With a flash, an image came to the screen of the pocket terminal, showing the camp of the slave traders, one of many others in the Ravaged Lands, standing proud at the edge of the canyon. Unknown to defenders, attackers had already hacked into their video feed system and were now able to survey the entire camp. Mines were placed at all approaches to the camp, saving the canyon's edge; sentries were stationed in strategic locations; and captured slaves were constantly monitored. Tall trucks arranged in a circle formed a makeshift wall to protect people inside the camp from the howling sandstorm. The caravan master of this raid party was a skilled one and rarely made mistakes.
His people captured slaves in the Ravaged Lands, then moved on to sell them to the cartel in Pearl. He had made countless trips. His troops were well equipped, urges for sexual pleasures and drug additions were whipped out of them by the will of the caravan master. So calm he was that he fell asleep immediately, ignoring the sandstorm outside of his tent, fully assured that none of his crew would dare to harm precious living cargo locked in iron crates for the time being. The caravan master had made enough examples out of those who dared to break his rules and paid the rest well enough to assure that no accidents will happen anymore. Everything will be fine.
It took two minutes to break this delusion. A black form climbed up the canyon, evading mines in her path while flying drones filmed her. This wolfkin was dressed in simple skintight clothes of brown color, her eyes opened wide, unbothered by the cruel sand and wind around her. The tips of her paws were touching stones ever so slightly, evading rocks that could fall down under her immense weight and create noise. For a normie, it would take a whole day to climb up in such weather. Warlord made her way up in thirty seconds. She sniffed the air, marking the location of the sentries with her own nose rather than with the help of any devices.
The first two dozen sentries never even understood what happened to them. One moment, they reported back to their fellows over the com network, checking the surroundings through the lenses of their helmets. In the next moment, something charged past them, and they started falling down, their hands and legs broken like those of a clay doll. Instead of warnings, only mumbled cries came from their mouths, it took seconds for the sentries to understand that their jaws were shattered as well. Yet none of them was dead. Fitting punishment will be decided by the law enforcers after they question the slavers. If things will go as planned, maybe the entire organization of slavers could be taken down.
Worker hands, sleeping soundly in their tents, were knocked out as the shadow slid inside the tents, leaving just as fast as she came. The optical zoom of cameras around camp was overloaded, such was the unbelievable speed of the attacker. It took sentries in the main vehicle a moment too long to believe their eyes when they saw countless downed sentries around various parts of the camp. It took them one moment too long to understand that the strange blur that moved between tents to their vehicle was more than just a malfunction of their cameras. By the time one of them moved her finger toward the alarm button, the invader was already at the vehicle, tearing through the steel door. People on the inside met the darkness and were broken, just like the others.
The sound of tearing metal warned the bodyguard of the caravan master, a tall new breed in thick power armor. She was standing guard in the tent of her master, watching over his sleepy form. Strong she was, her axe bit through the heads of countless foes and idiots who dared to close on her master. Her round tower shield was durable enough to withstand even the shell from the tank. The bodyguard made one step to warn her master when she sensed danger and turned toward the entrance to the tent, raising her axe over her head and putting the shield before herself. A drone lowered itself before the tent in order to film what was about to happen.
The bodyguard never got the chance to strike at the foe. When someone charged past her and stopped over her sleeping master, the systems of her armor screamed in warning, while the wolfkin was already behind the bodyguard, spreading her hands wide in the shape of a figure nailed to a cross. The bodyguard wanted to turn around to face the black-furred beast that had charged past her. Crippling pain knocked the bodyguard to her knees, and long lines ran across the armor of her legs and arms, slicing the tendons of her limbs cleanly and efficiently. The metal of her armor was cut as well, aside from the blood that was pushing from slices on the bodyguard’s armor, slashed lines on her armor were perfectly made, not a single movement of the invader was wasted. Not even a trace of blood was on the pure white claws of the invader. The bodyguard croaked the warning to her master, and the man finally woke up, looking up in the glowing amber eyes of the wolfkin form before him. Silently, he stood up and bowed, giving up codes to the crates with slaves, while wolfkins troopers were coming into camp from the whirring hellscape of a sandstorm. The warlord smiled, leaving the caravan master and his bodyguard to be apprehended by her troops. Two minutes. That’s how long it took to rob the trader of his illusion of safety and to make him surrender. This man knew he would most likely be hanged for his crimes, but he was willing to risk fate rather than resist and die in vain in front of this indomitable person.
This person was Kalaisa, Kalaisa the Darling, as others often called her. Someone who could inflict the most heinous wounds on another being and her opponent would only realize it when it was far too late to respond. Elegant death of the Wastes, one of the peerless warriors who reached the rank of warlord. Her nickname "Darling" was given to her because she always tended to the wounds of wolfkins who lost to her in domination matches, nurturing annoyed and humiliated patients back to perfect health with a smile on her snout. And Kalaisa was quite strong, ranking thirteen among eighteen warlords.
"And in the end, she suffered a fate worse than death in the Core Lands," said the image of Dragena to Annie, "All because she ended up tangling with the Ice Fang. It will be hard to avoid members of their order all together in the Core Lands yet try not to antagonize them if you can. Knowing their inherent desire to one-up us, there is little doubt that they will try to provoke you into doing something stupid. Before you do anything, take a deep breath and think…"
Dragena put one paw to her mouth and loudly belched, pressing some button on a terminal near her.
"Dragena asked for help, and the world is still whole. Will miracles never cease?" The image on the pocket terminal shifted, revealing a gigantic purple eye, with a pupil looking like a snake eye. Even through the screen of the terminal, Annie felt how someone, far far away, was reaching for her very thoughts with a gentle touch. Captain Scorpio, titled black wyrm, was the superior officer of the warlord. Rumored to be the greatest wielder of mind power in the entire Reclamation Army, this wyrm was also rumored to be a casual person in everyday life. The eye moved away from the screen, revealing the gigantic form of the wyrm covered by mighty scales, each scale was no less than thirty centimeters thick at a brief glance.
The wyrm fiddled with the terminal in front of him for a while, adjusting the image until it showed him standing in full size with room behind him. His personal chambers were made for a truly gigantic creature, yet at the same time, they were a marvel to look at. Paintings made by famous artists covered the walls, the walls themselves were partially made out of exquisite looking amber, giving the room a very cozy light when joined with light from a fireplace the size of a trailer. The tip of the Scorpio’s tail was put into the cracking flames of the fireplace, to the great pleasure of the wyrm. The actual bed, which was only the size of a few buildings and made of a mix of metal and gentle-looking black wood, was covered with countless silk sheets and pillows, each of which could crush Annie whole with sheer weight, and was located at the head of the bed. Despite its enormous size, the bed appeared to be too small for such a beast to lie freely.
Annie herself was sitting on a train heading from the Wastes all the way to Houstad City, one of the twenty-seven jewels of the Core Lands and the second largest city in the entire Reclamation Army, standing proudly behind Stormfiend city. Houstad was truly an ancient city, built over two hundred and sixty-eight years ago on the barren plains that served as the Core Lands back then.
How things have changed since then. Looking from the windows of the train, Annie saw lush green fields running all the way toward the horizon, countless farms filled with numerous people who were working in the fields in this nice calm weather. People here had no need for anti-heat suits like in the Ravaged Lands, nor did they particularly care to bring with them a lot of water like in the Wastes. Most had simple hats, some even had hats made of straw, and that was all the defense that they needed against the sun. A cool breeze here was bringing gentle calmness of coolness to people, instead of roaring sandstorms that could skin people alive like in the homelands of the Wolf Tribe. Not a single armed patrol was in sight. The Core Lands were safe, so there was little reason for people to be concerned about raiders or monsters.
The train passed a hill with an inscription made of countless flowers, "Welcome to Houstad city". Each word in the inscription was made from flowers of different colors, yet they were all visible. Cars lazily moved along the stone roads, and small houses slowly filled the view more as the train closed toward its destination.
The train was old but well maintained beast of iron, made a stop at the station, allowing some people to exit and some more to come aboard. According to the information booklet, Annie lucked out by traveling during midday, according to what she read about the city, trains were always overcrowded in morning and evening because of all the people leaving for work. To combat this situation, authorities are building more and more roads leading to the city, along with affordable public transportation. But old habits die hard, people were used to getting on the job via train and stubbornly refused to use buses.
Annie briefly looked at the people who were coming inside, while the captain was still busy fighting with the terminal, trying to focus the image on his snout only. A family man in a business suit, looking absolutely normal aside from the fact that his entire right arm was a writhing cluster of long tentacles that were reaching all the way to his knee. He came along with his middle-aged wife came inside, holding a young girl by her hands. The cub looked at Annie and inquired as to why the scout had black fur. Her mother gasped and dragged the cub to a distant seat, while the man smiled apologetically and saluted wolfkin with two fingers. Annie bowed back to him, trying to look as casual as possible. Sure, the train wasn't overcrowded, but each set of wooden seats had at least a few people sitting in them. Only Annie had the entire seat meant for at least three people and the seat across from it all to herself. For some reason, people looked at her with confusion and avoided making eye contact with her.
She shrugged it off, looking at the posters on the walls. Posters asked all passengers to let old or pregnant people use seats if the train was overcrowded, not to buy anything from people inside the train, do not speak; be polite and tolerant to each other and to all kinds of new breeds and normies, respect the tradition and faith of people of Reclamation and tourists from other countries. The captain finally gave up after a minute and loudly called someone by the name of Ofelia, begging her to help him. A female voice loudly gave a playful sigh of fake despair, and after a brief moment, someone finally fixed the camera of the terminal as Scorpio wanted it.
"For the record, I would have figured out how to do it myself!" Scorpio smirked at someone off camera.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say, honey." The female voice chuckled lovingly at his words.
"Now with that out of the way… Greetings. My name is Scorpio, we probably never met before." The wyrm looked back at the screen, becoming serious for a moment.
"I saw you on TV once, captain. Your reputation precedes you, sir." Annie quietly replied, sitting upright and saluting the wyrm with her paw.
"All good, I hope?" The wyrm lifted one scaled brow questioningly and flashed a smile at the worried expression on Annie’s face, "At ease, soldier. You are on leave, let’s just speak like fellow citizens. Now, before the brief instruction, do you have any questions?"
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"Will warlo… I mean, will Dragena be alright?" Annie quickly corrected herself, seeing the eyes of her superior.
"In terms of health? Sure. Aside from that…" Scorpio rolled his eyes for a moment, reaching his jaw with his left paw and hitting himself across the scales with one of his claws, "To be short, you know that it is a tradition to have a week-long celebration after any warlord gives birth, right? Ivar currently spits bile everywhere, angry that we can’t capitalize on this event for a show of unity across the Wastes. All his agents really feel his ire right now for missing out on this information. Thankfully, Dragena is under my command, but this only leads to him thinking that I wanted to set him up."
"I am sorry about your troubles."
"Why?" The black wyrm asked in surprise, "I always want to set him up. The fact that this happened unintentionally is simply icing on the cake. Without lifting a single claw, I indirectly set Ivar into a rage mode. Ah, the joys of life. I am curious as to why Ivar, of all people, approved your leave and why his approval came nearly instantly. He is always the one against sending our troops in other…"
"Are you a wolfkin?" Asked a cub’s voice to Annie’s left. Scout looked at the small girl from before, who was looking at Annie curiously. The cub's parents sat in their seats, while a man read a newspaper and a woman spoke with someone on a terminal.
"Yes, I am." Annie smiled at the girl.
"I knew it!" The girl nearly jumped on the place, making her mother notice this and hurry to them, "Why is your fur black then? Why are your eyes the color of amber and not of crimson color? Maybe you are the daughter of Ravager? To which house do you belong? Where is your sword? Can you show it to me? Or are you not in the mili…"
The girl clearly mistook Annie for a member of the Ice Fang order. Unlike wolfkins of the Wolf Tribe, ice boys had weaker claws and fangs, making them overly reliant on melee weapons. After watching historical videos, Annie begrudgingly accepted the fact that ice boys were fully capable of fighting in ranged combat, but seeing wolfkins dragging around oversized claymores, katanas, broadswords, or even spears was ridiculous. Only warlord Janine could carry around her oversized axe and not look stupid at this, other wolfkins preferred ranged weapons or simple knives. Even Virginia looked stupid, carrying her oversized energy axe everywhere. But then again, Annie reminded herself that Virginia was in fact an idiot. The flow of the girl’s questions stopped when the mother of the kid grabbed her in her arms, chastising her for bothering the traveler.
"Everything is fine, missus," Annie said, keeping a smile on her snout and avoiding showing fangs. "I am not of the Ice Fang order, friend. But I am indeed a very distant relative of Ravager. Wolfkins, who look like me, are known as the Wolf Tribe."
"Wolves Tribe? Who are they?" The mother excused herself, carrying the cub away, "Mom, I want to know who the Wolves Tribe are! Wait…" The woman returned the cub to her seat, and the cub’s father chuckled, lowering his newspaper. He reached for the terminal and started showing something to the cub.
"As you see yourself, people in the Core Lands are used to Ice Fangs. There are countless TV shows, cartoons, and even 3D animations with the wolfkins of the order starring in them. Some people have even started to believe that Ravager and the Ice Fang order have something in common," Annie chuckled at these words of Scorpio, the sheer idea that the blessed mother had anything, anything at all to do with Ice Fangs was laughable. Ravager desperately rivaled the Twins, founders of the Ice Fang order. The Twins sadly perished in battle before they could rightfully claim their title as commanders, working together they were equal to Ravager. The blessed mother deeply mourned the loss of the Twins for a long time. The wyrm raised a claw, calling for attention, "Anyway, you will arrive at the station in about fifteen minutes. While I fully trust in your ability to make decisions, all new breeds of the Wolf Tribe must listen to a lecture before visiting the Core Lands, since…Eh, you know how Kalaisa scared people around here back then. First things first. You do not get anything for free in the Core Lands, you can’t expect that shop keepers will have jobs for you like extermination of insectoids and so on in exchange for food. You must pay with tokens. I trust that you have enough money with you?"
"Of course, sir!" Annie checked the wallet in her pocket. The tokens inside were all her life savings. Carty tried to explain to Annie that there was no reason for taking so many tokens for such a short trip, but the scout was too afraid of looking stupid in the eyes of Svetlana or worse, making her sister pay for her. Annie checked the prices in the city and read all she could about Houstad city. She now knew the prices of the cabs, the prices of private terminal booths, and the prices of food in shops, and was fully confident in her ability to even rent a room in the city for a week or more if needed. Although her sister assured her that this will not be necessary, "I have more than enough to pay for cabs and food."
"My name is Scorpio, Annie. You will not need to pay for a taxi. Consider this as a bonus from the state for your hard work," Seeing the face of the scout, the wyrm snapped his claws, producing the sound of an exploding grenade and stopping Annie from arguing," As much as I would like to claim credit for this, alas not my doing. But do stop at Dexter and Philip's if you ever get the chance. Say that you are from Scorpio, they will understand. Next, always keep your ID on you, but don’t sweat it too much if you lose it. Just find a police station and they'll help you get a new one. Do not start a fight with anyone. No domination, no friendly scratch, nothing. If someone insults you for some reason, find a cop, erm, I mean, find a police officer and report it to them about the harassment. If someone attacks you, sure you can hit back, but I would rather you evade the hit and run away from the attacker, seeking help from a police officer. You are only allowed to use physical force if another new breed challenges you to a sparring match for some reason. Aside from that, forget that you have claws all together. Houstad is a peaceful place, just like the rest of the Core Lands, if you end up being lost and no police officer is in sight, go to a nearby shop and ask the owner to call one. Do not pester civilians with questions and do not scare them. No defecation on the streets, there are countless free toilets around the city…"
The captain continued talking about the things that the scout was allowed and not allowed to do for the entire remaining time of the trip, only stopping and asking her to look in the window when the train was crossing the bridge leading into the city. Annie obeyed the command and felt shocked to the core. The water, an actual crystal-clear river, ran under the bridge, people on the stone piers were busy fishing in the calming sun. The surface of the water was so clear that the wolfkin saw the shoals of black fish moving lazily to the north in a wide river. Laughing cubs of the normies, cubs of mutants, and even some of orais cubs were swimming in the water, under the supervision of the instructors. A police car was standing near the road, officers in yellow uniforms were lazily checking the speed limits of the passing cars. The weapons of the officers were in their holsters, no sudden threat was expected here. And the buildings of the city! Tall skyscrapers reaching all the way to the sky were visible in the city; civilian or government office buildings were surrounded by five-story tall civilian buildings. According to what the scout read, Houstad was home to over 600,000 people, not including those who came here for work from the suburbs or nearby cities.
The Dynast hated the idea of huge cities that were concentrated hubs of work. The ruler of the state forced companies to open workplaces in smaller cities, using various tax benefits as incentives. Despite his best efforts, the most luxurious vacancies were still in big cities. Some people in the IT sector could work from home and did work from home, after the government passed a series of laws imitating Iterna's laws. But the technology of the Reclaimers was still not on par with their rivals, many IT workers still had to be present in cities to fix and maintain infrastructure. Massive factories in Houstad were busy producing civilian vehicles and war engines, only stopping at night.
According to brochures about the city’s history, some one hundred and seventy years ago, clouds were clotted with thick smog and rivers were dirty with toxic waste, despite the best efforts of terraforming facilities, all because of the sheer number of factories in the city. Cancer, lung diseases, skin diseases were extremely common in this city, population of mutants went up. And then, finally, Devourer forced the hand of Dynast to stop expansion and focus upon implementing "clean tech", a once long-lost technology of the Old World. The Commander of the Second Army simply arrived at Dynast’s capital and forced the ruler to watch all video materials about life in big cities, forced the leader of the state to read through data about increasing numbers of the dead and increasing numbers of the sick, while nervous-looking commander Ravager, pleading-looking grand captain Wyrm Lord, and calm-looking commander Outsider stood by the side of Devourer, silently supporting their fellow commander. The Dynast read through the data and announced a temporary stop in war expansion, forcing the state to focus on the matters of the everyday life instead.
Under orders of the Ravager, Wyrm Lord eagerly led a diplomatic mission to Iterna, and soon, with the help of Iterna’s people and thanks to technologies from Iterna, factories were modernized, rivers were cleaned of toxic waste, and clouds of smog disappeared as black clouds no longer left the mighty factories. Abandoned were the gas masks and breathers, number of ill people went down, people no longer protested against horrible working conditions, as working hours were slashed and working shifts were optimized by the orders of Devourer. Nowadays, all reclaimer factories meet modern standards, emitting the bare minimum of waste into the atmosphere. Government agencies were keeping a tight grip around the necks of the civilian companies, spying with a hawkish eye for any attempts to cut corners. "No more poison in the air or in the ground!" such was the motto of his excellency Devourer and the Dynast agreed to it, accepting it as his own creed.
The Dynast insisted that history books record that the current clean state of the country is the result of insight from Devourer and the support of other commanders rather than the shrewdness of the Dynast himself. Wyrm Lord and Outsider gave interviews to journalists along with Devourer, while Ravager refused to speak with civilians, angrily snapping that she was underserving of any credit. Ironically, her refusal and mysterious denial of any and all laurels made civilians view the blessed mother in a more positive light, much to Devourer’s annoyance, who doubled down in his efforts to become the greatest ruler possible.
People thirsted for positive symbols for the state, while the blessed mother wanted to be forgotten. Her desire ended up being ignored, as was evident by the gigantic statue of Ravager that adorned the entrance to Houstad, honoring the warlord and her valiant defense of the village of Houstad in the days after the fall. One arm of marble statue of Ravager was thrown up in the air, a smile on her lips. The Devourer's Statue, which was the same size as the Ravager's Statue, stood on the opposite side of the Ravager's Statue, and the two champions were forever locked eyes with each other. Smaller statues of Outsider and the Wyrm Lord were placed at the entrance of the railway station, their marble shapes were visible even from here. Thanks to information from the brochure, Annie knew that similar statues were in other places in Houstad, the blessed mother was viewed as the guardian spirit by the people of the city, while Devourer was honored as the brilliant liege. Several streets in the city were named after warlords Zero, Alpha, and Janine. One of the city’s squares was named "Refugee of the Blessed Mother". The city also had a large statue of the warlord Janine. This statue was posted in the public park in the south of the city, standing guard over the grave dedicated to the nameless heroes, unidentified volunteers who perished during the defense of the city against an invasion of raiders.
This statue was meant to honor the warlord for her aid in battle against the new breed known as Brood Liege, a mutated warlord of the raiders, one who attacked the city as part of the Gilded Host, a force of various raider groups unified by the strong new breed. So numerous was the army of the Gilded Host that this raider group managed to rival the entire military of the state. Like a blazing sun, they left a scorching trail on the lands of the young state, leaving only ruined cities behind, before they were finally crushed in the battle at Houstad. The massive miles-long mountain range to the south of the city was a result of the clash and the following battle between the Ravager and the Mad Hatter, leader of the Gilded Host.
Stone rose to the skies when Ravager punched Mad Hatter far away from the city into the desolate region and then cast her into the ground, continuing to fight against the wicked warlord for hours underground, while new mountains were lifted up, shrouded in the smoke made from the ground as a result of a fierce battle between two beings. Meanwhile, in the city itself, for three hours, warlord Janine led a group of volunteers formed from the ranks of locals, and they held a line all alone in the smog-filled streets, allowing citizens to retreat to safety and pushing raiders back. For two hours straight, she and volunteers fought against Brood Liege and his personal guard, before a joined force of the Ice Fang order and Wolf Tribe finally arrived, wolfkins of both sides were united under the leadership of Ravager in a rare sign of true teamwork. Like a stream of water pushing mud away, they pierced through the ranks of the Gilded Host, turning the tide of battle once and for all. At the end of the day, it was Brood Liege who fell to the massive axe of Janine, massive sword of Brood Liege was broken and now remained in the museum, along with the ruined gilded armor of the raider and broken curved swords of the Mad Hatter. Ravager arrived some time later, covered in horrible slashes all the way from her muzzle to her feet, wiping out the remains of the raiders and carrying the head of the deceased Mad Hatter in her paw. This was the second and last time that Houstad was ever under attack. According to the brochure, the architect made a mistake and presented the stone fur of the warlord Janine as white instead of her natural black color. Annie thought nothing of this, everyone could make a mistake. For over a century, this city was under the protection of the Ice Fang order, no wonder that the Wolf Tribe was all but forgotten.