"No, we can't get out here! The caterpillar tracks are busted!" shouted a voice over the communication network as Aranea and her pack closed in on the source of intense gunfire. "We have wounded; one of the tanks is on fire! I can't just abandon my men! We need reinforcements!"

"Understood, Sergeant. We're heading to you as fast as we can. Hold on," responded a female voice.

Aranea's growl forced her pack to charge on all fours and climb onto the roofs to avoid a potential ambush on the streets. From the sound of it, their allies were in deep shit.

Today she was leading her entire pack, aside from the recovering Sonya and two warriors who had damaged their legs on a training course. Twenty-seven Wolfkins, a force enough to bring a city to heel. But that wasn't all. Olesya's pack was closing in on the place from a different direction, and the wolf hags exchanged video feeds.

Their forces were on a regular patrol when they received an urgent call for help from allied forces in a nearby village. Its people had petitioned for aid after the Resistance looted the place clean. Not willing to take any chances after the incidents with the greenies, Command had dispatched a convoy composed of two tanks and four trucks to provide relief and accept the fealty of the new subjects.

Once, the area used to be one enormous city, full of towering skyscrapers, surrounded by urban sections and sprawling subway stations, with roads connecting various levels for the citizens to traverse. The Extinction put an end to that, and the city folded in on itself, leaving a tomb to human ingenuity, with the abandoned skyscrapers sticking out like sore thumbs.

Nowadays, barely a few thousand settlers have found their refuge here. The convoy had arrived, distributing supplies and leading negotiations. Everything was fine at first, then all the Abyss broke loose.

The village stood between two towers, whose peaks still parted an occasional cloud. Although sandstorms quickly dealt with those who dared to settle inside these shining obelisks, they also provided adequate protection from the fury of nature for those below. Today, the enemy forces sprang their ambush from inside these shining monoliths. The silver masks' sniper teams opened fire as their allies on the ground launched their assault.

Flanked by flying drones, Aranea's pack charged past damaged buildings, noting the recent bullet holes and breaches caused by tank shells. They soon ran into four silver masks firing at the state's forces on the square. Yuki and Kate leaped ahead in an instant. Not bothering with shardguns, their claws ripped through clothes, shredding the bodies.

The Reclaimers were pinned in the middle of the village square, a simple clearing amid the scattered debris. Anger rose in Aranea upon seeing corpses, both those of civilians and soldiers alike. An explosion had toppled a truck to the side, and flames kept bursting from fist-sized holes in its armor. With an ear-piercing scream that shook the pebbles, a fresh hole appeared in the still-active tank. The crew responded by aiming their twin cannons at the skyscraper in the distance. The shells left the barrels, exploding in the distance and causing two rooms to collapse, along with little broken forms of bandits. Another group of pillagers fired at the soldiers from inside a store.

"Sly, smoke screens at once! Kostya, clear the building of opposition," Aranea commanded.

Sly and three other Wolfkins—two males and one thin-looking warrior, who was small even by the standards of males—charged forward, tossing grenades around the battlefield and hiding it in a thick layer of dark fog. Lights slashed through the veil, announcing that Kostya's group had found their targets.

"Reinforcements have arrived!" Aranea yelled as the tank's cannon turned toward them. Again, the head-splitting wail came, and a round hole formed in front of the wolf hag's leg, making her wonder what sort of weapons the bastards 'were using. Not even her crimson eye could spot the projectile. "Kaleb, grab the injured from the second tank and leg it!"

"On it!" Kaleb nodded, rushing to the target with long bounds. The shardgun in his hands barked once, swatting aside a pair of silver masks hiding in the ruins near the downed tank. Then the ground beneath him erupted, and clawed hands reached for his ankles.

Kate outpaced even Aranea's shot, crashing into the Wolfkin and tossing him aside. The shards flew to her left, shearing a head from the greenie, but the second one landed its blow on her shoulder. With a split pauldron and a bleeding gash, Kate jumped past the greenie when it stabbed its arm into her face. Miraculously, the scout evaded the blow by twisting her head and grabbed the monster by the back of its head. She kicked its knee, breaking it, and slammed the creature face down with full force, finishing it with a stomp on its head and chest.

"Thanks, Kate!" Kaleb cheerfully shouted, stepping to treat her wound. Her glance stopped him.

"Concentrate on your orders, male, and leave me alone," the scout commanded in an even voice, reaching for her laser rifle. Despite the smoke, the lenses of her helmet shifted, finding and tracking the target spotted by a drone. She weighed her rifle, licked her lips, and fired. A red ray briefly linked the rifle with the skyscraper. "One," Kate said, rolling to the right. With an infernal wail, four holes riddled the spot where the scout had stood a second earlier.

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It bought the time needed. Kaleb knocked on the tank's tower hatch, trying to get the people inside to open it, and Aranea heard screams of pain and desperate explanations caught by his helmet. The accumulated damage had jammed both exits, and the three-man crew ended up trapped, trying to free their comrade from the flames licking their boots.

"Don't sweat the small stuff," Kaleb advised, sinking his claws under the hatch and bulging his muscles.

"We're cooking in here, you smartass! Get to safety or…"

"No, you're not." With a loud tear of metal echoed across the battlefield, Kaleb opened the exit and dove inside. "S'up, buddies, let's get you out of the flame trap."

More greenies burrowed from underground, rising in a shower of dust behind Sly and the thin warrior. Aranea snarled, realizing that the girl had raised her shardgun too late. With the press of a button, Sly sent both drones into the nearest greenie, halting the beast long enough for Aranea to be upon it. Her claws ran from the back of their heads to their waists, opening them up like bags. Two greenies dropped dead, and the third fell back, finished off by the shards slicing through his sternum.

"My thanks, Wolf Hag," the warrior spoke in a hushed tone, her shardgun steady in her paws, and she fired again, stopping another greenie from goring a male on her team.

"Why are you so slow? Are you ill?" Aranea growled. Hesitation could be expected from the males, but the warriors were supposed to be better than that. The smaller woman shuddered as if she had been struck and continued to cover her team. "Carry on, fine job."

What is Yuki doing? This new warrior belonged to Yuki's pack. An oddball, often scared at nothing. No one wanted her in their pack, so Aranea took her under her wing after discovering her invaluable trait of accepting orders from males without complaint, making her a perfect comrade for Sly's supporting pack. Aranea had asked Yuki how the recruit was doing. The scout shrugged and said she wasn't any worse than anyone else.

As if! Once we get back, I'll shove an entire cusack down her throat. Food. Training. My pack must be at the top.

She tore through four greenies, catching them as they climbed to the surface, letting her frustrations bolster her agility and might. She heard her soldier cry out when a greenie dislocated his arm. Kostya blew the creature away, sending its remains rolling through the store's broken door, then stepped outside and let his troops tend to their comrade.

"All clean, Wolf Hag." He reloaded his weapon, waiting for his team. The elderly Wolfkin grew more relaxed and focused in the recent days, no longer despairing over his failing physical attributes and learning to live with them. His shardgun fired, driving another beast away from the group.

A silver mask peeked out from the second floor of the ruins on the left, ready to gun down Sly as he bent over to pick up his broken machines. An acid grenade struck the man in the face, and he disappeared in the devouring sphere, burned to the bone. Yuki joined Sly, slapping him behind the head.

"Be careful."

"But the drones! Maybe I can…"

"Drop them! I'll fetch you better ones," she interrupted him.

"Continue clearing the area; eliminate any silver masks you encounter." Aranea told Kostya, ripping the head from a greenie's shoulders, and came to a halt, hearing a scream.

A male stumbled back, holding a paw over the slashed opening in his chest. A warrior answered his call, turning to fire on the opponent when the familiar wails filled the air, coming from the direction of the south skyscraper. Unseen projectiles snapped the warrior's leg, leaving her left paw dangling by strings of muscle, bypassing the protective plates as if they were nothing, and disappearing the flesh. Blood gushed from the wounds, indicating that whatever they were, they were not lasers.

The retreating male had been saved by the thin warrior, who pressed the barrel of her weapon to its belly and speared through it. The thing thrashed, grabbing both opponents and hurling them outside the smoke cloud.

Stones cracked under Aranea's feet; her paws beheaded two greenies in her path as she updated Olesya about the location of the snipers' nest. The thin warrior raised her paws over her head, wisely giving out a universal sign of surrender, and the male repeated the gesture. Aranea's crimson eye spotted two figures in the northern skyscraper. One was skinny, and the other was bulky. The bulky figure lifted a silver-encrusted rifle and fired. Once again, Aranea failed to see the projectile or any spark from the weapon. The recoil tossed the bulky enemy backward, accidentally saving him from Kate's beam that sliced over him, and the snout of the male soldier disappeared. Not dented in, not cleaved through, but a torn, bleeding mesh of hissing wires and leaking brain matter replaced his face.

Sahir. The name came to Aranea. She had no need to check the icons on her display to know that the shot had killed him instantly. Her failure, and he had paid the price. The skinny figure took aim at the warrior but did not shoot. That hesitation was all the opening Aranea needed to grab her soldier and run headfirst through a building wall. They landed inside. She checked that the frightened Wolfkin was unharmed, then contacted her pack.

"Yuki, Kate, you are in charge while I am away. Be aware of the underground creatures and don't trust any locals you meet too much. There may be collaborators."

"Where are you going?" demanded Yuki.

To butcher. No one else will die because of my immaturity. "To remove obstacles. The south tower will be taken care of by Olesya. I'll clear the northern pit."

"Stay safe. I removed two bastards from it, but there are at least three more," Kate warned.

"Will do. Kostya, pinpoint my location and aid the warrior here."

"I am sorry for being a burden, Wolf Hag. I can still fight, Wolf Hag." The warrior attempted to stand, still in deep shock. Aside from several light bruises reported by her systems, she was unharmed.

But Aranea heard the fear in her voice and saw her trembling paws. The girl was in no condition to stay in combat. Aranea shoved her back on the floor and placed a foot on the warrior's chest, trying to remember her name. She summoned the information on the display and frowned. "What's your name, kid?"

Kid. As if I'm much older!

"Tiny, honored Wolf Hag," the warrior answered without the slightest signs of disobedience.

"Stay put until Kostya arrives." She stepped from her, facing the wall to her north. Tiny. It sounded more like a nickname than a proper name. If that's another of Yuki's pranks, then I'll bite her. She calmed herself, remembering Philip's lessons. But first, I must assess the situation.

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