“In the end, the patient had to be sedated and kept in a comatose state to preserve her life. The doctors were unable to explain such sudden aggression and called for my assistance. In my research, I have made a theory that the patient felt an urge to arrive somewhere as soon as possible.” The map came back on the screen, showing two red dots flashing on Iterna’s territory, both marking the locations of the mental wards. “My theory soon proved to be correct as another skinwalker acted in the same way.”
“Wait, this location…” Ratcatcher looked at the second red dot, “Does this mean that Margot suffers from the same symptoms?”
“Margot?” Kayleen raised a brow.
“A skinwalker in the place where I work.”
“I have so many questions.” The Wolfkin shook her head.
“Leave them for later, please,” Artificer asked her, raising a steel finger. “After thorough examination, Lada and I came to the conclusion that skinwalkers were picking up a sort of telepathic wave. Naturally, we took the matter very seriously. The world has no need for another Mincemeat. Thankfully, we could discern that only a few selective individuals could even sense these waves,” A screen behind him flickered and started showing green waves coming from the Desolation in all directions. “Knowing the supposed nature of this call, it was relatively easy to determine the area affected by it. As you can see, this area is increasing day by day.”
“I feel no call or urge to run anywhere.” Ratcatcher looked at the screen with minor worry. If this stuff could affect regular people…
“Thankfully, the call’s effects are limited to only a select few people. Take Kayleen here as an example. As most of you know, all Wolfkins have innate power. The more they fight the stronger enemies, the bigger and stronger they get, until they hit their peak, so to speak. It’s quite a marvel, actually. Their hearts change shape to supplement the body with the necessary amount of blood…” Augustus coughed, and the Elite looked at him before giving out a chuckle. “As I was saying. In some very rare cases, their power or some sort of genetic defect drives them to become a skinwalker.” The screen changed once more, showing the biggest skinwalker Ratcatcher has ever seen breaking from inside a well-defended fortress, carrying a small Wolfkin kid in her sole arm, while her other arm and numerous grievous wounds all across her body had started to regenerate. A new bone spurred from the cleanly cut shoulder, first looking like a tree branch and then changing to a parody of a human arm.
“Fucking Ice Fangs,” Kayleen growled, seeing several forms of white-furred Wolfkins appearing on the fortress walls.
“This is one of the rare examples where we have video footage of someone who just underwent change. Warlord Kalaisa, the sole warlord of the Wolf Tribe ever to become a skinwalker…”
“Has the cub survived that?” Smar asked, her fingers bit into the table and turned crimson from pressure and worry.
“According to the official records, no. Aranea, Kalaisa’s daughter, ended up being devoured by her mother. But after a brief investigation, I have my doubts about this.” Kayleen looked at him, burying one of her claws in the table. “In short, it’s not my secret to reveal. Kayleen, you feel no call, correct?”
“Well, my head hurt like crazy yesterday morning, but now I am fine.”
“Your headaches come from hangovers, Kayleen,” Artificer told her in a dry voice. “Why do you drink so much?”
“Damn it, bastard, you know that his excellency had told me to obey you in everything. Can you not pry into my personal life?” Kayleen left four long cuts on the table. “Fine, I am freaking out in here. No pack, no one to dominate or have a brawl with, aside from these stupid bots in the training area, and these creeps are thanking me for taking them apart. The smells, recycled air, no moonlight… I hate the place.”
“You should have told me. My holograms…”
“Your fakery can’t compare with nature.” Kayleen waved her paw, and Ratcatcher held down a laugh, knowing what will happen.
Only a few people were either bold or stupid enough to insult or dismiss Artificer’s inventions. The Elite was professional down to his last microchip, but living side-by-side with humans left a sort of impression on him. He liked to show off.
The room changed. Clouds passed across the table, and Ratcatcher felt wind blowing across her hair. She felt herself falling through the clouds and down onto the distant green plains beneath. Kayleen has leaped from her seat, using a table as a springboard to get to Smar, grabbing the woman in her arms.
And stopped in confusion. The sense of falling has disappeared, and the room has returned to its usual look.
“With the correct application of sound, smell, and optical illusion, even the most sturdy sensory organs can be tricked, my friend,” Artificer told the embarrassed-looking Kayleen, who put Smar back in her seat. “Good reflexes and solid decision making. You went to save the weakest…”
“Can we concentrate on the situation at hand, sir?” Augustus’ icily voice cut off Artificer. “We don’t come here to serve as toys for your childish pranks.”
“Of course. The call is coming from within the Desolation borders. Given the time, I could’ve pinpointed its exact location, but the time is working against us.”
“But why?” Ratcatcher dared to ask. “If this call only affects skinwalkers, can’t you take your time and…”
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“I can’t. We can’t. There are many unknown factors in this equation. For one, a full-scale skinwalker migration will cause untold deaths in the Desolation and quite possibly attract Ravager there. The mad beast knows nothing of restraint,” A hint of annoyance appeared in Artificer’s voice. “Her methods of subjugating new lands included the destruction of everything and everyone in her path. Before, Dynast’s will held her back. Now she is unbound, and we have little information on what she is up to. And there are at least two million people living in the Desolation. No, we can’t take the risk of having Ravager establish her own little kingdom next to Iterna and slaughtering thousands.”
“Sounds like we are out of luck,” Augustus noted, putting one hand on Kayleen’s shoulder to keep the Wolfkins calm. “No exact location or meaningful way to stop this call. I suggest you keep researching the subject further. Unless there is something else.”
“There is.” Artificer walked to Smar. “After securing patients, I conducted a few more experiments with volunteers. Out of them all, Miss Smar could sense the call too, albeit in a weaker form.”
“This alleviates one of our fears, then.” The explorator nodded to the medic, “The call is harmless to humans.”
“My head hurts all the time, and I have to sit on painkillers,” The medic smiled to him, reaching in her pocket for pills. She took two and shrugged. “Can’t have a good sleep either. Meds help, but a few months of this and I go coo coo.”
“With Smar’s invaluable help, I was able to locate the supposed region from which the call was coming from.” The map changed yet again, zooming in on the north-eastern side of the Desolation, showing a region next to a mountain range. “Kayleen is already aware, but what I am about to say is only for your ears. Dynast found Wolfkins in this area. Before the Extinction, there was a bio-laboratory complex there, and if I were a betting man, I would bet everything that the call is coming from this place. In exchange for Kayleen’s participation, Dynast agreed to share with us the approximate location…”
“Approximating? Artificer, sir, it’s either there or not! Or…” Ratcatcher quickly tried to remember her history lessons. Specifically, about sudden earthquakes caused by abnormals. “Ravager.”
“Ravager,” Artificer confirmed her suspicions. “She had a battle with some exceedingly strong abnormal at the Desolation border around two hundred years ago. Their combat caused wide-spread earthquakes, leading to massive changes in the area.”
“Ha! Knew it!” Kayleen laughed proudly. “The Blessed Mother ended Blood Graf in that region. The shamans told me that the whole mountain range came to be in the process of their bloody combat.”
“Can you see why we need to keep her in the Ravaged Lands?” Artificer looked at everyone. “No offense, Kayleen. Augustus, your team will meet up with the local guides from the Underway, a rebel group in the Desolation. Then you will escort Smar toward the location and find the call’s source. You are to stop it if you can, failing that, you are to contact us and evacuate. We will then eradicate the area with the MOABs.”
"Sorry, sir," Ratcatcher forced herself to speak out once more. "But with all due respect, the mission looks really important. I understand why Augustus is here, but shouldn’t other A-class explorators be here too? Truth be told, our team is a bit too small for the task. This is a work for a full-scale military team."
The robotic frame turned toward her. For a moment, Ratcatcher became worried that Artificer might snap at her. He obviously spent considerable time and effort assembling the team, negotiating with Reclaimers and rebels, and investigating this whole deal in such a short span of time. And here she is, pestering him with questions.
Artificer walked toward the screen and raised his hands, pointing each finger at a different half. The screen’s first half showed Yagore, the moon city. Its defensive screens flickered and popped like balloons, barely enduring a hellish onslaught of artillery fire coming at it from the ruined factories and city districts that surrounded Yagore. Before the explorator’s eyes, one of the tallest spires in the city toppled and caught fire, bisected by a brilliant energy shot from outside of the city.
And all around, the people fought. Ratcatcher recognized some of them, A-class explorators, in their custom power armor. They held the streets against never-ending legions that poured from the breaches in the wall, fighting hand-to-hand in artificial gravity, dying but collapsing the robots’ offensive that threatened to overrun the city’s defensive. The defenders responded to the attack with all their fury, basking the ground from horizon to horizon in the fire of their own defensive weapons, reducing already destroyed ruins to a molten mess. And from above, new pods with reinforcements arrived, along with orbital bombardment from Iterna’s spaceship.
The second screen showed the great frozen sea of the north. Uyarak, the highly developed nation that ruled there, regularly assaulted Iterna’s vassals to steal slaves and supplies. Uyarakians lived in countless domes spread across a series of islands in the Primeval Domain, their ships could both burrow and throw tons of ice and submerge themselves for a stealth attack on Iterna’s shores. Because of some left-over from the Extinction, the sea in the Primeval Domain now forever got frozen, creating a pseudo-continent five hundred kilometers from Iterna’s waters.
Uyarak and Iterna had troubled relationships. Uyarak and its many honorable families tried to avoid direct confrontation with Iterna, only ever attacking and robbing their vassals. Iterna’s military quite often fought against them and even sank several of their ships. On the other hand, Uyarak’s tourism industry boomed after their government opened the borders. Tourists, from all around the globe, were arriving to marvel at the land of eternal snow, to witness how magnificently and skillfully domes were crafted, their massive reflective ceilings almost fully replicating the sky with all its stars during the night.
And now an Uyarak island has sunk. Ratcatcher could not believe her eyes. A massive island, holding no less than three dome-cities, tilted to one side. Its western side rose high in the air. The remains of pillars of stone and ice connecting the island to the ocean’s bottom tore through the frozen sea, lifting high in the air and starting a massive super tsunami that rocked ice all around for hundreds of leagues. One dome had already submerged, and two more were about to follow. Ratcatcher felt horror clutching at her heart, seeing people flailing helplessly in ice-cold waters with the towering shadow of the island ready to fall on them at any moment.
All around Uyarak’s pirate fleets and several of Iterna’s ships tried to offer any assistance they could without exposing themselves to the falling island. But how much could they really save, when the ice tried to close, only to be broken down by the moving island and the domes meant to house around fifty thousand people?
“We don’t have any explorators to send. You are the most skilled of those who are left. The rest are doing their best to try to help with both situations.” Soundlessly, Artificer’s head moved to look up. When he spoke, his voice became filled with pain. “Uyarak’s honorable families refused to accept help from the Elites, too worried that we might try to take over. Fools. We could have saved thousands. And instead, we are stuck here like guard dogs chained to a pole and forced to watch our herds getting eaten by wolves.”
"This doesn’t answer my question about the numbers, sir. Or as to why not send a full-scale military party." Ratcatcher frowned.
"We did send a military expedition." He turned to look at them. "This group is not the first that we have sent to investigate this phenomenon."