Her eyes noticed a mine on the ground, right before the corridor turned to the right, and Annie jumped at the wall and then further into darkness, running faster and faster, making giant leaps to cover distance, marking the position of mines for her pack. Her helmet closed the space around her mouth, and steel gauntlets on her paws and legs closed as well, completely encasing Annie in metal power armor protection. It was impossible not to run in one of the mines in such a confined space and at such a high speed. Annie breathed recycled air and gasped in shock when her paw stepped on one of the mines, just as she made the turn. An explosion threw her through the ceiling, causing a dent in the power armor. Annie brought her arms and legs in closer to her torso, then descended from the ceiling like a cannon ball, landing on the ground and sprinting forward. She noticed light from the exit ahead and several mines placed on the floor, walls, and ceiling. Scout ran around the walls and ceiling like a spider, grabbing steel with her fingers and using it to support her weight while the systems of her armor marked the location of the mines for her pack to pass safely. The explosion barely damaged her armor, left lens of her helmet was cracked, but aside from that, she was good. But a few more such explosions and even she will feel the pain. And Annie was done with receiving pain, wolfkins were the ones who dealt it to others, to protect peace. Her body is the temple, and she will guard it well.
Annie crashed into metal bars before herself, breaking through and landing on the walkway that ran across the second floor of the hall. The hall was spacious, massive projectors were installed, pointing down. Once filled with artifacts from the old world, large and small, this room was now half empty, save for the enormous sphere-shaped dome in the north corner. Orais soldiers were covering the entrance, just below Annie, while several mercenaries in gleaming silver power armor were shooting down from the walkway and from a small cart that hung from the wall. The six orais were already laying in the pool of dead, floor near the orais soldiers bore marks of explosions.
The scout made her presence known right away, leaping at the back of the first mercenary. Enemies were using pulse rifles, high-tech weapons from Iterna itself. Even with power armor, Annie would show no protection against such things. The scout grabbed a woman by her head, twisting it all around her body and letting the twitching body fall below. The scout felt nothing this time, no horror, no disgust at taking someone’s life away. Just urge to hurry up and save her allies. Annie turned toward the man on her left, grabbing him by his leg before he could move. She dragged him to the ground, stomping trice on his helmet, turning the round-shaped helmet into a disk and tossing the man's body into the arms of another mercenary, making them both fall on the floor below. The fourth mercenary turned to face Annie, but was thrown back at the guardrail when the scout circled him and fired her shardgun. Shards hit his side, cracking the armor and causing the man to cry out in pain. Stubbornly, he tried to stand up, and another burst of shards hit him, cracking armor on his chest this time. Annie fired a third time and noticed something strange. The man’s armor was getting thinner on his back, slowly evaporating like it was made out of ice. Meanwhile, the armor on his sides and chest, and even his cracked blue lenses were reforming before the very eyes of Annie.
"Enemies are equipped with power armor made out of nanomachines!" Annie shouted over the communication network, firing once more into the chest of the man. Let others decide where Rift Talons could get funding for such things. The power armor of the enemy fit them solidly, like a glove, it was not bulky like the power armors of wolfkins. Such custom tailoring was possible with armor made of countless small nanomachines. But such things were expensive, among the entire Third Army, only the Omega team used such things, and only Iterna knew how to mass produce such power armors reliably.
"Wait!" The man croaked, falling on his knees, pain could be heard in his voice. He dropped his gun and lifted his hands before the scout could fire one more shot and throw him off the walkway into the orais troops below, "I surrender! Surrender!"
"Accepted." Annie said, running toward him and putting the shardgun behind her back. Her pack broke from the ventilation shaft, descending upon the remaining mercs on the walkway, while Annie jumped onto the cart. One of the mercenaries pointed her gun at Annie, and the scout moved underneath the cart. Power armor unlocked her mouth and claws on paws and legs just in time for the floor of the cart to be riddled with energy bullets. One such projectile scratched across the left shoulder of Annie, burning through armor like acid through flesh and leaving a cut on her shoulder. Annie swung her body, reappearing on the other side of the cart, grabbed the guardrails of the cart, and propelled herself to the top of the cart. Her opponents were normies, fast as their reflexes were thanks to power armor, Annie herself was still faster. The mercenaries still needed to move their bodies to aim at Annie, and power armor could allow only so much mobility at the same time, otherwise, a user of power armor would literally hurt himself or herself by breaking bones or tearing muscles. Because of their improved physique, new breeds faced fewer such constraints. Annie grabbed the iron join that connected the cart to the rail that ran around the ceiling and pushed the grenade into it, jumping off the chart back onto the walkway.
The grenade exploded, covering the people on the cart in acid. Their advanced armor allowed them to withstand both explosions and acid with ease, but the acid itself melted through the connection between the cart and the rail above, causing the cart and the people on it to fall down. By sheer miracle, the orais still held their positions and the steel cart did not land on them but instead on a floor before them. The mercenaries were thrown from the cart because of impact. Trying to stand up, they found themselves under heavy fire from the orais soldiers. Three members of Annie’s pack jumped off the walkway to help their allies below, one finished tying up surrender mercenaries, and one more warrior took aim with her shardgun, planning to shoot mercenaries below.
The warrior’s head caved in, and her body flew back. One moment, she was standing in front of guardrails, her finger on a trigger. In the next moment, her helmet cracked from immense pressure and her body crashed into the wall behind her. Blood gushed from countless cracks in her helmet, mixed with the liquid from a popped eye. Following her instincts, she tried to take aim at her attacker, and four bullets pierced her chest, killing her instantly. A male wolfkin nearby stood up, reaching for the shardgun behind his back, when the attacker crashed into him next. In a blur of violence, the soldier was thrown into a wall with the sound of an explosion. A crater appeared on a wall behind a soldier, the systems of Annie’s power armor screamed warnings, indicating that the spine of the male was cracked. The male soldier attempted to warn Annie, but only whimpering came from his lips as his body slid back onto the walkway.
All of this happened while Annie was turning toward the sound. The unknown attacker killed one of her soldiers and injured another, and she did not even have time to reach for a weapon. All she could see was the black and silver form before her on a walkway. The form jumped up, spinning in the air and approaching Annie at immense speed, while the scout tried to back up to gain some distance. Seeing a leg covered by silver armor, the leg that had been aimed at Annie’s head, the scout understood that she simply did not have enough time to evade the incoming kick.
Kayleen attacked the flying foe, sending the attacker backward, while the wolf hag landed on her feet before Annie. The black and silver form landed with grace on a walkway, darting to the side just in time to evade the punch of Carty behind her.
Her? Annie finally saw who was before her. The wolfkin, an impressive statue, stood on the walkway, spreading her arms wide, her legs and torso were covered with the same power armor as that on the mercenaries, long black cape with purple trim flowed from her shoulders. In four holsters on her waist, two on each side, were silver colored pistols. The arms of the attacker were thicker than Kayleen’s legs, not a single scar covered her smooth fur, her hair was cut short. Amber eyes looked mockingly at the wolf hag.
Two wolfkins of Carty pack jump down, grabbing injured male and carefully moving back into ventilation shaft, while enemies sized each other, looking for openings.
"Greetings to the former Alpha from the former Omega," Alsyn smiled, putting one paw to her mouth in mocking horror, "Oh, my apologies, I forgot. You're a washout who couldn't tough it to the end..."
Kayleen jumped from the spot, aiming her kick at the right knee of Alsyn. The figure of the mercenary leader became blurry when she sidestepped an attack, leaving behind an afterimage. The kick of the wolf hag merely crushed the metal of the walkway, while the paw of Alsyn moved up for a chopping strike at the wolf hag’s neck. Annie fired her shardgun, causing Alsyn to scowl in annoyance and back down from the line of fire.
"For Omega, you sure trash talk a lot," Carty murmured in a sweet voice, appearing behind Alsyn, "Oh, my apologies, I forgot. You are just a stray doggie and nothing more."
Alsyn was standing with her back to Carty when the scout started punching. The scout once boasted to Annie that her punches had the same power behind them as shards. When encased in her power armor that boosted her speed and allowed the scout to withstand even greater punishment, her punches became shells fired from an artillery cannon. Carty trained her precision every day, performing grueling training and pushing her mind and muscles to their limits. Among all the members of the Dragena's pack, Carty was the strongest, even if she was just a scout.
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And on this day, all her training failed to bear fruit. The punches that propelled air ahead of them with the force of flying bullets failed to connect with the body of Alsyn. The mercenary spinned around, ducking low for a kick at Carty’s legs. She had to jump up when Annie fired a shardgun at her, but aside from this, the scowl on her face was from the indignity of a missed hit, rather than from the straining of the fight. Kayleen charged at Alsyn, releasing her claws. The mercenary moved like a feather through the storm, narrowly avoiding each slash. Carty once again circled around Alsyn, aiming for her. The scout threw a punch, aiming at the back of the neck of the traitorous wolfkin. Without even looking back, Alsyn caught Carty by her wrist and, with a flick of her paw, threw the scout off the walkway. The scout had to grab guardrails in order not to fall.
Kayleen made a thrust with her right paw, aiming for the neck of the mercenary. With a smile on her face, Alsyn met the incoming thrust with her own paw, allowing the fingers of her open paw to slide underneath the incoming thrust. And then she made something that confused the scout. The mercenary pushed back, sending an incoming thrust into the shoulder of the wolf hag, making Kayleen spear herself with her own claws. The attack of the mercenary did not stop at this, her open palm closed into a fist, hitting the wrist of Kayleen, while the claws of the wolf hag were still in her own shoulder. When Annie heard the sound of bones breaking in Kayleen's wrist, she had no line of fire, and when she tried to circle around her commander, Alsyn forcibly shifted Kayleen's position, mockingly looking at the scout. This was the distraction that the wolf hag needed to grab the shardgun from her back with her left paw and point it at her opponent. Her finger reached the trigger when pain speared her.
Alsyn kicked the wolf hag, shattering the breastplate of the power armor, reaching all the way to the solar plexus and leaving the wolf hag gasping for air. Pushing through pain, Kayleen tried to aim her shardgun. Alsyn simply released her and kicked Kayleen in the face with a spinning kick, making the wolf hag fly into Annie, throw scout off her foot and land into the wall. The snout of Kayleen cracked, she spit out fangs while sliding weakly onto the walkway and trying to stand up in vain.
Turning around from her spinning kick, Alsyn ended up face to-face with Carty.
"Please don’t dodge this time, honey." The scout smiled, punching with her left arm.
Alsyn smiled back and punched with her own left paw, making the eyes of Carty widen in pain behind the lenses of her helmet. Fist of flesh connected with steel-encased fist, pressure met pressure, years of training met years of training. Something had to give in. Air was pushed in all directions from the result of the violent clash between the fists of two fighters. The power armor of Carty gave a screeching sound, the area above her left wrist cracked, showing flesh and white of the bone, the elbow of Carty was shattered as a result of a cruel hit. Alsyn smiled, pushing her left arm forward and making the scout take a step back. Scowling from pain, Carty moved her wounded hand back and kicked with her right leg, spearing the afterimage of the mercenary leader. The scout shuddered when the left paw of Alsyn grabbed the right shoulder of scout.
"For a weakling, you sure are quite a chatterbox." Alsyn kept smiling at Carty, shaking off the blood from her own bruised knuckles.
"Well, you know, it is better to be weak, than to be a murderous traito…" Carty never finished her sentence, Alsyn pushed the scout forward, making the wolfkin lean toward Annie and delivered a downward kick to Carty's spine, sending scout through the walkway onto the ground below.
"Don’t talk shit, if you can’t take a hit, honey." Alsyn drew her pistol and fired at the orais and wolfkins below. Shots from her silver pistol tore through power armor as if it was regular body armor, leaving small round holes in the bodies. And the mercenary aimed at the heads with each shot.
My team! Annie grabbed her weapon, standing up and firing at Alsyn. A fragmented capsule flew from her weapon's barrel toward Alsyn, spilling in a wide arc in mid-flight. Sharp armor-piercing shards are closing in on the Alsyn's breastplate, in just a moment, they will crack the armor and... Shards pierced the cloth of Alsyn’s cape, while she herself was long gone from the line of fire.
Wolfkins, on average, could not dodge bullets. Only the most powerful members of their tribes, warlords and shamans, could block or even outrun bullets. Alsyn was one of those beings, yet Annie noticed that the mercenary was using her ears. Without once breaking eye contact with the chaos that happened below, Alsyn kept firing down. Her ears twitched, listening to the sounds that Annie was making. Even the sound of a finger being placed on the trigger was loud enough for Alsyn to notice and dodge, just before shards were unleashed. Trice Annie fired and trice Alsyn dodged, getting closer to Annie with every burst of speed, all the while shooting at soldiers below.
The mercenary let the pistol fall from her grip, moving to Annie in another burst of movement. The scout made a thrust with her left paw, trying to release her claws at the very last moment to surprise the mercenary. She may as well not try it, Alsyn wrapped her fingers around the incoming claws and crushed them, sending a pulse of pain through the body of Annie. A single kick landed on Annie's jaws, right in the opening of the helmet, shattering the scout's fangs and forcing her to gulp blood and pieces of broken fangs. The mercenary leader smirked, grabbing the weapon from Annie’s paw and putting the barrel of a gun right between the eyes of the scout. Alsyn placed her finger at the trigger:
"What will it be, girl?" Alsyn asked in a calm tone.
"Boss, she spared me." Croaked the tied up mercenary nearby, and Alsyn briefly looked at him. The pistols on her belt looked so tempting. If Annie could just grab one and…
"Don't even think about it," Kassandra said through the communication network, "Surrender, we'll have you out in no time."
"I give up." Annie raised her paws in a gesture of surrender, making Alsyn look at her again and nod in acceptance of her surrender. Burning shame ran around the spine of Annie, making her forget about the pain of lost claws and fangs. She failed, utterly failed today.
"How are they managing to attack us from all sides? Reports say that they are closing in on us from the east and south entrances as well. Boss, I thought you knew the old hag. We were supposed to only face against wolves today, not the entire freaking army here." The mercenary asked, lifting his tied-up hands to show them to his leader.
Evidently, I don't know her as well as I would have liked, Roll. No matter, let me free you, we are getting out of…" Alsyn stopped replying to the man, when the walkway at her legs exploded, throwing Annie back. The black form crashed through the hole, grabbing the shardgun and crushing it with his left hand. Alsyn narrowly dodged the swing of the right hand of the incomer, stepping back to gain distance.
"Little missy here saved my bacon. Mind if I cut in?" Tegrin asked, climbing up on a walkway and gesturing at Annie behind him.
"I would not mind seeing you dead!" Alsyn kicked with her right leg. Her kick was caught in the paw of the orais, who closed his oversized fist around her suddenly small looking foot. Tegrin growled when claws came from the back of his fist and smashed his shoulder into Alsyn's, sending her cartwheeling backwards.
The mercenary grasped the iron walkway beneath her to stop her momentum, standing on her feet just in time to dodge the swing of the orais that ruined the nearby wall. Alsyn could only dodge the flurry of quick punches from the orais, making a step back to keep her away from the advancing foe. The eyes of the mercenary moved quickly, trying to see for an opening in the fierce assault of the thug master. Finally, Alsyn's eyes narrowed, and Annie screamed a warning to orais, seeing this, reaching for the grenades on her belt.
"Stop it. This is not an enemy you can beat. She will kill you if you try," Kassandra said in a tense voice, "Hold on, scout. Warlord is almost here."
"You ain’t half bad, girlie. Have some of these for fun!" Tegrin ducked, showing the missile launcher on his back. Two missiles were unleashed right into the face of an annoyed Alsyn. The mercenary took two steps back, her hands painted a strange tapestry of movements in the air before her, deflecting missiles into the ceiling.
"And you are nothing more than a simple brute! No finesse, no skills! How dare you waste my time!" Alsyn roared when an explosion rocked the ceiling, dropping rubbles down. The mercenary charged at the thug master and cursed when a large piece of stone fell before them. This opening allowed the orais to recover balance from the shot, swinging with his left arm at the mercenary. Alsyn took a step back to gracefully evade the hit. Anger on her face changed to confusion as her back ended up pressing against the wall. A large piece of rubble from the ceiling was just falling behind her. The mercenary raised both of her paws, taking a blow that sent her through rubble on her wrists. Claws on her legs made wide gaps in the steel walkway, halting her movement back. When Alsyn finally stopped herself, she looked at the orais with sheer hatred, reaching for her guns. She had to jump back, evading another punch that almost splattered her across the walkway.
"Fine." The mercenary spat and walked toward the orais, no longer trying to get her guns.
Tegrin threw another punch with his right and Alsyn met it with her open palm, sliding her paw under the incoming attack. She made the same strange movement as before, interrupting his attack and sending the fist of the orais straight into his face, shattering his steel helmet with his own force behind the blow. Jumping back one step, Alsyn reached for her pistols, taking one in each paw and aiming at the large orais. Her eyes widened in surprise, seeing the orais grabbing the steel floor of the walkway with his left hand and jerking the road toward himself, tearing a portion of the walkway in the air. Alsyn fell on her back, unable to maintain her balance on suddenly wobbly steel road behind her. The walkway moved up in the arc, carrying Alsyn along. At this moment, the orais punched through the metal that was rising in the air before him, hitting the mercenary right in her back and sending her across the room into the wall on the opposite side. Stone fell from the broken wall, covering wolfkin in rubble. The orais lowered himself, unleashing two more missiles into the rubble.
"Enough!" Alsyn broke through the rubble, jumping onto a floor below. The explosion ruined the wall on the upper floor, the mercenary leader herself was covered with dust and small pieces of stone, but not a single cut was on her. She only had one gun left in her holster, but she ignored it, instead grabbing some device from her belt and raising her paw, "Keep shooting, and this entire facility goes boom!"
"She is not bluffing. The generators of the facility are overloading as of this moment," When Alsyn pressed something on the device, Kassandra quickly said, "All forces, cease your attack!"