"If you had just bowed your head to us a few days ago, none of this would have happened." Janine Ironjaw spoke in a cruel, metallic tone, looking down on a small normie in front of her. The man was dressed in a torn anti-heat suit, and Aranea could smell sweat and blood from him. He was the elder in this small town. This place had barely a few thousand people living here who stubbornly refused to bow down, claiming that the Resistance would protect them from the Reclamation Army and the horrors of the Ravaged Lands… and now even fewer live here on this day.
The forces of Resistance indeed visited this place. Made up of the Regulators, Bento tribe, Soultakers tribe, and dozens of other gangs and raiders, this relatively new military force was formed to obstruct the Reclamation Army's advance. This town was supposed to be a part of their territory. The Resistance visited this town, taking everything of value, stripping it down to the bone. Food, water, the few facilities to produce both food and water, animals, anything that could be used in industry—all were taken away, along with the wealth of the citizens. The previous elder tried to argue against such treatment, and now he was no longer in this world, along with anyone else who tried to resist. The new elder quickly called the Reclamation Army and offered to join them. Janine Ironjaw and her pack arrived to keep any marauders away from the town until proper forces arrived to establish control.
This community was built on the ruins of a town from the Old World. Due to the harsh sandstorms in the area, larger buildings collapsed a long time ago. Whatever catastrophe happened during the Extinction split the entire city into four parts, one part sank underground, two remaining parts were swallowed by fire and destruction, and the remaining part still had numerous buildings in it. People of the Old World built stuff to last for ages, so many machines still worked and only needed some minor repairs and new energy cells. The town was surrounded by man-made mountains, when the Old World was dying, the ground rose, creating a natural barrier around this place, somewhat protecting smaller buildings from the harsh conditions of the new world. This town was under the ownership of the Regulators, once a supposedly respected gang in these parts. They initially refused to join the Resistance, intending to fight the state on their own, but then the leader of the Regulators was killed by his own daughter, and the new leader quickly joined forces with the Resistance. In Aranea's opinion, a gang was a gang. Only a fool would put their trust in them over the state. And now this town has paid the price for its respectable loyalty to the gang. Even from the ruined entrance, Aranea could see the smoke still pouring from some buildings. In one night, the loyalty that had been built over the years was gone.
Only one month had passed since Wyrm Lord's declaration. And meanwhile, border towns and villages burned as the Resistance looted them. Aranea could not wrap her head around this fact. Weren’t people here also part of the Resistance? What could they possibly gain from such cruelty?
"We apologize," The man whispered, and the scout could feel the pain in his voice. And not just physical. This person loved this place, and now it was just ashes and death here, "If you need to, you may claim my life. Just sa…"
"Be silent, citizen." Janine’s metal jaw snapped at him. The enormously huge wolfkin carried the huge axe on her shoulder. Her jaw and one hand were missing after her meeting with Kalaisa. The missing hand was replaced with a flamecaster, the long-barreled weapon that was surrounded by the three rings of metal. Each ring had a red diamond on it, currently, only one diamond was above the weapon, while two were under the barrel. Janine's missing jaw was replaced with a cybernetic jaw. When Janine was silent, her metal jaw almost fully covered her snout, leaving only the amber eyes visible. The warlord refused to accept vat-grown replacements for her lost limb and body parts, stating that the skinwalker had blessed her with grace. While the old power armor looked positively ridiculous on the warlord, the newly made power armor suit looked too thin on her body, it was as if she were dressed in a skintight outfit made of metal. Yet no one was mad enough to try and mock her, for before, Janine’s speed was limited by her old armor, and now, she was free to utilize her speed in full, becoming a true death incarnate on the fields of battle, "We are here to drop supplies for you and the people here to survive a few days. The more serious force will be here in two or three days. They will establish a perimeter, ensure security, provide people here with food and water, and officially accept people into the state. Until then, you are on your own when we are not around. Is this understood?" The metal jaw clicked as Janine stopped talking.
"Of course." The man said, and quickly bowed in thanks. This community would not last a day without water around here.
"Deliver the supplies. Clear the rubble. Locate the wounded and drag them to the doctors. Count the dead." Janine gave orders to three wolf hags, Sonya was among them. During the time of war, it was unusual to see a warlord without the shamans around to guard her, yet on this day, Janine had to split her forces. Several villages and towns were hit. Wyrm Lord gave orders to provide for all the victims involved in these attacks, so Janine spread her forces thin, taking the weakest members with her. As the wolf hags hurried to carry out their orders, Janine was left standing near the ruined city gate, axe still on her shoulder. Her head tilted as she looked at the mountains near the city, as if she were listening to something.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Aranea and her pack were given orders to check up on the northern part of town and deliver news to a hastily made camp of doctors from Free World, an anarchic organization that provided free medical help to all. The Reclamation Army disliked them for providing aid to their enemies and usually refused to associate with them, only sparing some supplies from time to time as a sign of thanks for treating wounded soldiers.
"So why are we helping them now?" Aranea asked herself as she opened the door of the first half burned building. For an hour, she checked house after house, finding only dead remains inside and outside. The smell of rotting meat filled the air inside this house. An elderly man lay on the ground, his head smashed and half of his body burned. Aranea turned him on his back and found the dead body of a child underneath him, the kid had choked to death. Aranea nodded and marked this place as empty in her terminal. She glanced around the place, noticing that someone was rummaging through things in the house…
"Why does this not bother me?" Her glance returned to the dead bodies, "Should I not feel anger? Hate? Disgust? Sadness?" She asked herself, "What is wrong with me?" Aranea remembered how other warriors reacted to the deaths of locals in previous villages that they visited. Many of the normies from the Reclamation Army were outright shocked, even some wolfkins were silent. So why was she calm? What was it about her that was so flawed? Is it not human to be sad about a loss of life?
I can at least fake that it affects me. Aranea decided. Her parents would have wanted at least this minor thing from her. She picked up both dead bodies and carried them to the remains of the church. There, dead bodies from the entire city were supposed to be burned, sending the dead on their new journey into the skies. Someone from the Resistance hanged two priests, their pale bodies were hung from the third floor of the church. Aranea hoped that they actually broke their necks when attackers pushed them from windows, instead of slowly being choked to death.
The price of resisting the Regulators. These words were painted in red on the second floor. No priests were in sight, Aranea could guess their fate.
"What… what do they hope to achieve with this?" Aranea asked out loud. Her inability to find reason in the actions of the enemy hurt her more than the actual cruelty around her. She called a nearby wolfkin and gave orders for him to remove the bodies of the priests and to drag the bodies that she brought to the pile. Surely their enemies pursued some objective with such cruelty. But what exactly?
Aranea decided that she had had enough of wondering about the motives of the madmen. She moved toward the camp of the Free World. Several of their tents were in the area near the broken wall. Janine gave orders for them to relocate to a safer part of the town, but the stubborn bastards ignored the order of the warlord, claiming that people would die during relocation. Aranea saw Kate and Kostya, who were giving food to children, empty crates were standing next to them.
"Now scram, you stupid bastards," Kate snarled, showing them her empty paws, "No food anymore. Go hide somewhere, you useless sacks of shit."
"You should not talk to kids in this way." A doctor of the Free World said, tired looking man in his forties who came from the tent. He pulled away the cowl of his anti-heat suit from his head and reached for a cigarette.
"I said scram!" Kate showed her fangs and slammed her paw into the ground, causing children to run away in panic. Then she turned toward the doctor, breathing angrily, "This is exactly how I should talk to them. Half of them have rags instead of anti-heat suits, they better go hide somewhere before they die from heat."
"This is not the reason to…" The doctor took a drag on his cigarette with pleasure.
"Stupid idiot. The girl with dirty blonde hair had her mother and father killed yesterday. The male cub with a black eye saw his grandmother torn apart before his eyes. Did you even talk with them? Most of them are all alone now." Kate came upon the doctor, but he calmly looked at her.
"What does this have to do with anything?" He asked, "If anything, these horrible events mean that kids need to be comforted…"
"It is a good thing that they are afraid. For one day, we will stay. For the other two days, you will be helpless. Who will save them if the bastards come back? You? You don’t even use weapons. Locals? Where are their weapons? What if insectoids come and the cubs decide that they are toys? No. Fear can be overcome with time, but right now it is better for them to be on the edge, to be afraid, and to be in horror. More chances to stay alive for them this way," Kate pressed her nose against the man's face, who showed no fear and continued to smoke calmly. "Oh, they probably should be taken care of. By whom? You? You can't do shit because you're already overworked. Me? I am a walking curse, a bringer of misfortune. Much good will I do for them. Neither of us can help them, so the least we can do is not encourage them, let them be scared until the actual help arrives. You got it, you miserable tra…"
"Enough. Kate, you will not speak with our current allies with such disrespect." Aranea said, closing in on the scout. Kostya bowed, but Aranea ignored him.
"My apologies, useful ally," Kate said, with a voice full of venom, to the man who simply nodded amiably in response, "Aranea, we delivered the supplies. May I have some free time?" The scout reached into her armor, finding praying beads and playing with them with one paw.