Chapter 17: Chapter 16

Aranea woke up to the sound of grinding gears. She opened her eyes and looked at the steel ceiling above her. Removing the blanket from her body, she pushed the scout from Olesya's pack away from her body in order to get some free space, and stood up, stretching her body, and looked into the porthole near her. She could see part of a massive steel wing, the metal wing was shifting as the vehicle was adjusting itself in preparation for landing. Clouds were filling the view of the porthole while the machine was descending.

The wolf hag and her pack were inside a flying transport, an ugly looking box-shaped beast of the skies. Two massive wings with countless engines helped keep the machine in the air. In preparation to land, wings were currently being folded around the bulk of transport, and gravity generators at the bottom of the vehicle were coming online, slowing down the pace of the machine, allowing for a slow and precise descent upon the crawler below.

The behemoth of the skies was transporting them to Belaz, the second largest city in the lands of Regulators. The blue wyrm forces had already laid siege to the city, and an assault was on the way.

Why are we here then? Aranea wondered, looking through the porthole as windy plains became visible. After a week of resting, they were called to a new mission, a simple assist duty. Transports were provided for wolfkins to reach their goal.

On the ground, rows of vehicles from the state could be seen slowly making their way toward Belaz. From time to time, caravans of locals could be seen, surrounded by state troops. After passing inspections, locals will be let go on their way. Aranea knew that the assault was led by nearly twenty thousand troops, but seeing just how many more were on their way still… "Why are we even needed? Surely resistance can’t stand up to such numbers."

The "living compartment" where passengers were sleeping, was actually just a simple, large room meant for transporting goods. Packs of Aranea, Olesya, and Annie were tightly packed inside, sleeping on each other as they waited for their destination. Their armors and weapons were packed in crates in this same room, limiting free space even more. In one corner of the room was Olesya, encased in her Shell armor. She was reading a book about military tactics. Aranea sometimes wanted to come and drag the helmet off the head of her friend. But each time, she stopped herself. What if Olesya was always in her armor because she had terrible scars from the last battle, and now she was ashamed to show her disfigured face? Aranea was intended to find out if this was true after this battle. This time she won’t allow Olesya to slip away, scars or no scars, they were friends. In the meantime, she started saving tokens, cutting her expenses as she could. If her hint was correct and Olesya is worried about her looks, Aranea will help her friend to pay to restore her original form.

Svetlana was half asleep near the legs of her wolf hag, with two more wolfkins laying on top of her. The medic was the only one in the room without underarmor on. Instead, she was in the gray coat of a field medic, with a white armband on her wrist, indicating that she was noncombatant. Like a giant bat, Leila was yawing from the ceiling, hanging by her legs from a metal beam that ran above the entire room, her wings tightly wrapped around her body. Sly had just finished combing his fur and was busy putting on his steel backpack with attacked mechanic arms, while two warriors from Olesya's and Annie's packs were looking at him.

"You know, we still have some time before arriving…" In a suggestive tone, said the warrior from Olesya's pack.

"I am not interested!" Sly responded in a panicked voice, making a mistake in securing his backpack and stumbling on one of the sleeping wolfkins. Sly fell to the floor as a result of this misstep, while the half-asleep woman cursed, waking up.

"Why are you keeping yourself so well looking, if you are not looking for a mate?" The second warrior asked, as the people in the room were slowly waking up. Annie, laying on crates near the entrance, flashed a smile at the scene.

Aranea was afraid of the worst, when she and Sly went to the hospital to apologize for his victory during the sparring match. In a way, the situation has indeed changed. Lucendra and Annie just shrugged Sly’s victory off, unsure what the big deal was about it. And yet, this was but the beginning of it. It was rare for a male to reject the advances of a female in the Tribe. During times of peace, the female might have pushed herself on the male, dominating him by force if needed. During wartime, such an option was not allowed by the military laws. And yet, this resulted in Sly becoming a curiosity. He was washing himself at regular intervals, cleaning his fangs, keeping his fur in shape, removing parasites from his skin as soon as possible… He was doing more to keep himself good-looking than most females among the Wolf Tribe. And he turned down every offer from a female from any pack. And by doing this, he painted a target on his back, as competition formed around his persona. And wolfkins loved challenges. The one female who will claim him will win a hefty monetary reward. At first, it was just a challenge between a few warriors. Everything changed when Annie joined in on this game. The challenge spread like a flame among the woods to all warriors and scouts in an instant, increasing the number of tokens at stake to a frankly terrifying amount. Whoever thought about such challenge was truly a wicked person.

"You all are wasting your time. Cause I am more into males." Sly angrily responded, apologizing to the wolfkin below him for stumbling at her and putting on his backpack.

"Bullshit. Prove it if you dare." Annie lazily swung her leg over the side of the crate and folded her paws on her belly, looking mockingly at the Sly. Aranea was sure that her fellow wolf hag was in this competition just because she enjoyed making Sly’s life annoying. 

"Well, I am not the one backing off from the boast…" Sly mumbled, before loudly proclaiming, "Kaleb, my dearest honey, I have always wanted to tell you that…"

"Screw off Sly, find yourself your own mate!" Kate said sleepily, hugging Kaleb tighter.

"Uhm… Gin? Are you interested in broadening your horizo…"

"I am more into orthodox relationships." Gin said offhandedly, stopping Sly. He was busy checking the gear of the pack prior to landing. Scars from the battle of Chokepoint A were still visible on his large body, despite his underarmor. Gin, as much as he tried to deny it, now had a dashing look on his face. Some warriors were throwing glances at him but kept their distance out of respect for Tiny. The small scout was willing to work with anyone, her pack was routinely trained side by side with members of Olesya's and even Annie’s group. On occasion, even the wolf hags from Foulsnout join the training courses. Aranea was genuinely surprised when Tiny and Gin managed to organize a joint training course between several wolf hags, Aranea’s included. This was something that Aranea tried to pull off several times, and these two just did it on the fly.

"Cowards! Traitors!" Sly became lost for a moment, looking around for a way out. The warriors were looking at him with innocent smiles, blatantly confident in their eventual victory. Finally, his gaze stopped at Aranea, "Wolf hag Aranea, I know that you are still free, how about we…"

"You got yourself into this mess, you find a way out on your own now." Aranea replied coldly, peering through the glass porthole. Sure, she had a few scars here and there, and to be honest, it had been a few days since she had a proper shower, her fur had lost its luster...

By the Spirits, I must be ugly if he implies that I am counted as a male to him! Aranea thought in a mild shock. She looked at her oversized paw. It never bothered her before, but… it is natural to want to look good, right? I will kick his ass for this… No, wait, this will be physical violence… Instead, I'll join the game and tease the shit out of him! What am I even thinking? Concentrate on the mission, you dolt!

"Sonya, come on, if you feel unwell, you should take these pills…" Sonya was sitting in the corner, her snout was pressed in the space between her knees, while her paws covered her eyes. Ever since transport took off in the air six hours ago, she has refused to change her position. Tiny was sitting near her, trying to offer the former wolf hag medicine against the headache.

"I am just fine. Get lost." Without moving from her position, Sonya growled angrily at her fellow scout.

"Sonya, if you are feeling unwell, we must…" Svetlana was already moving toward them. Aranea admitted that while the medic was dedicated to her job, she was overbearing at times. No one dared to rebuke her, though. The last warrior who dared to even try and suggest going into a sparring match with the medic, was quickly introduced to Olesya’s fist, much to the disapproval of Svetlana, who had to treat the bruises of the wounded.

"Sonya, shut your trap and take medicine, if your head is in pain," Aranea turned away from the porthole, "We will begin disembarking in ten or so minutes, we have to be at our peak."

"I am telling you all that I am fine!" Sonya's growl came to a halt when she heard Aranea's footsteps. She pressed her ears to her head, showing a sign of submission, "I am afraid of flying! There, I said it. Mock me all you want, I am scared of this… flying coffin thing. It is not natural to be in the air." The scout was also supposed to bare her neck to Aranea, but this time she refused to do so, still looking down. In any other time Aranea would be relived that this stupid tradition dying off, but Sonya clearly did not do it because of her fear, rather than because she disobeyed the tradition naturally.

"Why would we mock you? It takes courage to admit one’s faults, outdated lady." Carty lifted her brow. She was sitting near one of the portholes, covering her claws with varnish, giving them a blue color. The tips of her ears were covered with golden paint, and her brows were painted in black. Aranea wondered, how someone like Carty always manages to look good no matter the surroundings.

"Do you really think it is a good time to give your claws a make up?" Aranea asked Carty, lifting her brow.

"But of course," Carty slid her claws into her paws and extended them again, critically checking them in order to be sure that color remained untouched, "You can die at any moment, thus you must live to the fullest at any moment. Back to our discussion, Sonya. Think about it this way. Is it unnatural to be in the air when a warlord kicks you and you are sent flying?"

"Stop giving us a bad reputation, Carty," Annie growled with annoyance, "Honoured Dragena never touched us even with a claw. Unlike others, we are perfect. Try to taint her name again and I will shorten your ears."

"There are other warlords in our Tribe, wolf hag." Carty pleasantly smiled at the rebuke of her superior, baring her neck in a show of submission. Quick as a moving bullet, Annie jumped off the crates, charged toward Carty, and lightly bit scout at the neck, leaving no wounds. Carty only smiled at this, bowing her head.

"And now, of all people, she is pitying me," Sonya took a quick breath, calming herself and stopping growling, "Your words merely prove my point, smart ass. When Janine kicks you in the air, you will crash back onto land. And the greater the distance, the bigger the pain from the fall."

"Sonya, what can you tell me about Belaz? How big is the city, what sort of defense can we expect?" Aranea asked, wishing to distract the scout from wallowing in her fear.

Sonya lifted her head from her knees, forcing herself to stand up and look directly in the eyes of her superior. She put her arms behind her back and reported:

"Belaz city, was originally a massive sprawling hub that produced food for the entire country known as Desmar. Various cattle were cloned, raised, and butchered here."

"Seems pretty expensive to feed your people like this." Sly noted and quickly went silent as Sonya angrily looked at him. One of the warriors from Annie's pack slid behind his back, whispering that she could protect him if he wanted, causing him to jump away in fear.

"It is expensive by modern times, yes," Acting as if she was a teacher, Sonya gave an amiable nod, a hint of a smile was on her lips as she watched the game unfold, "But in the past it was apparently, according to historical videos from Iterna, cheaper and more efficient to grow cattle like this instead of the natural way. Please understand the scope, there are far less than half a billion people in the entire Ravaged Lands, including forces of Reclaimers, Iterna, and Oathtakers. When Desmar still existed, there were over twenty billion people who were living here. To say that this region was overcrowded, is to say nothing. People of old automated everything they could, to protect themselves from hunger, pandemics, and so on. Anyway, as Extinction happened and Desmar perished in the flames, the glow decimated the local population, yet the defensive systems of the city protected the place. Not everything survived the catastrophe you see, for example, defensive mechanisms have long since crumbled by now. But few food facilities have endured to this very day. Of course, even if they are only used for one percent of one percent of their intended capacity, the value of such facilities can hardly be overstated. This is food, after all. It is not that big of a surprise that a bunch of has been super soldiers of the Wolf World, known as the Blood Court, came to this place. They came into fierce confrontation with the Malformed, a group of new breeds, for control of the city. Both groups were wild and treated locals harshly…"

"How harshly exactly?" Kaleb asked, sitting on the floor. He still had one hand wrapped around Kate as she was rubbing her eyes, banishing the sleep away.

"Members of the Blood Court ate some of the locals. Blood Court, originally were known as the Blood Squad, a group of creatures grown in the lab, with the purpose of being front line fighters, they literally were made to view humans as a food source according to what intelligence managed to gather about them. But Extinction stopped this project, and the test batch were left to their own devises. Members of the Malformed killed or worked to death every single male in the tribe that they conquered and forcibly used their women for procreation. Members of the Blood Court might have been good in combat, but according to what we know, The Malformed were coming at them in truly stupid numbers." Sonya threw an angry gaze at Kate, and the former scout quickly jumped to her feet. Kate sometimes forgot that her rank was technically removed from her.

"What happened to these maniacs?" Leila asked, jumping from the ceiling, holding a notepad in her clawed hands, writing down Sonya's words.

"Another group of new breeds united with normies who wanted to stop such carnage. They used a moment of struggle between Malformed and Blood Court, striking at the time when both enemy leaders were engaged in a final struggle. The Blood Court was cut out to the last member, while some of the Malformed managed to escape. This is how Regulators came into power."

"With genocide… So much for the people’s heroes." Leila shook her head in disgust.

"There's not much you can do when one side literally feeds upon humans and refuses to change. The Blood Court viewed all others outside of their group as cattle." Aranea explained to Leila. Like Sonya and Tiny, she too spent her time learning what she could about the region when she first heard news about the new mission.

"Great, so let’s just now kill every asshole and his family as well, just because assholes hold heinous views and are evil as shit. Aranea, we spare even the kids of cannibals. You know, people who sometimes eat other people alive for fun. You think that their kids never tasted human flesh, willingly or unwillingly? There are no inherently evil humans, our choices are what make us. Don’t tell me that the youth of Blood Court and Malformed could not be rehabilitated into normal people." Olesya quietly said, looking at her friend. Through the visor, Aranea could not see the face, but she was sure that Olesya felt herself disgusted with her words.

"I understand and agree with your disgust. And I do not condone what Regulators did. Nowadays, the youngest members of the Blood Court would have been integrated into society. But not everyone has the same resources as the state. As much as it pains me to admit it," The wolf hag's mind flashed back to Blaguna's prison, to the torture that she experienced and to memories of Yuki and Kostya... She forcibly stopped herself from trembling in fear, "Original Regulators were heroes for locals. They risked their lives to save those who could not stand for themselves. And let us drop the fake moral superiority, the state has also done some really bad things in past."

"But never like this. Genocide is crossing over the line, period," Annie sternly said, "We have to hold ourselves to greater standards."

"Agreed." Aranea nodded to her, bowing to both Annie and Olesya to show that she was accepting the point of view of her fellow wolf hags. Perhaps her moral compass was skewed too much. But deep inside, she was not sure about this. The state allowed her to nearly die in her childhood, mistake or no mistake. The state allows the Wolf Tribe to carry on their cruel practices with their cubs. Were they really that much more morally superior to their opponents?

No, Aranea stopped herself from thinking such thoughts. The main difference between us is that we are slowly improving everything, instead of stagnating. We will change and will make life better for everyone in the end.

"With breeding pits gone, with houses of blood torn to shreds, Regulators freed prisoners and expanded their lands. Originally, Belaz was their capital, but now it is the second largest city in their lands. Through many hardships on the regulator’s part, Belaz nowadays is a fortified city, with an area of around four kilometers square. A small city by the standards of old, a huge city by the standards of the Ravaged Lands. The garrison of the city is depleted due to the recent attack on Chokepoint A, they now have approximately four to five thousand defenders, reinforced by enlistees." Continued Sonya.

"Enlistees?" Kaleb asked, scratching behind his head.

"Locals, either forcibly recruited or joined because of patriotism. Unlike most people in the Ravaged Lands, these ones won’t have proper knowledge of weapons or even proper training. Belaz was almost never under threat of attack." Kate quickly explained, and Sonya nodded to her in approval.

Before Sonya could continue, sirens activated in the room, signaling the arrival of a crawler. The wolf hags looked at each other and hurried to give orders to their packs to equip their power armors. There was no telling how soon they would be in action.

****

Steel transport pushed itself free from passing clouds, appearing above a towering giant of steel. Massive tracks, which could reduce entire houses to rubble, were moving across stone plains, rendering jagged stones into dust. The bulk of the steel monster was covered with long-range artillery cannons, currently silent. Crawlers, massive mobile bases of the Reclamation Army, were a precious resource in times of both war and peace. During war, it could support an advancing army by working as a repair facility and mobile hospital. During peace, they could prowl their ways through the hills, making new roads to remote settlements. Or they helped with the creation of new terraforming facilities, carrying massive amounts of materials and people safely inside their bellies. Such was the cost of these technological marvels, that the state still used the pre-Extinction models of crawlers, only ten newer models were ever built by the Reclaimers. They were capable of operating in any situation, no matter how cold, hot, poisoned, or irradiated the operation area could be.

The flying transport gracefully landed on a solid metal platform on the top of the crawler. The door of the transport slid on the ground, creating a ramp. The first to leave transport was lieutenant Ursico in his massive mobile suit. His wounds were healed, instead of disruptors, two long-range precise cannons were installed on his mechanical suit. Currently, they were located on the back of his walking armor, but when action come, they will move onto his shoulders. Piston-driven limbs produced a loud noise while Ursico moved down. Behind him followed three more suits, accompanied by sergeant Alek and his troops. The wolfkins came last, Annie was the first to step on the crawler, without looking back at her pack, she moved into the doors to the lower level of the crawler. Olesya was carrying a portable terminal in the arm of her armor, marking each crate and member of her pack as they descended. Aranea was sure in her pack, yet with worry, noticed that Tiny was not among the members that had already descended. The wolf hag frowned and checked the data on her wrist, which showed that the scout was still inside. Finally, the scout appeared, breathing heavily as she carried a large rectangle-shaped missile launcher on her shoulder. A shardgun was concealed behind her back, and a small laser pistol was attached to the right side of her belt.

"What is this?" Aranea raised her brows. This weapon was almost the size of the scout. A silver line ran across the left side of the weapon, shaping itself into the form of a snake.

"This was what Gin was checking for me during journey," The helmet of Tiny slid backward, revealing her smiling snout. A metal half ring was on the left side of her face, above her eye. A small, green square shaped screen was before the left eye of Tiny, "This is from the Second Army arsenal, designed for use only with power armor.  Tank hunter five point six, or TH five point six. This beauty is capable of unleashing four warheads, with four more still being inside, ready to be launched at a moment's notice. This beautiful, beautiful tool weighs ninety kilograms without a warhead. Most warheads weigh four to seven kilograms," Tiny ran with her free paw across the surface of the weapon with an expression of love on her face, before pointing on the screen over her left eye, "Using this optical tracker, you can change the trajectory of your warheads with just a glance, just with a movement of your eye. Sensors in the screen track the movement of the eye, so if I fire warheads up, they will make an arc and rain down onto anything I want. Provided that there is a space for such movement, of course."

"Tiny, are you sure you want to use this oversized crap?" Olesya finished checking her group and turned toward the scout, "TH series is notoriously known for being too big and overweight for what they do. Change for Aerial Hunter six, it does everything TH does, but weights less…"

"With all due respect, wolf hag, the AH is merely a single round launcher, and they are notorious for being difficult to reload in combat," Tiny said, looking at her weapon lovingly, "Don't listen to her, I know you are the best. I am going to love you and I am going to care for you for my entire life!"

"What about me?" Gin jokingly asked, carrying two crates with equipment on his shoulders. Aranea moved to help him, but he just shook his head, showing that everything was fine. He carried them to smaller platform to the left of the transport and put them on it. In a moment, the platform moved down, swallowing cargo on it. Workers below will store gear in a safe place.

"Of course, I will love you too, stupid! But this beastie her… Ah!" Tiny bit her tongue, as she understood what she had just said. She looked around helplessly, hoping that no one will notice.

"Tiny got a mate now. Now, I am not the one to stand in the way of love, but make sure that you will still do your duties professionally." Aranea jokingly teased the scout, while the last members of her pack were leaving the transport.

"When will you copulate?" Kate playfully hit Tiny with an elbow.

"Name your first cub after me." Sly asked Gin.

"Your name does have a nice ring to it… But I will agree to this request only if Tiny is fine with it." Gin simply shrugged his shoulders, unbothered by the request.

"Gin stop encouraging them! Everyone, please wait, this is just a misunderstanding, a slip of the tongue if you will. Gin and I are still friends, just friends. I meant to say, I love Gin as… Shit!" The helmet returned to the face of an embarrassed Tiny, as Leila wrapped her arm around her torso, laughing. Leila was in strange armor today, unlike her previous power armor, this one was fully crimson, with only her left arm being covered in blue. Around the wrist of her left hand now were strange square-shaped ledges. When Aranea asked the half-wyrm about the sudden change of armor, Leila only smiled, "Leila, I swear to Spirits, one word and I will smack you with…"

"Fun is over," Aranea strictly said, as the doors of transport began to close, "Form up, we are to report to field commander Onishenko and receive our assignments."

Her pack nodded to her, stopping their mischief. Unlike the packs of Dragena and Valerye, the pack of Janine lacked strict discipline, yet even they were fully capable of behaving when the situation demanded it. As Aranea walked toward the doors leading deep inside the crawler, she finally saw the city in the distance. A massive stone wall, now broken in several places, surrounded it. Most of the defensive positions in front of the wall were already overrun, she could see how soldiers in power armor were either dragging prisoners away or finishing up the last sparks of resistance. Cut off from their main forces, soldiers of the Regulators still tried to resist, to fight the odds. Here and there, they tried to make a desperate push for the false safety of a wall… Only to be cut down by well-placed fire from machine guns or energy guns.

Aranea saw pictures of the city on her way here, pictures that were taken during peacetime. Massive neon signs, which turned the darkness of the night into a multicolored show. Sprawling streets that allowed for numerous people to freely traverse the place. Well maintain infrastructure, including a fully working sewage system. Hospitals, trading hubs, night clubs, schools, factories… This place seemingly had it all. The city became far smaller than it was during ancient times, and the surrounding area was fiercely cannibalized in order to provide for a clear view of the surroundings and materials to sustain and ensure the growth of the city. Buildings were reduced to rubble, to repair buildings inside Belaz, long abandoned factories were looted of everything of value, before being reduced to rubble. Thanks to this, Regulators managed to establish farms in Belaz, reactivate old food production facilities and bring life to a city that was once tormented by rival gangs. Aranea tried to imagine how hard it must have been for former slaves, mercenaries, and prisoners to build such a massive trading hub, how much sweat and effort they probably put into this, hoping to build a better future for their offspring… And now, another force has come to tear at the heart of this proud place.

Like some kind of machine, the army of the blue wyrm advanced as a single being, with nearly perfect coordination, not once allowing themselves to be exposed to artillery fire from walls. Each time when soldiers of the Resistance fired, shields were already up, absorbing the energy and impact of the enemy’s missiles and shells. Then the artillery of the state decimated the positions of the Resistance with precision fire. Armor piercing ammunition, heavy enough to break through outdated shields of Resistance, was easily breaking shield generators. Then came anti-infantry fire, exploding people on the wall and setting defensive bunkers on fire.

The wolf hag swallowed. She was well aware of what was going on behind the walls and in the trenches ahead of them. Wails of wounded and dead were filling the trenches of the enemy. Regulators, Bento, Soultakers, other... In the end, they were all humans. Just a few hours ago, they had dreams, some laughed, some were afraid… With her crimson eye, she followed the trajectory of the dead body as it was thrown in the air by the explosion. It fell from the wall, splashing blood across ragged stones. A human life, gone in a flash. Was this a bad or good person? Death does not care.

Tall buildings were visible from behind wall, some of the skyscrapers were still in use. Miracles, created by people of the old world, these buildings now bore the traces of artillery fire, whole apartments were blown up. Flames were licking the sides of buildings, wooden structures that were built by the resistance, structures that were used to clean and maintain skyscrapers, were burning. The homes of people were eradicated. Someone who spent their entire lives trying to make a proper den or home for their family was now homeless, so many precious items and memories were burning. Aranea could only hope that civilians were evacuated to safety before the battle.

"The assault has already begun," Sonya inquired, perplexed, "and yet both Janine and Foulsnout are in the rear." She pointed at reserve troops, visible behind the crawler.

"The old demon wants to keep new breeds save," Leila made a suggestion, looking around the battlefield, "To keep us safe, for a moment when it counts."

"Then why is our warlord busy leading forward troops?" Olesya asked, nodding toward the wall. While Martyshkina was busy wiping out resistance from the wall, shots from her revolvers were spreading death around her. And yet she was nearly alone, only a few wolfkins were with her. Instead, ranks upon ranks of normies were surrounding her like a wall, protecting her back from harm as she charged forward.

"Honored Martyshkina has served the blue wyrm for far longer than any of us. I have no idea what the blue wyrm is planning," Aranea said, as they walked toward the lift leading inside the crawler. Annie and her pack had already taken it down, making others wait for the elevator to return. When she looked up, she saw a massive form high in the skies above Belaz. The wyrm was hovering among the clouds, his blue scales were shining as if they were mirrors, when sunlight was falling on them. Wings, capable of reducing buildings to piles of rubble, were flapping at a steady pace, pushing clouds away from the long body. Like a hawk, or maybe a vulture, that was waiting for a prey to make a mistake, Ivar Murzaliev was observing the flow of battle, Aranea could not see even a hint of movement on his lips, "But perhaps he only wants to use those who can perfectly follow his plan? No matter, all will be revealed soon. Let’s concentrate on survi…"

A sudden tremor made her stumble and fall silent. A red light flashed over the doors to the lift, indicating that the lift was disabled. Loud sirens boomed all over, indicating that the crawler had come under attack. And yet, Aranea ignored this, lifting her paw in silent order for her pack to prepare. Attacks come and go, this is not a surprise in war. Mountains of steel, on the other hand, do not falter! What was powerful enough to make...

You are reading story Duty, empty dreams and trying not to become a monster. at novel35.com

The answer came soon enough as a torrent of fire rose from the side of the crawler. Aranea wanted to jump in and see what was going on, but Sonya grabbed her by the shoulder, bringing her back to her senses, while Sly quickly unpacked a recon drone. With a single press of the button on the portable remote installed in the left arm of his armor, he activated the machine, just as Kate and Kaleb were putting the terminal in front of him. An image flashed on the screen when the machine flew from the crawler. The display of the terminal showed what the drone could see through the cameras.

Like a spin tick clinging to the skin, a large hovering ship was pressing itself to the surface of the crawler, right between two artillery guns. Fire was shooting in every direction from the place where the ship was coming into contact with the mobile base. The ship itself was colored in pitch black. A sunflower was painted with golden paint on the top of the ship. The form of the attacking vehicle was slick, instead of slicing through air while moving at high speed, it looked like it was built so air flowed around the form of the invader. The tanks around the crawler already took aim at the sudden attacker, unleashing shell after shell into it. Machine fire from soldiers joined the, and yet every single projectile was absorbed by the bubble of shield around the invader.

"Can Opener?! Here?" Aranea gasped at this sight. Everyone looked at her and she coughed, explaining, "This thing right there is a boarding boat from the old world, it is sometimes called a "Can Opener" because of its role. It is equipped with both a stealth and a shield generator. When it "hooks" itself onto a target, it unleashes twin plasma cutters, melting almost anything. Then troops from inside storm the place though the opening. Aside from the Oathtakers, us and Iterna, few could make them. Based on the symbol on the ship, this thing came from Pearl, straight from their military."

"Why in the Spirits name, is Pearl throwing their lot with the Resistance? Weren’t they supposed to be neutral?" Sonya raised her voice, checking her shardgun, "They are freaking relying on our foo..."

"Irrelevant right now," Aranea cut her off, looking around. The lift was still locked, so Aranea jumped to one of the sluices that was supposed to lead down. She tried to open it, but the metal refused to budge. An electric device near the sluice scanned the armor of Aranea. The machine got the ID of the wolf hag and the electric voice stated that she lacks clearance to enter at this time, "Bummer. They are opening armor right near one of the generators. If they are not stopped in time, the crawler will get stuck for hours!"

"Can’t we just blow up the entrance?" Kaleb asked, looking at Tiny. She shook her head.

"My beauty only scratches the paint. Aranea might make a hole with her rail gun, but it still won’t open the…"

"I will open it." Olesya came to the electric lock and lifted her paw, covered with steel armor. The lock changed from red to green, granting entrance.

"How in the world?!" Aranea almost jumped in surprise, "It will take a warlord level clearance to entrance…"

"Later." Olesya answered evasively.

"This thing uses twin plasma cutters." Leila noted, looking at the screen.

"It will break through in two different corridors!" Tiny said worryingly, summoning a map of the crawler’s insides onto the display of wolfkins, "Here and here. We can reach the first point through this sluice, but even if we stop the enemy in this corridor, we will never make to…"

"We will split," Olesya calmly said, walking toward the second sluice, opening it like the first, "I and my pack will take the second point. Aranea, you guard the first point. Svetlana, keep behind us, who knows if our guests will respect the safety of non-combatants. Velka, you and your pack answer with your heads for her safety. Stay safe everyone."

"Stay alive as well." Aranea responded, opening the sluice. She briefly looked up and saw how Ivar turned toward the debacle with the crawler. His scaled lips moved, saying some words into the communicator. The captain was finally giving orders.

Behind the sluice was a tunnel, leading down. It was wide enough, so even Aranea, in her power armor, could easily fit inside. Instead of climbing down, she jumped down, landing on a steel floor below, leaving dents in the floor. She was met with several guns to her face.

"Allies." She simply said to the guards before her, lifting her head up and dodging the fall of Sonya, who jumped after her.

Soldiers checked them and allowed them to come forth, remaining behind to guard the entrance. Aranea saw little point in this, as the sluice gate was closed right behind her pack, but instead of questioning, she ran, following markers on her screens, toward the point of breach, leading her pack after herself. They had to run down few stairs, finally reaching the level that was under assault.

A whole maintenance room was melted, along with a thick armor wall. If anyone was inside, Aranea could only hope that they made it out in time. A pool of molted metal was slowly cooling down, in the corridor was laying a screaming man in a Reclamation Army uniform. The flesh of his right leg was covered with hot metal. Regulators charged in, unconcerned about the boiling heat beneath their legs. One of them pointed the gun at the injured man.

Aranea jumped forward, the armor on her feet opened, allowing claws to slide freely. Her left leg slashed through the silver helmet of the Regulator like a knife through butter. Flesh and bones that were left defenseless were also torn away asunder, along with the black hood of the enemy. The man died before he could even give out a single sound. The heel of the right foot of Aranea crashed into the back of the head of the second enemy, sending her flying into the corner of the corridor. Regulator's helmet cracked, and the enemy collapsed to the ground.

The armor on the feet of the wolf hag closed just in time for her landing. She slipped on the hot metal, falling to the floor, yet her power armor protected her from the heat. Stumbling, she saw as one of her enemies lifted his gun at her. Before the foe could fire, a hole appeared in his side, a beam of heat speared the poor fellow through and through.

"Wolf hag, stay safe." Leila chastised Aranea and the wolf hag smiled underneath her helmet, reaching for her gun and hiding behind the corner of the newly made corridor.

Whatever the plan of the boarders was, they were not expecting to meet such resistance. Aranea commanded a pack made up of nineteen members. The boarders were a mix of Soultakers and Regulators, some of them carried explosives. They were mowed down by the shardguns and energy rifles of the pack. A few tried to retreat, ignoring the command to surrender, and Aranea charged forward, taking her gun in one hand and allowing the claws on her left hand to come out. As Janine told her, war was all about momentum. Even a retreating foe could surprise you if you allow the foe time to regroup. Who knows, perhaps they could detonate a boarding vehicle. Aranea did not intend to wait and so she sliced across the back of the fleeing enemy, piercing through her clothes, armor, and flesh, leaving a deep enough wound to kill. She fired her shardgun, killing a member of the Soultakers.

She was met with utter darkness inside the enemy vehicle. At this point, all energy resources were directed toward the supporting shield generator, giving the boarders precious time to carry on their mission. As Aranea’s arm moved to kill her second foe, something massive came from the darkness, crashing her into the floor. It was such a strange and rapid movement, and as Aranea’s eyes adjusted, she saw the foe.

A pristine white arm, longer than the entire body of Aranea, was above her. Four rotating gatling guns were mounted on the wrist. The chest, sculptured after the human's ribcage, was revealed in the darkness. A metal head, with an eternal smile on it, looked at Aranea with crimson lenses.

A member of a heavy team from the Bento tribe was here, Aranea understood, with a sudden cold in her heart. A foe that was more than a match for a shaman. Guns mounted on the enormous hand came to life, showering the corridor before the cyborg with gunfire. The shoulder of one of Aranea’s warriors simply evaporated under such a torrent of fire, one of the males received a hole in his belly. The rest of her pack hid behind corners of the corridor, retreating as fast as they could.

The hand moved down, intending to use gatling cannons to smash the wolf hag across the floor. As Aranea tried to stand up, she understood that she simply lacked time to evade the hit. Her eyes widened from the realization that she will not survive this. A shadow charged across the corridor, slamming into rotating cannons with her leg, forcing the arm to go up.

Wolf hag Annie, in her full armor, was standing near Aranea, with a mild surprise on her open snout. She hit the arm of the cyborg as hard as she could, expecting to send it flying toward the ceiling, yet all she did was move it a few centimeters. And yet it saved the life of Aranea, giving the wolf time a chance to dodge and get away.

"Watch out!" Aranea shouted, opening fire and taking the life of a Regulator, who took aim at Annie. The fellow wolf hag shrugged away her confusion at the resilience of the foe, her helmet sliding down her face as the cyborg's arm moved down again.

Four missiles came from the corner of the corridor, smashing into the shoulder of the cyborg with a thundering noise. The force from the explosion made both Aranea and Annie fly backward, causing them to roll in the air.

Asserting the speed of her sudden flying, Aranea managed to take control of her body and landed with her feet on a wall, reaching for her rail gun.

Armor was torn on the shoulder of the enormous foe, and yet the cyborg still lifted his right hand with ease. The rotating cannons pointed at Aranea, countless bullets were ready to be unleashed from the tools of destruction. But this time, she wasn't helpless. She fired first, aiming for the damaged shoulder. She could not risk aiming any lower, out of fear of hitting the injured. A tiny energy projectile speared the exposing wires, slashing through the complex metal "bones" of the enemy. The arm of the cyborg fell limp as Aranea landed on the floor. Annie landed behind her.

The cyborg took a step back, fully revealing himself in the corridor and revealing his left arm, which was equipped with twin cannons. Aranea blinked and dodged to the right, while Annie dodged to the left toward Tiny, both managed to hide behind the corner, as shells speared the wall behind her.

"I knew that this beauty would be of use!" Tiny cheerfully said from across the corridor, showing her tank hunter launcher to Aranea just as Gin pushed her down, saving her shot from a soultaker, who suddenly charged forward. Carty shot an enemy soldier, who fell to the ground with a wound in his chest. The scout allowed the helmet to slid on her face, rolling her eyes at Tiny, "Oh, yes, the battle. Thanks Gin. Sly, help the wounded!" Tiny gave the command, firing a second set of missiles.

"Kaleb, Sonya, get the others. Kate, can you…" Aranea gave her own commands.

"Got it covered." Kate responded, slicing her palm with her own claw, gesturing for Kaleb and Sonya to charge forward.

Despite the missiles that hit the massive body of the cyborg, it still managed to fire as Sonya and Kaleb charged to save wounded wolfkins. The cyborg was equipped with some of the best targeting systems available to the Bento tribe. Members of the heavy team often hunted the drones of the Reclamation Army, shooting them from the skies. In such a narrow space, armed with a weapon capable of filling the corridor with bullets, both wolfkins should have suffered injuries. And yet both shells hit the ceiling, as Sonya grabbed two wounded wolfkins, while Kaleb covered her with fire, killing one of the Regulators.

Sly reached for the wounded member of the crawler’s crew, three of his mechanical arms moved forward, slicing metal in front of him with built-in lasers, as he dragged the wounded away. The fouth mechanical limb moved to his left, at the tip of the mechanical arm was an installed projector. This device created a small energy shield that absorbed two shots from a soldier of the Soultakers before disappearing.

"Phew!" Sly said with relief, dragging the still screaming man to safety and allowing two warriors to tend to the wounds of ally. Bones were visible in several places on the injured man’s leg, "I was sure that damned shield would explode on me!"

Time to finish the job. Leila, Annie, you with me. The rest, cover us and suppress fire from enemy troops." Aranea said, charging from the cover.

With a single shot, she took away the remaining hand of the enemy. The jaws of the metallic head open wide, revealing lasers stored inside. Before the cyborg could fire, a beam hit him in the jaw, melting away the weapons. Annie charged ahead of the duo; instead of claws, there were knives with energy running across the tips of their blades. She charged behind the cyborg, slashing wires behind his right knee. Meanwhile, Aranea lifted her weapon, taking aim at the chest of the foe. And the chest of the foe opened. The scene from before repeated itself, before her was a brain floating in the cylinder. Only this time, there was no gun before it. Instead, countless metal wires struck forward from behind the cylinder, wrapping themselves around Leila, Annie, and Aranea. They pushed themselves and the wolf hag felt how her armor was about to crack.

She tried to desperately struggle, but the damned wires wrangled her rail gun away from her hands. More and more steel wires were covering her, intending to crack through her armor and slice her apart. Her armor gave warning signals, indicating that the integrity of her armor was about to be broken under the outside pressure. Aranea sent a signal, requesting the aid of the crawler's command, not really hoping to get out of this situation alive. Before her very eyes, brilliant rays of energy speared the wires, freeing her and her allies.

New allies charged to help Aranea, a group of soldiers in armor of azure. The helmets of every single one of them were fashioned after the serpent's head, blue lenses gleamed in their helmets. Despite the odd fashion choice, their armor was lighter and offered less protection at first glance. But what they lacked in durability, they gained in speed, running across the walls and jumping even at the ceiling as they charged forward, firing their energy weapons, slicing away wires and leaving holes in Bento's cyborg. The being made two steps back, desperately trying to find some way to win, but when one of its knees was destroyed, it loudly announced a surrender.

"Who are they?" Leila asked in surprise, as their saviors surrounded the enemy machine. Their leader turned toward the half-wyrm and took off his helmet. The calm face of a man looked at Leila with dark eyes. His head was cleanly shaven, and his skin was covered with sweat. Underneath the gorget of his armor, several syringes were visible, injection marks were visible on the dark neck of the man.

"Robet Hilingson, lieutenant of the special task unit, at your service, wolf hag Annie, wolf hag Aranea, and members of both packs. My apologies for our late arrival." The man nodded in apology. She looked at Leila one more time, before pressing a button on his wrist communicator.

"Your late arrival caused unneeded victims, lieutenant," Annie angrily said, pointing at the wounded wolfkins and wounded member of the crew. She walked toward one of the lying Soultakers as the man tried to crawl away. As she tried to treat his wound, man pointed his gun at her. Annie tore away his gun with a growl, "You are captured, you idiot. Stop resisting and let me... The Soultaker's body began thrashing around erratically, a wheezing could be heard from his mouth as he grabbed his chest before going limp. Annie looked at him with a mix of confusion and horror, "What was that? This was not my mista… I did not want to kill him. He was not supposed to have a stroke, is it because of pain shock or…"

"Soldiers of the Soultaker tribe have a thing called an imprint on them," Robet said, causing Aranea and Leila to look at each other uncomfortably, "This is a mental brainwashing, when they are at risk of being captured, it triggers, causing a stroke that kills them."

"Why…" Aranea asked with a dry throat. For some reason, seeing a man dying like this caused her to be afraid, "Why were we not warned in…"

"We were not sure until very recently…"

"Bullshit!" Leila stepped forward, going to the few surviving Soultakers laying on the ground, "I saw how Scorpio was doing something with prisoners, the captain just disregarded information from his allies, until he could confirm it himself, am I right? Don’t answer," She said, seeing the guilty face of her ally, "You did nothing wrong, I am sorry for my outburst. Dear guests, I am going to remove something from you. You are not captured and free to leave at any moment…" Her helmet slid away from her face, revealing her face with glowing eyes. The half-wyrm turned toward the wounded prisoners. She tore away the helmets of wounded people, light from her eyes fell on their faces. All fear was gone from the people's faces when Leila's power wormed its way into their very minds. The half-wyrm said no word, working silently to find a way to remove the deadly imprint from their consciousness.

Shocked Annie was looking at a dead person before herself. Carty came forward, putting her paw on the shoulder of her commander, and Annie shrugged away her paw, growling angrily. Aranea let them be and charged deeper into the enemy ship, along with members of the special task unit. If one boarding group had Bento with them, then another group could also have one.

She and her new allies reached the second breach, just when the fighting was already over. Olesya was standing over the ruined body of a Bento heavy team member, remains of the brain were visible on her fist. The massive body of cyborg was riddled with molten holes. Olesya herself looked like she had just been through hell. Her Shell armor was sliced in several places. From cuts on legs, sparks of electricity were coming. Several cuts were on her upper body, near her neck, blood was leaking from them.

"Still alive, I see. I was afraid for a moment, when this brute charged at us." Olesya admitted to Aranea, with relief in her voice. The visor of her helmet was half cracked and was going dark from second to second. Ignoring the soldiers, she hugged Aranea, and her friend hugged her in response. Svetlana came from behind the corner, along with members of Olesya’s pack. The corridor was filled with dead and wounded members of the resistance.

"Wolf hag, you are wounded!" Svetlana said, with fear in her voice, "We need to get you out of…"

"Later… All later. I am still fine and can continue. Help others first. I promise that you will be the only person whom I trust with treating my wounds." Svetlana looked like she was about to argue but decided to honor her commander and charged toward the other wounded, as new soldiers poured from the corridor, this time dressed in regular power armors.

"Olesya, this is…" Aranea looked around, noticing the sheer number of dead and the amount of destruction on Bento’s body, "Heh. It seems that it is I who now needs to find a way to keep up with you…"

"You don't," Olesya said, taking Aranea by the shoulders, "Trust me, you don't want any of that power. You are good as you are. Stay safe and we will work the rest together." Refusing to explain anything else, Olesya stepped toward the wall and sat on the floor from exhaustion.

***

By the time Aranea and Annie reached the commander of the crawler, field commander Frederick Onishenko, the situation had slowly cleared up. The enemy used three boarding boats in total, hunting remote tanks of Reclaimers at the edge of the battlefield. Their stealth generator allowed them to become almost invisible to both the naked eye and electronic devices for a brief time. And yet, when Ivar gave the command for the crawler to move forward, the enemy decided to make a desperate maneuver, attempting to destroy the mobile base. Warlord Foulsnout has already contacted Aranea, stating that she and Janine will take care of the rest of the enemy boats. For some reason, Valerye was relieved to learn that there were no dead among the wolfkins, but demanded to know the list of wounded personnel, promising to pass it to Janine. While Aranea obeyed the order, deep down she started to wonder. Did Foulsnout truly believe that Janine was no longer fit to lead the pack?

Olesya was taken to a field hospital, her wounds were not serious, but she was utterly exhausted, as worried Svetlana explained. Against the wishes of her wolf hag, the field medic forcibly sent her own commander for at least a full hour of rest. While wolf hags had some authority over members of their packs, even they were subject to the command of medics.

Inside the command center, there was small chaos. Frederick, an overweight and currently sad-looking man, was hearing the names of the dead members of his crew. Anger was flashing in his blue eyes, as he scratched his black hair. His cheeks were red with shame.

"I will personally write a letter of official apology to the family of each deceased member. To have the dead on crawler, in the safest place in the entire army, under my command," He said, pulling the collar of his uniform as if struggling to breathe, "I have no excuses. Prepare the letter of my resignation, I will send it to captain Ivar as soon as the battle is over. Inform him that I will take the full responsibility for this disast… Ah, wolf hags! Greeting, greeting dear allies!" He almost jumped from his seat, sad expression on his face changed to a good-natured smile when he grabbed paws of Annie and Aranea, shaking them, "I was told that you saved some of my people. My best wishes to your wounded heroes, I will recommend all of you for medals."

"Thank you, field commander," Aranea nodded in response, "But I was told that there were still two more boats in the area…"

"They are currently being taken care of. Observe." The field commander pointed at the large screen where the new image came to life, showing the picture outside.

At first, all that Aranea could see was a stone field. A few tanks, troops, and vehicles were moving across it, toward Belaz city. Then an energy impulse from the crawler came. It was a small impulse, one that would not fry even systems of power armor. And yet it revealed something. The air trembled as the forms of two boarding boats came into existence above rows of soldiers of the state. Boats immediately tried to run.

When a streak of red collided with one of them, the armor in place of the hit folded and cracked, allowing Valerye Foulsnout to crash inside. Such was the impact behind the warlord’s hit that a hovering boat turned on one side and slowly fell to the ground, while soldiers on the ground spread out, escaping the danger area.

The second boat managed to unleash a shield before the black form leaped on it. The massive axe came up, causing the shield to burst after only a single strike. Instead of bypassing the shield by moving slowly, warlord Janine outright cracked it by overloading the shield’s generator. Her black form landed on the side of the ship, hacking her way inside. This boat, too, soon lowered itself to the ground.

"They are insane," Annie said out loud, what Aranea was thinking, "I still have a long way to go before I can stand proud before honoured Dragena." Annie said, almost with divine reverence at the sight of power from the warlords.

State soldiers surrounded the boats, blasting their way inside with explosives. In just a few minutes, it was all over. Any Resistance soldier who refused to surrender was either gunned down or knocked out.

"Thank you for capturing cyborg. The warlords are currently also busy taking prisoners. We want to learn the scope of cooperation between Pearl and Resistance. But for now, we believe that Pearl merely sells the gear to Resistance…" Onishenko looked at the screen, before turning to the wolf hags, "Anyway, your orders are awaiting you. You are to support the rear of our forces as they capture the city."

"Excuse me?" Annie asked in surprise, "Have we failed somehow?"

"No, not at all," Frederick replied, keeping a smile on his face, "But you can't bear the weight of the entire war on your shoulders. It is time for the rest of us to show what we can do as well. This time it is people like Robet Hilingson and others will be in the heat of battle. If the need comes, captain Ivar will personally send you new orders. But so far, everything is proceeding as planned."

"As you command," Aranea bowed. She looked at the man, "But if you allow me to say this... Our comrades have already shown how capable they are. Some of my soldiers were saved by lieutenant Ursico, sergeant Alek, and other brave men and women."

"Thank you for the kind words. But the captain made his decision and I agree with him," Frederick turned to the command screen, indicating that discussion was over.

She had nothing against such orders. This will keep her and her soldiers alive. It seems that their part in this battle will be an easy one. Nothing to worry about.

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