They came into the armory. Engineers were busy assembling a large suit of mechanical armor. This armor stood over three meters tall. This armor had built-in cannons on both wrists: on the left hand was an auto-cannon, a weapon designed to fight infantry, and on the right hand was an anti-armor cannon, a slow-firing but incredibly destructive weapon. The massive metal backpack behind the back of the armor was home to a missile launcher. A single red lens was on the round head of the armor. Two knives were in a sheath on the belt of the suit. A tired-looking engineer noticed Aranea and led her to the far corner of the armory, explaining that this suit was still in the testing phase and not meant for mass production. It was only a prototype for something known as warform.
Aranea heard the voice of Sly before she even saw him. The wolfkin was dressed in the orange jumpsuit of an engineer and was angrily arguing with a nearby man in green.
"This prototype is nothing more than glorified battle armor! Missile launcher, cannons… Do you even imagine what a nightmare it is to power it all up with such a small frame? Where do you suppose we should put the generator? And how good is its staying power? What is it supposed to return for resupply after every minor scuffle? It needs a stable weapon, one that lasts for a long time. The frame must be bigger to provide better protection, it must be equipped with an energy weapon in order to be useful against enemies who are immune to bullets or can react to them. Unless you can guarantee that projectiles from this prototype travel at least at Mach 18, your current weapons are worthless!" Sly fiercely argued with the man. Behind him, on the wall, were blueprints for a large, square-shaped mechanical suit.
"Sly, with all due respect, we are merely in the early developing phase of the warform," The man calmly responded to him, "First, we will test this armor, write down any negatives, and improve upon this design. I fully admit that you have reasons to be worried, but some of the best minds in the Third Army worked on this suit. It will be fine."
Sly threw his paws up in frustration and turned to Aranea. There were still scars on his snout, yet his amber eyes burned with fire. There were remnants of food on his work surface, and the usual chaos of instruments had been replaced with meticulous, pristine order. Each detail was in its place. Numerous books were placed on the shelf above Sly’s table. Aranea noticed one weird, out-of-place book. While most books were either technical manuals or works about energy weapons, one was titled "Wyrms and their biology". The wolf hag wondered why Sly needed this one.
"Aranea," Sly said cheerfully, approaching her and shaking her paw. All his former clumsiness was gone, there was something entirely different in his eyes. He was not afraid of punishment or breaking traditions anymore. The male's eyes were filled with a strange determination. "I have been waiting for you. Time to give you something that can kill even Blaguna. But safety first."
"Sly. How are you?" Aranea tried to start the talk, but Sly merely shrugged, giving a fake smile.
"Oh, all is well. I am just fuming with anger about the useless waste of time on the warform prototype."
"What is this warform thingy?" Leila asked as Sly led them to the corner of the armory.
"Oh, it’s a genuinely good idea of our lord," A real enthusiasm came into the voice of the male, "You all saw how big our losses were in the past few months, right? New breeds just ain’t cutting it anymore, the age of technology is coming back, and we need to keep up. Wyrm Lord had ordered the creation of new armor for his troops. The warform is a code name for a new combat armor meant to be used by wolf hags. Now, since the project has just started, it is a shit," Sly pointed at the massive armor. "Just look at this mess. It is such a small frame, and they are just now starting to argue about where to put the generator. Its weapons are too slow, and its mobility is utterly dependent on the reflexes of the wolf hag within. It lacks a proper radar system because its frame is just too small for it! Sure, a skilled wolf hag can make this suit work, but armor should be tailored to the average person instead of being made for the best of the best! There are many average fighters among our leadership, if all of them were to be provided with proper gear, it would bring greater profits rather than having one or two wolf hags have to carry the entire burden on their own," Sly waved his paw in irritation, "But ah! What do I know? I am only a wolfkin who actually saw the flaws of the current power armors in the field."
"But why are you here?" The halfbreed asked in confusion., "Sly, you are a smart guy, but how in the world did Janine allow you to…"
"We received a request to provide a wolfkin for scientists. They needed input from members of the Wolf Tribe in their work of creating new armors for the wolfkins," Leila explained to a confused Aranea, "I signed the necessary papers, and Sly is now a proud member of the Engineer Corps for the time being. Doctors say that his full recovery will be completed only in a few weeks, so Janine did not object to my decision to put him here."
Sly led them to an array of metal capsules near the wall. Each capsule was bigger than Aranea in height. An array of various weapons was put on the tables near the metal capsules. Shardguns, sniper rifles, energy weapons, and even melee blades were present. There was a stone slab nearby, covered with countless gunshot marks. A set of mechanical arms were above the capsules. Sly pressed a series of buttons on the capsule with the number "6" on it. Metal slid to the side, revealing a suit of black armor hanging on a metal rail inside. The surface of the armor was smooth, it was slightly bigger than Aranea, the lenses of this armor were pitch black. Sly pressed a button, and the metal rail extended, moving the armor forward.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"Ignore my grumbling," Sly said, pointing to the suit in front of him. "People here are actually nice to me, they listen to what I say but have different opinions. And just look at what they have created for us! Previous armors were meant to operate for a period of three days. This right here can operate for two weeks without any need for recharging," He lifted the metal arm of the suit, showing Aranea that this armor fully covered a paw, only leaving small holes for claws. "The previous armor enhanced your physical strength up to three-point-one times. This one goes up to four-point-seven times. But the best thing is!"
Sly came to the table and took a shardgun into his arms, putting on goggles. He gestured for Aranea and Leila to stand back. The wolf hag tried to argue against it, but Sly simply pressed some more buttons, and metal arms came from the ceiling, putting the suit of armor in front of a bullet-riddled stone slab. Then he quickly took aim and shot at the armor from a close distance. When the loud noise of metal slamming against metal hit her ears, Aranea tilted her head, unsure why he had ruined a perfectly good suit. Then she saw. Not a trace of damage—not a dent, not even a scratch was on the suit. Armor piercing rounds failed to even damage the armor.
"You ass!" Leila screamed, reaching for her headphones and putting them on, "You could have warned me, it's really screwing with my hearing."
"A new alloy," Sly explained, taking off his googles, "Something that people in the Core Lands are preparing for an invasion of the Living Lands. We barely get the scraps, of course, just enough to outfit the warlords, shamans, and wolf hags. But still!" He beamed, "Just imagine, just imagine how many lives this will save! The greenies will no longer be a threat. And that's not all! We can use this alloy for augmentation, for example."
"Enough of this, trainee Sly," A man in an orange jumpsuit and a white lab overcoat said as he approached the group. When the man came closer, Aranea saw that both of his eyes had been replaced with green lenses. The man looked elderly, there were countless wrinkles on his skin, his hair was gone. Two large scars were on his forehead, some mechanism was visible underneath the skin on his head, and red lights sometimes flashed under his pale looking skin. The right hand of the man was replaced with an elegant looking mechanical arm made of silver-colored metal. You've had your fill of the wolf hag's time. You are Aranea, am I right?" Looking at the halfbreed, the man inquired.
"That is correct, sir…?"
"Till Ingo, the person in charge of training this young man here," He pointed at Sly with his mechanical arm. "That is all you need to know about me. Young man, it is pointless to explain anything to her when actions will be more effective. Help her to put on the armor and head down to the testing area."
"Mister Till," Leila said with a strained smile, "Wolf hag Aranea has only been released out of the healing pod…"
"Do you dare to doubt my designs? You have this little faith in the ideas of my student?" Till asked with calm arrogance. "As expected from the daughter of…" he stopped as the half wyrm slammed her leg into the floor, denting metal.
"Do not lump me in with my father," Leila hissed at him, showing fangs. For the first time since Aranea saw how the friendly nature of the half-wyrm disappeared, something far more dangerous appeared in her place. Leila's hands and legs grew and enlarged when she flexed her muscles, "I am nothing like the old demon. And never will be. Got it?!"
"Hm, this much is obvious. He can at least act civil in the presence of his betters. It'll be years before you're even half the man he is," Ingo responded haughtily, and the half-wyrm clenched her fists. The metal hand shot forward, moving like a snake, extending itself and wrapping around the biceps of the angry half-wyrm. Leila blinked in surprise at this, "Your theory was correct, young man. Her size really does increase when she is angry. Adjustments are needed, I will borrow the book from you later." Sly proudly smiled for some reason when the man said the last sentence with a deadly calm voice.
"What is the meaning of this?!" Leila demanded to know, "Why are you provoking me?"
"Because I needed to know your true size." The man responded calmly. "You are leaving the fortress in a day or less. You really expect to last long in the field without protection? Wyrms." He shook his head. "Your kind always assume themselves to be invincible, right up until the moment you are not. Come with me, we need you to try something on."
Sly assisted Aranea in putting on the armor until Leila was almost dragged away, still angry and visibly confused. While the screen of the armor blinked into existence before her eyes, she looked around in minor confusion. It felt unusual to be disconnected from her pack and to have no icons of pack members on her screen as indicators of their health. These new lenses could zoom in and zoom out, something she had little use for because of her eye, but for others it might be handy. The rest of the systems were pretty standard: heat vision, night vision, enhanced hearing, the ability to project information from countless cameras directly on the retina without obstructing eyesight. The emergency adrenaline shot was added as a new feature to help the fighter recover from the shock of a severe wound. The number of pockets was still the same. Her hands and legs moved without any trouble. The armor seemed strange, almost as if it wasn't completely pressed against her skin.
"I am sorry," Sly said, visibly blushing, "I did not expect that the teacher would force you to put it on right away. "I made changes to it to accommodate your future growth, should you ever want to use your power... " He raised his paws, stopping Aranea from arguing, "… It's not that there's anything wrong with your desire not to use it! The point is, I took measurements for your armor based on your healthy state. You lost quite a lot of weight because of…" Sly's expression darkened once more "... of that incident." He turned away, and Aranea put her paw on his shoulder.