"The eyes of the wolf hags are upon us." Aranea smiled while addressing her pack, which consisted of five wolfkins who were standing before her. Two were females, and three were males. Today was the day they were going to rid the Lonely Road region of all insectoid presence. This road was one of the five routes that allowed them to bring supplies to Fort Uglo, the current seat of His Excellency, Wyrm Lord. The supplies were then distributed throughout this region. Wyrm Lord sent supplies to local villages and small towns in an attempt to entice them to join the Reclamation Army. Insectoids grew bold and dared to attack these caravans. Thus, the need to end them, "There will be no mistakes. We go in, clear the caves, and go out. Easy pickings. Do not worry, check your gear and…"
"For Spirits’ sake, Aranea, we all hunted insectoids as cubs," Kate shrugged. She was another scout in the group. Her black armor was covered with ornate words of prayers, similar to the ones that covered the power armors of the shamans, but unlike the prayers on the shamans’ armors, the prayers on Kate’s armor were all about purity of mind and body. Her fur was half black and half rust. Weird coloration like hers was considered a sign of a bad omen by the shamans. Kate lost to Aranea in the most recent match, and the wolf hag Sonya put Kate under Aranea's command as a punishment. There was still a bruise on the right side of her head. During their fight, Aranea aimed to take the ear of her fellow scout, yet Kate’s paw gave in, and Aranea’s hit came above the mark, ending the fight sooner and without much damage to Kate. The scout was playing with ornate beads in her left paw and said, "These are just some bugs. Even males won’t fuck this up."
Kate tried to hit Kaleb on his neck, but Aranea grabbed her arm. Even their new and comparatively slender power armor was almost too big for Kaleb, the smallest wolfkin in their group. Aranea was getting tired of having to push Kate away from him. Kate even forced all the other females in Sonya’s pack to stop dominating Kaleb, instead, Kate always seemed to try to push the little guy down by forcing him to do the trials that were too hard for him. Aranea had no idea why Kate hated him so much, both wolfkins grew up together and were of the same age.
"It’s fine…" Kaleb went silent as both scouts ignored him.
"No dominating," Aranea growled, "We lost in the last sparring session because Kaleb was limping. If this happens today, I will declaw you. You got it, Kate?" They locked eyes with each other, and finally Kate nodded, stepping back, throwing one last furious gaze at Kaleb.
"It really was my…" After Kate growled at him, Kaleb quickly became silent again.
"It is not my fault that he is so soft." Kate angrily mumbled, baring her neck in submission.
"Five minutes before the start of the mop-up operation," Sly said quickly, checking the time on his armor's wrist, "The drones are about to complete the map in a few seconds," He pointed his finger up, where, high in the air above the mission area, several tiny machines were flying, covering the ground with green light, scanning the underground caverns below the surface, and adding their positions to the map, "This is a simple operation, caverns have two exit points that lead to the main cave. Yet there is something that bothers me…" He began talking, but Yuki stopped him with a laugh.
"There is always something new that bothers you. Relax, this job is easy peasy. You think Sonya would have allowed us to participate without her if there was even the tiniest chance that we would embarrass her?" She jokingly pushed Sly from behind, while Kostya nodded. Kostya was the oldest member of the group, his fur starting to turn gray. Yuki, on the other hand, had almost completely black fur. While many members of the Wolf Tribe had brown stripes on their black fur, Yuki’s was of a solid black color, a sign of Ravager’s favor. Despite this, Yuki made no attempt to rise in rank.
The forms of both wolf hags, Sonya and Siri, were visible on nearby mountains. Both made a bet that their own team would eliminate more prey, while they were waiting for the operation to start.
"Do not worry, Sly. I read about insectoids. There's only one reason they're this bold around here," Aranea smiled, pointing to the group's grenade launchers, "And we happen to have enough firepower to put an end to this particular reason."
"But then we should warn Olesya! She has no idea about…" Sly stopped as distant sounds of gunfire were heard near the second cave’s entrance, "What? This is too early!"
"And here is our cue," Aranea said smugly, pleased that her prediction had come true. She knew that Olesya would break the rules once again, "Get ready to move out, people, the hunt is about to start early. Yuki, Kate, with me on the front. Kaleb, Sly, you're behind us. Take apart anyone that we leave on our way."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Please let me take the front as well," Kostya asked, speaking for the first time during the night, "I can take just as much punishment as any female."
"Good for you then, since you will be taking up the rear. Keep the other boys safe." Aranea smiled, as she received a message from Sonya, who approved their advance. It was always wiser to wait for the command of the wolf hag, for Sonya liked to beat out any unwanted initiative from her subordinates. Kostya nodded unhappily, but as always, he obeyed orders.
The group charged to the entrance of the cave, the lenses on their armors activating. The wolfkins could see in the dark to some extent, but the latest technology provided by the state allowed them to see as if it were daytime. In the left corner of Aranea’s eye, a map appeared, showing her location. On the right side of her field of vision, icons came into being, indicating the approximate status of her team. The current generation of power armor of the wolfkin was not as advanced as the ones of the Ice Fang order, so Aranea turned the icons off. In the past, they have frequently displayed false information, and they also occur in the field of vision. After a moment of hesitation, she also turned off the map. This terrain was easy, no need to use it. Instead, she summoned an omnidirectional view, allowing cameras built into her armor to project a full 360-degree view of the surroundings onto her retina. This holoprojection strained her eyes, but the wolfkins never risked going blind. The state's medics were able to remove any long-term eye damage at the base, and the wolfkins' natural hardiness allowed them to use this mode for an extended period of time before suffering permanent eye damage.
The air inside the cavern was just as dry and hot as the air outside. Aranea sniffed and sensed the smell of an insectoid slime, a substance that workers used to glue the stones together. A thin smile appeared on her lips. She was right. Olesya and her team might have gotten a head start, but they absolutely lacked the proper gear for this mission. Her smile disappeared. She and her team better hurry up. I can’t mock Olesya if she dies, right? Aranea thought as her eyes detected movements and the wolfkin grabbed their shardguns. The road ahead was taking a turn to the right. The group jumped backwards just as they heard a noise from above. Large cracks appeared on the ceiling, from which, a swarm of insectoid workers poured onto the position the pack was just a moment ago, and another wave of insectoids poured from the turn of the corridor ahead.
Crafty! Aranea thought and smiled, while opening fire. Each shot of the shardguns released several small armor-piercing projectiles that were moving at 400 m/s. This was the favorite weapon of the Wolf Tribe. It lacked accuracy for a ranged fight because the spread of the armor-piercing projectiles became too great at a distance, but it was well worth its weight in close quarters. In the limited space of the cave, shards shredded through the chitin plates of the insectoid workers, killing and maiming those behind them as well.
"She is definitely here!" Aranea yelled, and through the cameras on the back of her armor, she saw how Sly nodded nervously. The scout made a note in her head to ask Yuki to cheer up Sly later. Aranea considered herself to be pretty bad at inspiring people.
Insectoid workers were six-legged creatures, roughly reaching to the knees of a normie in height. In length, most of them were rarely longer than one meter. They were deceptively sluggish in their advance, a warrior could have killed dozens of them, and then the next one would gore her in a rare short burst of movement at a close distance. It was as if these creatures lured enemies into a state of false security before killing them off. Each leg of the insectoid ended up with a sharp claw, capable of crushing stone and effortlessly tearing through steel armor. Hairs on the critters’ legs allowed them to move up and down the walls with ease. Long mandibles were even able to crack open vehicle armor and would quite easily bite off the limbs of a wolfkin.
And yet, right now, they are the ones dying. The workers were easy prey for the soldiers in a cave, forcing them to advance ahead while three shardguns blasted them. The moment the front line of Aranea’s team shot all the ammo in their shardguns, all thirty shots, they lowered themselves on one knee to reload the shardguns. At this exact moment, a burst of speed came, and the critters increased their speed from deceptively sluggish, to outright blinding. The rear team's shardguns opened fire above the heads of the front group, tearing through the ranks of incoming enemies, pushing them back, and buying just enough time for the front team to reload their weapons and continue the slaughter. Insectoids did not care for the individuals, but the team of Aranea caused unacceptably high losses to them. Just as Aranea and her front group reloaded their weapons, the living river of the critters began moving backwards, and the injured creatures tried to shield the healthy ones with their bodies, to preserve their soldiers for a future ambush.
Not willing to fall into this obvious trap, Aranea ordered her pack to proceed slowly. They continued to fire into the retreating ranks of the workers and finished up the few critters who pretended to be dead as they followed after the living river that ran from them. After the turn to the right, the pack ended up in another long corridor, perfectly suited for their advance. The spread of their weapons had little meaning, when the entire corridor was filled with insectoids hurrying toward the main cave.