Leon's Taile

A gray -furred Jaguar with scars on his body wearing dark-blue cargo shorts and a dark undershirt is relaxing on a couch, blinking at someone approaching.  "Mm....so my story huh?  You wanna hear about how old Leon Baron got to this point?  Alright, well...sit back. It's a bit of a story, one I don't recall all the details exactly but I will share what all I recall...."  With a soft sigh, Leon's eyes light up faintly.  "Be ready to listen boss."

Ever since I was a kid I was a hardass.  Oh yeah, lemme get it out of the way, I was a human at birth.  Why change? Eh felt likt it. Anyway, seemed to always have an attitude, had few friends.  And which friends I did have, they knew they could count on me.  Despite the hardass I am, I'm a loyal hardass.  Never one to back down from a fight if my friends were gonna be hurt.  Heh, this did get me with alot of bruises but I kept on fighting.  I'm a bit of a sore loser. Also I was never in much trouble.  I just knew what to avoid...guess it doesn't help that I came from a military family.  Guess I picked up somethings from my relatives.

Ah yes...this leads onto the next bit. The military.  The solar system I'm from originally had this...rather corrupt government in control.  They were called the "UFE", and before you ask, I honestly do not recall what that stood for.  Hell even my friend Al can't remember.  Anyway...my family were all loyal the these bastards.  Blindly following the system in place.  And they wanted me to follow in their footsteps, despite my attempts to avoid it.  Unfortunately they already had me signed up and I was hauled off to training, great way to spend a 21st birthday huh?  Not the top soldier but still damn good, even in insubordinate often.  But due to my family's standing with the UFE, they just brushed it off.  As I said, corrupt government.

I really hated serving these guys...the 'best' thing I can say I did in their service was actually helping people.  If there's one thing I can say I do good is that. Helping and protecting innocent civvies from threats...even if it was other soldiers from the UFE.  Luckily I wasn't alone, there were others who shared my distrust of the government.  Namely a fellow soldier named Laru, big taur with a pink Mohawk.  Trust me, THAT is a hard thing to forget.  We would meet with a rebel group when we could to share intel about UFE movement...that is until I was apparently bugged and used as a unwilling mole.  Laru and the other rebels fled while I was given a...promotion for my 'service to the Federation'...I know the F stood for Federation at least.

So yeah, big time Captain...wasn't happy.  This was merely a means for them to have a tighter leash on me.  I couldn't do missions unless it was authorized by the brass.  On one such mission I met the best doctor I know, Al Korso.

He's a lizard with silver scales, black hair...oh and a cybernetic left arm and tail.  He lost both of those limbs while in the army.  He too was not fully sided with the UFE but not as 'loud' about it as me.  He was just there so he could aid others, so his heart's in the right place.  Poor bugger lost his tail in a accident in a launch bay, and his arm from a skirmish where he tried to aid a wounded hostile.  I wasn't present for either but...I wish I was so I could've watched out for the poor guy.  I lost in touch with him for a while because the vessel he was on got ambushed on it's way back from a mission by some pirates.  I wanted to send a rescue but all those above me declined it and said 'we can be without a few soldiers and one medic'...really pissing me off.

Next next...what's next...Oh yeah.  How's bout the first time I died?  Got a mission from some high and mighty General, was supposed to go and retake an abandoned outpost and get a UFE foothold on one of the fringe worlds...yeah "abandoned" they said.  Get there and after a few hours we are set upon by some very well armed mercs.  I'm getting shot up to shit and telling my guys to get the hell out.  I try to send a distress call, only to get shot up to hell and back.  I'm left bleeding out, call jammed, guys safe...and I started seeing things.  Seeing the figure of a woman with a skull for a face, approaching me...with a frown on her face.  I saw her mouth moving but I couldn't hear anything...then blackness.


Who knows how long I was 'out' but, suddenly I wake up in what looked like a lab of some kind.  Thought I was wearing a helmet because I had a HUD doing various system checks.   Heard voices talking before a female tech walks into view, asks me how I'm feeling.  "Uh...hard to say...where am I? ....And why do I not feel anything?"  Was what I said to her.  And she explains that I had a bad firefight, cost me my body...however.  My brain was intact and they 'salvaged' it.  I was now a damn brain in a robot.  They set me up, got me killed, and took my brain.  Worst part?  They locked off sections of my memories.   Many things were blank or slightly altered, but I couldn't tell. As of then I was another soldier in their brain bot program.  One of many unfortunate souls.

Oh yeah, remember that woman I mentioned before? She appeared again when I was alone, popped up out of nowhere.  Saying something about me catching her eye...then she teases me before vanishing.  This really made me start missing having a fleshy body...

For days I was in training firefights with dummy rounds alongside other brainbots.  We were an experimental soldier type so they wanted to see how we'd fare.  It looked like things were a success...until some of us started going rampant.  Losing their minds and attacking, and in some cases, killing others.  Turns out not every brain can accept the fact that it's in a robotic body.  As for me? I was one of the lucky sane few. More and more cases of this popped up until the project was shut down.  And all of us, even the non-crazies, were to be disposed off.  Taken to some space station to be scraped...and well killed.  The bastards were cruel to keep us powered up so we could experience it.

...Then she appeared again.  I wanted to talk to her but I feel I'd be taken for another crazy.  So I simply said... "Who?"  And she responded with a slight frown.  "Death....I'm sorry it seems your time is already up..."  The fact she said she was 'Death' made me shudder a bit...but hey, I can't stop it.

Or I have some insane luck.  Me and 'Death' get shaken by the transport vessel rocking and my locks releasing.  The crazies got out and started taking over the ship.  My lady friend chuckled at me.  "Or maybe not...I'm gonna keep my eyes on you Leon.~"  And just like that, she's gone again.  Alarms blaring, gunshots firing, everything going to hell.  I rush to to cockpit to take control of the ship and head to a rebel outpost I hoped was safe.  Yeah, didn't happen as the crazies wrecked the ship's engine and we're going down.  Crashing on a nearby plant.

And that's where the fun began...I survived the crash, a bit dinged up, but 'alive'. Lady Death is there looking over me along with a couple of...I guess the best I could say are mutants?  They were messed up somehow, hell one of them sneezed radiation on me.  I couldn't understand them at first until I tried a translator, which was luckily built into me.  I asked for help, and they asked back.  Came to an agreement to help each other.  They get someone to repair me, I get them a way off world.  A pretty fair deal if you ask me.

Just wish the person they got to help me get fixed was a moron.  This idiot named Vincent, says he's a crew member on some ship called the Cortana. He says he's gonna send out a locator signal to let his crew know where he is.  Idiot had turned on his DISTRESS BEACON.  His crew thinks he's in fucking danger! Two of them come to rescue him, one being a demon and the other a gun toting mechanic.  The demon dude nearly crushing me with some shadow magic.  Until Vincent freaks out and tells the asshole to back off and he was there on his own will.  Ugh...I wont forget that moron's stupidity.

But holy shit, was this a blessing!  I get on this ship, the Cortana, and I meet up with old friends!  Fucking Al was alive and well!  This ship's doctor!  I was so happy to see him again, even though my robot body threw him off, he was glad to have me aboard.  Then there was the ship's captain. Laru, the pink mohawked taur chick.  Got herself a ship, fighting the good fight against the UFE.  Quickly agreed to join if they could repair me,  and keep Vincent away from me.

Quite a crew that was...boy it was weird.  We had: A brain bot, a doctor with cybernetic limbs, pink-mohawked taur, a shadow demon, gun-toting mechanic, a idiot who nearly got me killed, a hacker girl with skates, uh twins sharing one body....that was weird, and more.  It was crazy. But it was good times...good times...

Sigh...not all good times last as we know.  Barely on the ship a month, shit gets real.  We're involved with some heavy alien government shit.  Turns out the UFE fucked up something VERY important to this race of people called 'Solars', might as well have been gods in that system.  There were only some few hundred of them.  And all of them pissed off at the UFE.  Them, and 5 other factions of rebels.  And our ship, the Cortana? At the heart of it all.   Our crew lead many skirmishes against the UFE....but it was rough. Laru affected by it most...

"Mm...I think I need a bit of a break, bleh...talking for so long. I want to get up and stretch.  How bout we go for a walk and get some food, ey Sherona?"
-End of Part 1