They're coming back

"but as the day when the world declared in one voice. WE WILL NOT GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT; WE WILL NOT VANISH WITHOUT A FIGHT. WE'RE GOING TO LIVE ON; WE'RE GOING TO SURVIVE. TODAY WE CELEBRATE OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY!"

Feugo paused the recording and looked at the rows of dragonets in his classroom. "That, students, was a scavenger known as President, Thomas J, Whitmore, giving a speech that rallied the other scavengers, and ultimately led them to victory.

"They shouldn't have been allowed to celebrate their independence day," A young Icewing in the back said.

"They should have all died!" Chimed in a Mudwing in the second row.

"Yeah," said all the dragonets in unison.

A Skywing in the back lowered his head and spoke in a solemn voice. "My mom said I had a brother that was part of that mission, and that he was on the command ship when it blew."

A Seawing spoke up. "My father was part of that battle where the scavengers took down that first ship." Several dragonets started talking about the parents or siblings they had lost.

Feugo listened to everything the dragonets said then spoke with a compassionate voice. "Yeah I know, lots of us lost people we cared about that day; ME, I lost my best friend in the whole world. But we are going to avenge them; we are going to make the scavengers pay for what they did.

A Mudwing in the front took notice of what Feugo said. "Oh yeah, that ship, Sandwing Queen Sphinx, is working on; it's twice the size of a normal harvester ship." He said. Feugo replied to the Mudwings statement. "That it is." He turned around and got on his computer and brought up a picture of a massive ship.

"The Scavenger Slayer," Queen Sphinx, had ordered work on it eighteen years ago; a matter of months after the failed attack on the last scavenger world. To use it to get revenge on the scavengers, and now after years of work; it's finally ready to wipe them out of existence, and they will not stop us this time.

Just then the bell rang and all the students started to get up from their seats. "Ok students, next weeks assignment is to tell what went wrong during the battle for the last scavenger world; and what they could have done do to prevent it," Feugo said to the students as they grabbed their stuff and left the classroom.

After they left, Feugo began to grade all the work his students had done that day. He was in the middle of checking the answers on the work turned in from the icewing from earlier. When there was a knock at the door. "It's open." He called out, and then the door opened and a beige Sandwing walked in (Feugo's wife) Scarab. caught off-guard, he asked about her surprise visit. "Honey, what are you doing here?"

Scarab closed the door behind her, walked over to face Feugo, looked him dead in the eyes, and spoke. "Feugo, I'm just gonna get straight to the point here, you need to join that mission, tomorrows the last day to signup." He sighs in exasperation. "Scarab, I thought we talked about this, I have no place on that mission; I'm a teacher, not a fighter." seemingly having given up, she made her way to the door, only to stop and ask Feugo something. "Honey, come walk with me in the hall, please."

"But I have to grade these papers." He protested, pointing to the stacks of work in front of him. "Please," She begged him.

"But I..." He continued to protest, but then she sent him a look that told him he had to listen. "All right," he said, giving in. He got up from his desk, crossed the short distance to the door, and came to stand by his wife. Taking his wing; he draped it over her back, as he opened the door for them. They stepped out into the long-empty corridor. The hall had lockers all along the left side, while doors to several classrooms were all along the right. As they walked upon the checkered floor, Scarab spoke up with a soft tone.

"I understand your reluctance to join, you feel that you need to be here for me and the kids, but we'll be ok. The fact is, Scar was your best friend and now you have a chance to help avenge his death, you can't turn it down."

It was true, he and Scar had been best friends, they did everything together. He remembered when they first met in school, Scar had been playing with some toy scavengers he had made in arts and crafts and was proceeding to destroy them, being them toys of "scavengers" it made total sense. Feugo saw Scar playing and decided to go and say hi, and asked if he could join in. When Scar told him that they could build a small Scavenger city out of blocks and they could destroy it together Feugo was all for it. They had tons of fun of together, destroying that toy city, and when Feugo asked Scar if he wanted to be friends, Scar said yes. From then on it had been their childhood dream, that when they were old enough, they would join the fight to destroy the scavengers.

But things didn't turn out that way exactly. Feugo met Scarab in their last year of school, and they started going out, and eventually, Feugo dropped the idea of fighting the scavengers in favor of starting a family with Scarab.

"Are you sure you three will be ok?" He finally asked. She took her right paw and placed it gently against his head. "I'm sure." There was now no mistaking it, Feugos decision was clear. "alright, I'll go." He said right before placing his paw over hers and kissing her.

The next day, Feugo arrived outside the signup camp. it was nothing too fancy, just a bunch of tents in an empty lot. And out on the horizon, was the glimmering jewel itself: The Scavenger Slayer. He had seen many pictures of the ship, but it was even grander in person. A harvester ship unlike any other; it had been created for this reason alone, to finish what they had started so long ago. it had been voted on that instead of colonizing the planet, they would drill out its core instead, because when the scavengers destroyed the first fleet, the planet had been desecrated by the deaths of all those dragons, and was now unfit for colonization.

Feugo crossed the lot and headed for the tent on the farthest right and got in the line for signup. While waiting he took the chance to look around, off to the left of the lot there was a large tent that looked to house equipment and gear for all the dragons signing up. Right across from it, there was a tent where he saw a bunch of dragons eating, so he assumed it was the mess-hall. At the back of the lot, there was a path with a checkpoint leading to the ship. The whole place was alive with activity as dragons went about their business, prepping for the attack.

In his observations, he failed to notice that he was now at the front of the line. Upon realizing this, he entered the tent and looked around, it was fairly empty save for a Stationary camera and a couple of other electronic devices on a table. Walking up to the Rainwing that was waiting behind a desk at the end of the line he spoke. "Hi, I'm here to signup for the mission." He said.

"Name?" The Rainwing asked. "Feugo." He said giving the Rainwing his name. "and how old are you?" The Rainwing asked again. "Uh, 37," Feugo said in response.

After a few moments, the Rainwing spoke again. "Ok, if you'll step back here, we can take your picture and get you your ID badge." He said redirecting Feugo to a camera in the back of the tent. Doing as told, Feugo went and stood in front of the camera. "Ok, now look at the lens." Instructed the Rainwing. Feugo looked at the lens and then there was a flash as the camera went off. The Rainwing then took the photo and proceded to print the ID.

"Now just wait a few moments for the Badge to print out." Said the Rainwing, Feugo waited patently as The Rainwing printed out his ID; and was glad when the printer stopped. " There you go," Said the Rainwing handing Feugo his ID badge. "You are now officially part of the team."

"Thanks," Feugo replied. Then he looked at the Rainwing with determination in his eyes "We're gonna make the scavengers pay." The Rainwing returned the look." that we are." Changing his tone, he directed Feugo on where to go next. "Now just head over to the equipment tent and they'll get you all squared away." Thanking the Rainwing, Feugo headed to the tent from before. He crossed the short distance and came upon the entrance to the equipment tent.

Once inside he saw all manner of gear on racks along the sides of the tent: shield packs, plasma blasters, plasma grenades, and other types of weapons, all for solders to take on the mission. He walked to the back of the tent and spoke with a dark brown Mudwing officer to get his gear. "Hello, I was told by the Rainwing over in signup to come to get my equipment." He said showing his ID.

"Ah, another recruit, very well then, go find yourself a shield pack and a plasma rifle, and then go to the check-in." Said the Mudwing.

Doing as he was told Feugo grabbed a shield pack and a burst plasma rifle, placed them between his wings, exited the tent, and started on his way to the checkpoint. As he walked he looked back to the signup tent and saw other dragons inline; it made happy to know that so many dragons wanted to help finish off the scavengers. He reached his destination and handed his Id to a Seawing at check-in; after a few seconds the Seawing handed him back his ID, as well as the location for his sleeping quarters. Upon getting this info, he unfurled his wings, leaped into the air and made his way to the ship. As he flew, he looked off in the distance and saw other signup camps strewn all over the terrain.

As his destination approached, Feugo set down on a path that led up to the docking bay for the Scavenger Slayer and made his way there. He passed other dragons as he headed for the bay-some coming some going- all lending a paw for the upcoming mission. Upon arriving at the entrance, he marveled at the large gates that lay open for dragons to come and go, he and made his way inside. He passed through the gate and stepped into the hanger, it was a wide-open space, filled with runways. All over the hanger, there were trucks filled with supplies to take on the ship. There was a bridge extending from the middle of the bay, all the way to the Scavenger Slayer. The large hanger reminded Feugo of the day when Scar came back from destroying the last scavenger world, back then he never would have imagined, that the last scavenger world would stop the attack. Crossing the hanger he made his way onto the bridge and headed for the ship.

When he reached the middle of the bridge, he looked down at the long drop to the ground and was grateful he had wings. Continuing on his way, he crossed the remainder of the bridge and came to stop at the entrance to the ship. It was in the shape of a circle, With green lights all around the circumference, indicating it was safe to enter. Passing through the gate, he followed the path down a long circular hallway to a big bridge that branched off in all directions. What he saw next, took his breath away; the inside of the ship was massive; everywhere he looked, he could see wide open spaces, huge columns, and platforms all over the place. looking down, he saw all kinds of fields that supplied food and large rivers that spanned the whole ship. Composing himself, and taking his eyes off the amazing site, he continued down the path to the barracks. Nearing the end of the bridge, he came across a large dome with several levels; these served as small cities for the dragons that were joining the mission, there were hundreds of these all over the ship.

Leaving the bridge and heading into the city block, which was promptly titled: CB17. He took a right turn down a brightly lit street, with support beams every fifteen feet, all the buildings on the street were barracks, but his destination was on a different level. passing other dragons going about there work, Feugo turned a corner a headed down a flight of stairs.

Once he reached the bottom, he came upon his destination, there in front of him was the barracks he had been assigned to, walking forward he crossed the street, and headed for the barracks. Reaching the building, he opened the barracks door and walked into a room filled with cots that had trunks in front of them, placed up against plain walls. He walked around looking for a cot, as tons of them had already been taken by other dragons when he was in the middle of the room, he spotted a couple of unused cots and promptly took one. Opening up the trunk at the foot of the cot he placed his shield and rifle inside. As he was putting his gear in the trunk, an Icewing took the cot next to his. The Icewing had a tough air about him, he had pale skin that was covered in battle scars, and there where several holes in his right-wing. Feugo wanted to ask about them but wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

"You know it's rude to stare." He said, aware of Feugo eyeing his scars. Feugo stuttered. "Oh uh I-I'm-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stair, I just-." Feugo tried to apologize but was interrupted by the Icewing. "Let me guess, you want to know how I got my Scars?" He said reading Feugos thoughts. The Icewing fell silent for a few seconds as if thinking about something. "Alright." He said in a mildly exasperated tone. The names Scorch, and I got ambushed by a group of scavengers on their twelveth world, they managed to wreck my shield and get in a few good hits before I killed them." The Icewing said in a gruff voice.

"They're cool. Feugo said plainly, gesturing to the scars. "They make you look tough." Scorch looked at Feugo and spoke in a slightly annoyed tone. "I am tough." Feugo thought about the Icewings name for a second ."Scorch, that's uh- that's an odd name for an Icewing isn't it?" He said inquiring about the name.

"My parents had a thing for irony, NOW WILL YOU PLEASE LEAVE ME ALONE!" Scorch snaped at Feugo. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you," Feugo said apologetically. A few seconds after Feugo apologized, Scorch sighed. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, I've just- I've been having a tough day."

"It's ok," Feugo told him reassuringly. "So, what's wrong?" Feugo asked. "it's nothing, just personal stuff." Scorch told him. "Thanks for asking though." He told him appreciatively.

All of a sudden a voice spoke over the intercom. "Attention all crew, this is the Captian speaking, we are preparing for take-off, you might want to hold on to something." A few seconds later the ship started to shake, indicating that it was taking off. "HERE WE GO!" Feugo said in anticipation. The ship continued to shake for a few more moments before it settled down. "Congratulations everyone, we have broken orbit and are now en route to Earth, the last scavenger world" Once he finished, the room erupted in cheers.

"prepare yourselves scavengers, we're coming for you," Feugo said confidently.