either way, there wasn't much reason to hurry.

She stopped to look up at the sky again, and that was when she saw movement of some sort. At first, it looked like one of the stars was moving, then six, then a dozen. The stars got bigger, and brighter, and after a moment, burst into streaks of flame. They were ships of some sort, descending into the atmosphere. Why would there be ships coming in the middle of the night, and why so many? They were getting closer, too.

Some instinct in her told her that something something was wrong. They weren't heading to the space dock, but the city itself. She tried to make out their outlines, but it was hard to see a ship so high in the sky at night, especially ones moving as fast as they were. All she did see was their engine trails. That is, until one of them passed in front of the full moon.

Fear grabbed her when she saw that silhouette. True fear. The body of the ship was long and pointed, like an arrowhead. Trailing behind were several metallic tendrils, giving the ship the appearance of a giant, metallic squid.

She knew the design only from text books and stories; it was a Necris ship. She had heard about the Necris. Anyone in the colonies would have. They were ghostly-white humanoids, looked like zombies with cybernetic parts. They invaded planets to expand their empire, using something called 'Nano-Black' to corrupt planets at the very core. She had no idea what that was, but knew it was not good.

The Necris also used mercenaries for invasions, the worst of which were the Skaarj race. The Skaarj were reptilian beasts, just smart enough to follow orders, but dumb enough to control with little effort by the Necris. They were also brutally vicious.

Questions were racing though her head, namely where she should go and who she should tell. She didn't have to worry about any of that for long, however, as moments later a dozen beams of searing light shot down from the sky, striking different locations. Houses, streetlights, buildings, everything all around caught fire as the beams shot down again and again. She had to dive to the side to avoid being burned alive as one of those beams swept down the street near her. She still felt the incredible heat from the brilliant beam of pure inferno singeing some of the fur on her tail and arms.

The girl scrambled to her feet and found her hoverboard lying a few feet away. She grabbed it and hopped on, kicking the thing into its highest speed and headed back to her house as fast as she could. Along the way, she saw other burning houses, some were even completely destroyed, just burning piles of rubble. People were running everywhere, screaming in their panic. There were a few burnt remains along some parts of the road, people who had been caught by surprise in one of the blasts. And the smell... she'd never forget that smell of burnt fur and flesh and bone. She had to swerve to avoid another one of those blasts as it strafed across the road in front of her.

Finally, she reached her street. There were fires all over, but her house looked to be in good condition. There was some smoke, and a little fire on the roof, but it must have been from one of the surrounding buildings. The girl leaped off the hoverboard and barreled through the front door as it slid open, and shouted, "Mom?!" She didn't hear anything. This worried her. She rushed up the stairs and burst through her mother's door, and froze as she was met with the muzzle of a pistol pointed at her nose.

The gun was lowered a moment later, and Jacob, still in his nude glory, let out a sigh of relief. "It's only you, girl." His voice was so deep that it seemed to shake her. She had frozen at the door, ears folded back with a look of fear, even after the gun was lowered. Jacob then pulled her into the room and shut the door. Once in the room, she saw her mother, still nude, lying on the bed, though breathing. Before she could say anything, Jacob  spoke "She's alright, don't worry. Just passed out from the booze." The girl let out a sigh. She should have known.

"Mister Jacob... what's going on?" the girl asked, vainly trying to wake her mother up by shaking her.

The man shook his head "I don't know, but it looks like an invasion. Necris ships, but their aim is too bad for the Necris themselves. Probably a merc force." He was pulling on his clothing as he spoke, a green jump suit with some golden symbol on the arms. The symbol looked like a human skull in a circle with wings. Military of some kind, or maybe he was a mercenary, too.

Jacob looked back at the girl, who was still trying to get her mother out of the bed. He holstered the pistol in his recently attached belt, and walked over. The girl looked up as he approached, and suddenly felt even shorter than she already was. She stood only at five foot, three inches, but it might as well have been two feet next to him. He must have been at least six and a half feet tall, maybe even seven. He brushed her aside gently, and then bent down, picking up the naked woman on the bed. "Help me get her dressed so we can get you two to safety."

The girl narrowed her eyes "Safety my ass! They're attacking my home! Sure I never really felt much for the place, but it's my turf!" She was getting a rather bland colored shirt and pants out of her mother's closet while she said all this. She may argue leaving, but she would not argue about having her mother no longer naked in front of her.

The man didn't laugh, or do much of anything, other than take the clothing and begin to dress the still unconscious vixen "Turf, huh? Well, kit, those people out there aren't another gang you can beat up in a fist fight. They're heavily armed fighters who wouldn't think twice to shoot a little girl down if she got in their way." He hefted the now clothed woman over his shoulder, taking his pistol back in his other hand once more. "Besides, someone needs to stick by your mother and protect her while I find us a way to get off this rock."

The girl was suddenly struck by an idea "You mean a ship? I have an idea, but you'll have to wait here a minute." Before the man could argue, the young fox ran from the room, darting down the hall in into her own. She rummaged around through the piles of clothing and random bits of junk lying around the messy room. After a moment of her search, she found what she was looking for: a small keycard with some family crest upon the front. She ran back to Jacob, who she found at the stairs, carrying her mother down them. When he looked at her, she held up the keycard "I know where we can get a ship."

***Part 2 - Escape!***


Jacob was definitely a soldier. The way he moved, low and looking around always, his pistol at the ready in his free hand while he held the girl's unconscious mother over his other shoulder. Beatrice, still dressed in her black leather, was leading the large man along the back paths, behind houses that were now on fire. The paths were hidden within bushes and trees, most of which were also on fire, but it was safer than risking the open streets. The ships still flew overhead, and those beams of death still shot down at whatever moved.

Eventually, she got them to the edge of the paths. It was several dozen blocks from her house when the forested area ended, and the path continued in the open. She turned to Jacob and looked up at the large feline "Alright. We're close."

"Close to what, child?" he asked, with some annoyance in his voice. He had been following the girl for almost an hour, not saying anything, but she hadn't volunteered any information, either.

Her ears perked up and she held up the keycard she had retrieved from her room before they escaped "One of my gang mates gave me this a long time ago. It's the keycard to one of the richest family's private hanger. We were planning on stealing one of the ships, but we never got the chance. Nitro was the only one who knows how to pilot anything." She was suddenly struck with worry for her gang mates. They were her friends, and she did not know if any of them were alright. Probably not, most of them had been out when the attack started, so it was more than likely they were caught in the attacks.

Jacob nodded to the girl "Good plan. Let's just hope that there's still something there. Where is this place?" She gave him the directions, and fell in behind him, letting the man who obviously knew how to fight lead the way. They darted from cover to cover, hiding behind buildings, rubble, burning vehicles, and anything else that might hide them for a moment.

They went about doing this for near another hour, before finally they neared their destination. Unfortunately, it seems the invaders had some previous information on the city. No less than ten men stood around the entrance to the hanger, mostly humans, a few felines, canines, and one very large bull. They all wore in medium and heavy armor, all painted dark grayish-blue, an insignia emblazoned on the sleeves that looked to be a hawk's talons. Jacob recognized the symbol, and scoffed as he set the girl's mother down. "Huh. Mercs, alright. It's the Hawke's Talons. They're nothing, but it's still ten on one, so it could get tricky."

The girl again narrowed her eyes at him "Hey! I can fight, too!"

Jacob shook his head "No, you can't! Take a closer look, girl!''

Beatrice took another look at where the men were standing and her breath caught in her throat. She saw bodies piled up against one of the intact walls of the building. There, tossed aside in the same way she had thrown her school uniform, were several of her friends. They had the same idea she did, come to the hanger, steal a ship. And they had been gunned down and thrown away. On top of the pile was Nitro, the  hole in the center of her forehead still smoking. Beatrice felt sick. "No...''

Jacob patted the girl's shoulder, his expression both empathetic, and hard. "You stay here and guard your mother. Here, use this if you have to." He pulled the pistol from his belt and handed it to her. It was an old model Enforcer pistol that looked modified a bit. Heavy, but balanced, she found it was easier to hold than the old gun she had been learning to shoot with.

By the time she looked up, Jacob was already heading toward the group, staying low and hidden. In fact, if she didn't know exactly where he was, she would not have been able to see him at all. He was good, and his black fur and dark clothing helped to keep him out of sight. She lost track of him after he slipped into a shadow. The next thing she knew, one of the men was dead, a thrown knife in the side of his head. The others scrambled suddenly, shouting to each other, cursing, looking around for whoever had killed their comrade.

She spotted Jacob again, for only a moment. He was running low, past the body of the man he had killed, and grabbed the man's dropped rifle. The men hadn't noticed anything. They did notice, however, when a stream of bullets took down another of them. They also returned fire.

The girl watched, but suddenly heard the sound of movement behind her. She raised the gun and turned in a panic, but saw it was only her mother, rousing from her alcohol induced slumber. The elder vixen groaned slightly "What the.... Where am I?" The woman looked around, saw her daughter, and scowled at her "Beatrice, what have you done? Where are we?"

The woman was about to stand up, but the younger vixen pulled her back down "Stay down, Mother!" she tried to yell and keep her voice as a whisper at the same time.

The still mostly drunk woman would have none of that, though, pulling her arm away from her daughter and standing up anyway, baring fangs at her threateningly. "Beatrice! What the devil's gotten into you, child? You tell me where we are this instant!" She was shouting now.

The girl grabbed her mother's arm again, and again yanked her down to the ground, hard enough to actually pull the woman off balance and bring her to her knees. "Mother! Be quiet! I'll explain everything later. Right now, you need to shut up, or those men over there will come over here and shoot us!" she pointed to the firefight going on a short distance away.

This seemed to get her mother's attention "Oh my god! What the hell is going on?" After a moment, she gasped "Is that Jacob? Oh my god, are those men dead!?"

The girl sighed and looked back at the fight, then swore. Two of the men had apparently heard them. She told her mother to stay back, and to try and hide. She got the pistol ready, aimed at the closer of the two men, and pulled the trigger. The gun was definitely modified. The kickback nearly broke her arm, and sent her to the ground. Surprisingly, the sound from the shot was not as she had expected. It was somehow both deafening and muffled at the same time. She figured it probably had some kind of sound suppressor on it.

She was struggling to get back to her feet, to try and hit the second man, but before she could even get up, something hard and metallic struck the side of her head, sending stars to her eyes, and knocking her face into the grass. She heard, though muffled from her dazed state, the shout of a male voice, directed at her "You little bitch! You nearly hit me!"

She had missed. So much for all the practice she'd been doing. She shook her head to try and get her senses, but her head was suddenly filled with pain again, this time as the man reached down and grabbed her by the hair, lifting her up off the ground by it. She started to kick about, and let out a shriek of pain and rage and fear, trying vainly to strike at her captor.

The second man, a grey furred feline, had struck the girl's mother with the butt of his gun, knocking the semi-drunk vixen back into unconsciousness. "What should we do with these two, ya think?"

The first man, a human, still held the girl by the hair and laughed "We 'ought to kill 'em, but I say we keep 'em for ourselves, if y'know what I mean!"

They both had a hearty laugh at that, but the feline shook his head "Nah, mate. We don't have time. That big guy might come looking for these two." He looked down at the unconscious woman, and shook his head "Shame to do this to a pretty woman, but we got a job to do."

Beatrice saw what happened next as if it were in slow motion. She saw him aim the gun at her mother's still form, pull the trigger, and could have sworn she saw the bullets move through the air before piercing her mother's back. She watched the blood spray out of the wounds, counted as they struck, 2, 3, 4 hits, all through her lungs and heart. Her mother's body twitched and convulsed after each hit, but did not move anymore after that.

Then time came back, and she screamed. It was a shrill, high pitched shriek, so loud and visceral it tore at her throat. A scream filled with horror for what she just saw, and pure rage at the man that had done that to her mother, at herself for failing to even wound these men. She struggled even more to get out of the man's grasp, twisting and kicking back at him. The feline called to his friend "Fuck, mate! Silence that banshee child already before the big guy hears!"

Then came a voice behind the both of them, deep enough that it seemed the air vibrated with the sound. "Too late." Before either man could say anything, Jacob struck the feline hard enough to send him to the ground, dazed. The human had to let go of the girl first before he could bring his gun up, so by the time he had raised it half way, Jacob had already put a bullet between his eyes with the pistol the girl dropped when she was grabbed.

Jacob walked up to the young fox. She had been dropped to the ground, and was now on her knees, crying, and punching the dirt. She then let out a scream of pain, the kind of emotional agony that no physical wound can compare to. When she realized that someone was standing next to her, she looked up, tears soaking the fur on her face, as well as some blood from where she had been struck. What she saw was a dark furred hand holding the handle of a pistol to her. She took the gun, and looked where Jacob pointed. The man who had shot her mother was starting to come round, but still dazed on the ground. "He's all yours."

She could not even think. She didn't want to think. She didn't try. Pure rage filled her in that moment and she rose to her feet, walking over to the dazed man with purpose. She kicked him in the head as he rolled onto his back, dazing him farther. "B-bitch..." was the only word he managed to groan out at her, then spat out blood. She aimed the gun down at him, and pulled the trigger, shooting him through the chest. She was ready for the recoil this time, so it didn't knock her back. She pulled the trigger again, and then again, and again, shooting the man over and over. She heard him yell in pain after the first few shots, but he was silent long before she emptied the rest of the clip into his chest.

When the gun clicked in her hand, the clip empty, she threw it to the side. Her rage was not gone, only stronger. She fell to her knees, teeth bared, hands balled to fists, and started to pummel the now dead man's face. She punched him over and over with all her strength, screaming again. The shriek filled with her rage and agony echoed around her for any and all to hear and fear.

Eventually, she became aware of the pain in her hands and arms. She looked down at them through tear-filled eyes and saw her hands were bloody and cut. She had been beating the remains of the feline's skull, the broken bone having cut into her skin. Her arms were sore and tired from the repeated force of her blows. There wasn't much left of his face at this point. She sagged, her rage and energy spent, and looked about to fall over, but a large hand was rested on her shoulder to keep her steady. She looked up, and saw Jacob.

"Come on, girl. We need to go." His voice was quiet, and he did not look at her with any sort of judgment for what he just watched her do. If anything, he looked understanding and sympathetic... and sad.

She looked back at her mother's blood stained body. The elder vixen's head was turned so she could not see the face. That was probably a good thing. She just stared at the woman who she had despised most of her childhood life, and felt truly horrible for hating the woman who was her mother. She would never have the chance to apologize, either. So she said a silent good bye to her, and stood up to follow Jacob to the hanger they had just liberated.

Beatrice was in a haze as she walked, not seeing the bodies of the men Jacob had killed. She didn't remember entering the hanger, barely hearing Jacob voicing his worry that the ships might not be fueled. She didn't remember getting on the small scout ship that Jacob had picked. She did remember leaving the hanger, though. The ship was small, with room enough for a crew of three at most. She was strapped into the copilot's seat. This gave her a front row view as Jacob did twists and turns to avoid the ships that started firing at them, instead of the ground. He slipped past easily, and with some fancy flying, and also managed to slip through the blockade in orbit. Soon, the little ship lurched with pseudo-movement as hyperspace engines kicked on, bending the laws of physics around them as they shot into faster-than-light travel.

Bending the laws of physics. She thought that was fitting. But even breaking the fundamental laws of the universe would not help her escape what she had just gone through. Finally, after several minutes of silence, the young vixen broke down and wept.

*** Part 3 - The Offer ***


Beatrice calmed eventually. She remained silent for a long time, just staring out at the vortex of colors that was hyperspace. Blue, white, red, green, yellow and black swirled around the ship in a great spinning tunnel of energy. Despite the fact this was the first time she had ever seen the hyperspace vortex first hand, she was not really paying much attention to it. Instead, she was trying to sort out the vortex of thoughts within her head. Questions, doubts, anger, sadness, confusion, and through it all, she kept seeing her mother being shot. That scene replayed in her head over and over. Then the man she had killed. She was not horrified that she had actually killed someone. It had actually felt good to her, and that thought scared her more than any other. She rationalized that it was because it was the man that killed her mother, but she knew there was a different feeling with it; a feeling of power that seemed addictive and terrifying.

After hours of not talking, she finally voiced some of the questions that were swirling around in her head. "I'm never going to see my home again, am I?" Her voice sounded hoarse and raw. Jacob, who was reclining in the pilot's seat, just shook his head. He knew that the Necris would convert the planet into one of death within weeks. By the time any force large enough to oppose them came, it would be too late.

She looked down at her hands, which Jacob had bandaged for her at some point. She didn't even remember him doing that. They still hurt, and she saw a little blood seeping through the bandages, but she ignored the pain, thinking for a moment before asking "Mr. Jacob... how- how well did you know my mother?"

Jacob smiled for the first time since Beatrice had met him. "First off, it's just Jacob. You can drop the Mister. Anyway, I've known her for a long time. Since before you were born. I knew your father, too. He was one of my first sponsors in The Tournament." He said the last two words with enough importance that she knew it was a name, not just a title of a competition.

"The Tournament?" she asked. "What tournament?"

Jacob looked at her with surprise. "You mean you didn't know? I thought that's what that shocked look was the first time you saw me. Thought you might have recognized me." She shook her head, though she had thought he looked familiar. This caused him to laugh lightly. The dark furred feline set about hitting some controls on the flight panel, and a picture box appeared on the front view screen. The box filled with static for a moment, then filled with the image of Jacob, holding a trophy as tall as he was. Under him were the words "Unreal Tournament Grand Champion" and a date some 5 years prior.

Suddenly, something she heard a long time ago came to her. She had heard of the Unreal Tournament in school. It was some kind of ultra-violent fighting match. It used portable instant cloning units called 'Respawners' to, in effect, keep the players alive after being killed. She did not know the details of how it worked, though. "You're the Grand Champion?" she was impressed and amazed. That must have been where she'd seen him from!

He laughed again "I was the Grand Champion. I'm retired now. Figured it was best I leave while I was on top."

She was suddenly struck with an odd question "Wait... if you knew my mother when Dad was still alive, then why were you... um-?" She did not know quite how to ask the question tactfully.

Jacob figured it out anyway "Why was I sleeping with her?" She nodded, blushing a little, glad that her dark orange fur hid this from view. "Your mother did love your father, very much. When he died, something inside of her... broke. It's why she drank so much." This was all information she had figured out on her own. "He died a long time ago, though. And your mother was still a woman." He smiled broadly then "And a great fuck, at that."

"AH! Gross!" she shuddered, remembering all those sounds from her mother's room. She blushed again as the memory of when she first saw the feline swam through her head; his naked, hugely muscled body, covered in dark fur, and his well endowed and exotic looking manhood. It was true she was young, but she was not ignorant about sex. She thought upon what it might feel like to have someone as large as he was take her, and decided that it would probably hurt, since he was so much larger than her.

It struck her as odd that she was thinking these lewd thoughts, so soon after what she had just been through. Her mind was trying to avoid the despair and focus on something, anything else. It then also struck her that she had been in the ship for hours and still did not know where they were going. "Mis- uh, Jacob, where are we going, anyway?"

The large man smiled. "We're going to the planet Telmeron. I've an old friend there I'd like you to meet; woman by the name of Blaze. She runs one of the groups in The Tournament: Venom. An all-female group."

The girl looked at him, utterly befuddled. "Why?"

Jacob laughed "Because, as the former Grand Champion, I can see potential in people. And I'm something of a talent scout for new blood." He smiled to her "And the way you were screaming when you shot and beat that man... Damn girl, you're a real banshee. You keep that rage and you'll have a shot at champion yourself. With training, that is. That's where Blaze comes in."

She thought about this for a while. "What... what if this Blaze won't train me?"

"She will." He said this with certainty. "She owes me more than one favor, so she'll accept you." Again the girl just thought for a while. She should have said no, should have been horrified at the idea of being in a tournament where the goal is to kill people, even if they don't stay dead. Her thoughts were interrupted by Jacob again. "Necris compete in The Tournament. I think Hawke, the guy in charge of Hawke's Talons, is still gunning for the top, too. Might get your chance at gunning them back."

The rage hit her again as she heard those names. But it felt more controlled this time. Directed. Her eyes hardened, and she refused the tears that threatened her. She looked at Jacob with the same hard gaze he had had since their first meeting. "Yeah. Sounds good to me. I'll do it."

*** Part 4 - Her True Name ***


Beatrice did not know how long the trip was, exactly. After hours of sitting and thinking, saying very little to Jacob, she found herself drifting off to sleep. It was not a restful sleep, however, as nightmares came to her through it all. She had visions of her mother being shot, herself shooting people, herself shooting her mother, her friends' bodies refusing to die and begging for help, and the dead men around the hanger. Everything was twisted in the way only a nightmare can manifest.

Jacob just watched the girl's restless sleeping in silence. He had been through something similar when he first witnessed death as a soldier some 25 years prior. He knew the pain of watching people you considered family be killed right in front of you. He knew what it was like to kill for the first time.

The girl woke up several times, only to drift back to sleep. She kept up the restless sleep for most of the trip. Eventually, though, something woke her up; a lurching and shuddering feeling throughout the ship. She opened her eyes and saw blearily as the tunnel of hyperspace faded away around the ship as they dropped back into normal space. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, and gave a good look out the view screen. Dominating most of the view was a large planet, mostly covered in blue waters, with splatters of green and brown land, all partially hidden under swirls of white clouds. "Is that Telmeron?"

Jacob nodded "Yes it is." He set about making the ship enter the atmosphere. Flames erupted around them as they made the descent through the ozone. Once the ship was through, Jacob aimed it for one of the small island-like continents. The ship descended at a rapid pace. Soon, the girl saw what looked like a city. Once they got closer, she saw it was, in fact, the ruins of a city.

The ship slowed as it flew over burnt buildings, most of which had chunks missing from what looked like heavy weapons fire. It looked like a war happened here, and the city paid for it. There was no movement down there, either. No hover or ground vehicles, no people walking. No other ships in the sky, either.

Eventually, there was a building that looked intact in the distance. Obviously a hanger, the grey cube of a building was huge, at least forty stories tall. She guessed it had to be half a mile across, and just as long. Massive bay doors opened for them after Jacob typed something into the communication panel, and the ship flew through. Once inside, she saw there were lines of other small ships, all docked in small lots, like a parking garage for spaceships. Jacob landed the ship in one of the empty lots and set about the shutdown process.

The girl unstrapped herself from the seat, and stood up. She found her body was stiff from the long journey, but the cabin was far too small to stretch out, so she waited for Jacob to finish shutting down the ship. Once he was done, he got up, walked past her, and opened the ramp. Following him out, she stretched, and then nearly stumbled. It was the first time she had ever set foot on a different world, and she found the gravity was different from what she was used to. Similar, but just slightly heavier. Jacob managed not to chuckle at her, which she was very thankful for.

After composing herself, she looked around at her new surroundings. She did not recognize any of the symbols on the ships sitting in the hanger. Each ship seemed to be a different design entirely. There must have been over a hundred ships, and every one was something different.

At Jacob's beckoning, she followed him to a large set of doors, leading to an elevator, which shot downward an incredible speed once the doors closed. By how long it took to go down, even at this speed, she figured they were underground when the doors finally slid open again.

She followed Jacob out, and found herself in the most technologically advanced room she had ever seen. There were key panels everywhere, flashing lights, screens that looked like panes of glass, all flashing some information or another. The walls were lined with lights and monitors, all showing something different. People of all sorts of races, dressed in a myriad of uniforms, none of them matching another, were at the monitors or stations, all typing into keyboards, or speaking to someone through a headset microphone. What the girl guessed was the main wall was covered in a screen depicting the planet in a wide, orbital view. She realized, suddenly, that they must have been watching their ship the whole time.

As she looked around, someone approached them. She turned when she realized the person was coming to them. The woman was a feline, and tall, around six feet, and wore a red jumpsuit, covered in what looked like armor. Red with gold trim, hard, but flexible as she moved. Her face was pretty, but just as hard as her armor, with blue eyes cold as steel. The flame colored hair atop her head was short and spiked slightly, and her fur matched in color, with streaks of orange in a tiger pattern. She reminded the girl of her friend Nitro, something that sent a twinge of grief through her for a moment. On the woman's right arm sleeve was an emblem that looked to be a cobra head, framed in a gold circle. At her hip was a belt, with a pistol holstered in it. The girl could not help but notice that the pistol was the same as Jacob's.

Jacob smiled as she saw the dangerous looking woman "Blaze! Been a long time." He looked like he was going to hug the woman, but when she got close enough, she slapped him across the face, and hard. The girl was surprised by this, but Jacob just laughed "Yeah, I guess I deserved that."

Blaze's voice was deep and powerful, and she had a slight but noticeable accent Beatrice could not quite place. "Damn straight! You go off and abandon me. Again I might add! And then come back here and expect a warm welcome?" Beatrice looked worried; Jacob had said this woman was a friend. Then, something unexpected happened. Blaze pulled Jacob into a kiss. A very deep kiss. What the hell was going on?

Jacob just laughed through it all, even the kiss, though his laugh was muffled to a chuckle. Once the woman pulled back, he spoke "Well, it seems you haven't changed a bit. Still the fiery tempered kitty I remember."

Blaze smiled, and it seemed her anger was just an act. She punched Jacob's shoulder, though it did not look held back any, as the large man actually moved at the hit. The woman then seemed to finally notice her. "Who's this? She's a vixen, and the fur's wrong, so it can't be one of your illegitimate child. A fan of yours?"

Jacob shook his head "This is Mariel and Doug's daughter." Those were her parents names. Blaze seemed to know who her parents were, too, as she just nodded. "Her home was attacked. Necris-hired mercs." He paused for a moment before adding "Mariel's dead.'' He nodded toward Beatrice. "She witnessed it, too. Hawke's group did it."

The girl looked down as she was reminded of it all again, but then looked up as Blaze approached her. "Tough thing for a kit to witness. I'm sorry about your mother." She looked then to Jacob, and asked "Why'd you bring her here?"

Jacob looked to the girl, then to Blaze "This kid's got potential. She gunned down one of the mercs, and then beat his face into mush once the clip ran dry." Blaze quirked an eyebrow and looked at the girl's bandaged hands, which still hurt a little. Beatrice unconsciously flexed her fingers. Jacob continued. "You should train her. She'll make a good addition to Venom."

Blaze scoffed "A scrawny little kit like this? It's going to take a lot of training, Jacob."

Jacob just laughed "It took a lot of training to get you up to your level, too. Or do I need to remind you again?"

Blaze glared at him "Fine, I get the point." She then looked at the young fox, who had remained silent this whole time. "What's your name, girl?"

She hesitated a moment before answering, "Beatrice."

Blaze shook her head "Hmph. You say that name with disgust and detachment. It's not yours. So tell me: What. Is. Your. Name?" Every word was said with purpose.

The girl looked at her, a little surprised. It was true that she hated the name given to her. It was girly, and not her at all, but she had just accepted it. Now she had the chance to give herself a new name, like she had wanted back with her gang. But what? She thought for a moment, and came back to the same thing every time. She remembered what the mercs had called her, and what Jacob had said to her. So she looked up at the woman, green eyes hardening as she looked into Blaze's steely blue gaze, and told the woman her new name. Her true name.

"My name is Banshee."

*** End Chapter ***
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