Morning brought the lumbering shape of metal giants on the horizon. The mecha of the Dire Knights we had heard of. General Stone was coming for us.
"Listen up. This is it. We make our stand here and fight them. They've grown desperate to send everything they have to try and wipe us out. If it doesn't happen here, today, then it will be tomorrow, when we run from them. We've run away, we've struck them from the shadows, and we have even hidden from them. So far, we were lucky, and they did not discover we were no longer carrying their weapon. That is why we aren't facing a barrage of artillery or bombardment from aircraft. We have to eliminate everything they have, here, today, on this battlefield. If we succeed, we shall have the upper hand in this war, for we will deprive The Cabinet of their army."
"You think General Stone is leading this attack?" Doctor Imbrium asked.
"I am certain that one of those machines is piloted by him. The Cabinet is holding nothing in reserve. He will be leading this assault personally." Lieutenant Colonel Rose assured us.
"How do we fight them? They have tanks and mecha and hundreds of soldiers." Abbot asked.
"We will split up into three teams. We have to take down those mecha quickly before they can catch us under their arsenals of firepower. I will lead that team. Before we can get close enough, we have to separate the infantry from the tanks, so that we can destroy the tanks. To scatter their infantry, we need some kind of diversion." Lieutenant Colonel Rose had set up a crude model of the battlefield with sticks representing the lines of infantry, pebbles and rocks to represent the formation of the approaching tanks and pieces of bone to represent our three teams.
"What sort of diversion?" Dreich asked. He had a wry smile, showing the tips of his fangs.
"When I looked into the Eye of Araek, I saw that it knows the hearts of men, and it feeds on their weaknesses, bidding them to touch it and connect to it physically so that they die. A human cannot resist it, once they see it. We will lead their soldiers into the ruins, and we will retreat past the Eye of Araek. None of them will survive when they pursue us." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told us his plan.
"It had no such effect on me." Jack the Ripper said. "How do you know it will work?"
"I saw it work again and again, as I stared into it." Lieutenant Colonel Rose told us.
"So, we run from them, into the ruins, and when they come for us, we let the Eye of Araek have them all." Dreich frowned. "This is an obvious mistake, to trust that artifact. It wants human sacrifice, that is what I saw."
Lieutenant Colonel Rose sighed and thought about it. I could see he was reconsidering. "Without a plan, we don't stand a chance. The mecha are protected by the tanks and the tanks are protected by the infantry. If we face those mecha, with their full firepower, we will be annihilated."
"I agree with Dreich, and so does Frosty. We cannot deliberately feed hundreds of brave soldiers to the Eye of Araek. No victory is worth what that would cost." McRaze said solemnly.
"Then I do not know how we can win. Perhaps it is time Major Hazel relieves me of command if I am unfit to lead us." Lieutenant Colonel Rose sounded defeated. The pack had turned on him rejecting his plan. All of us felt it was wrong, and we did not want to follow through.
"We don't have time for this." Bruna put her fists on her hips. "I'm not going to relieve you of command, sir, just because you are wrong about using their weapon against them. It is a good plan, it's just not how we do things. We fight with honor." Bruna was resolute.
"You're right. They are quickly approaching. Those tanks will be within range of our position soon. The only other option is to surrender." Lieutenant Colonel Rose swallowed hard, choking on the word. He was a very proud man, and he had led us to many victories. The thought of giving up now was almost as bad as watching his pack get killed.
"I'd rather die." I said, reassuring him.
"Me as well." the whole pack agreed.
"Then we must fight them head-on." Lieutenant Colonel Rose pushed the playing pieces representing our teams forward in the wargame. He pushed the pieces representing the enemy forward as well. Then he pushed ours a little closer and picked them up. "And that's what will probably happen. Once we are in the range of the weapons of the mecha, forced into the open by the tanks, that's where we will go the way of the Spartans."
"Could be worse." Dreich chuckled. "We could be trying to do this without superhuman powers and the speed of wolves."
"You want us to charge them head-on?" Abbot frowned. He reached for the playing pieces and Lieutenant Colonel Rose obliged and dropped them into his hand.
Abbot set up the wargame to the starting positions and this time he showed us a maneuver that offered a target for the tanks and advancing mecha while the other two teams circled and flanked them from both sides. The team in the middle retreated, staying out of range of the mecha. The flanking teams assaulted the tanks first. When the mecha turned their weapons on them, they were caught in a crossfire between the infantry and the mecha, while the team in the middle attacked the mecha from behind. With the armor destroyed, the pack was to retreat, and if the infantry pursued them, it was at their own risk.
"It's still a suicide mission, but at least this way we put up a fight." Abbot congratulated himself.
"Frosty says we will win." McRaze told us "As long as our courage does not falter in the face of insurmountable odds, and we fight the winning battle."
I shuddered to think of what we had almost done instead, had we given into our fear.
Halo group changed the lycans who had unstable blood. They had done it once before, and this time they removed their uniforms instead of tearing through them with their claws. The rest of the pack split into two flanking teams and left the cave.
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We were spotted retreating, but we were still out of range. We circled stealthily in two directions so we could circle back through the hills and the weird rotting vegetation that grew all around us, mostly the giant purple eggplants.
I was with Bruna's team, and we waited atop a shattered hillside, hidden behind cover, watching while General Stone grew tired of Halo's wolves playing games with the cannons of his tanks. I flinched as one of the many shells raining down took one of the wolves.
He lay broken in the crater, and the others left his dead body behind, running so that they were difficult to target. The tanks stopped shooting and the Dire Knights advanced, towering at about eight meters and charging forward at full speed. General Stone had lost his patience.
We had not even hoped for such a mistake. Abbot's plan was looking better already. The tanks rushed forward too as the distance grew. Halo led his wolves back into the rocky hills and disappeared without a fight. When the mecha reached the last position, they were spotted, General Stone's Dire Knight armor let loose a frightening barrage that ripped apart the sick-looking plants and drove the winged lizards airborne. No wolves were hiding. The mech stamped its feet like a frustrated child.
Our team descended on the closest tank and by the time we were spotted we had already gone past it, dropping grenades into its treads where it sat. When it was immobilized, the hatch opened. Treach was waiting, crouched out of sight on the tank's sloping armor. He pulled the tank crewman out and discarded his dead body down the side of the tank. Then he dropped our last grenade into the tank. He went in headfirst and shot the remaining crewmen, taking a few bullets to his body armor.
The turret rotated and fired at close range at the next tank beside the captured one. He fired a second time and the second tank exploded. Treach turned the turret on the back of one of the Dire Knights and destroyed it in one shot. Then he got out and we moved to take cover near the destroyed tank. Another Dire Knight started back and when it was within range it began firing on the disabled tank.
Two tanks on the other end of the row were burning. The tank commander realized the ambush was moving in along both sides and the remaining tanks began to retreat in reverse.
One by one they each stopped and smoke poured from them. McRaze had figured out how burn them from the inside, using her pyrokinetic ability, she only had to get close enough. When there was just one tank left, Frosty was in position with his bazooka and got a lucky shot on it, blowing its turret clean off.
The crew tried to scramble for safety, but we had surrounded them and shot them as they emerged from the torn hole in the top of the tank.
We took cover behind the smoking wrecks of the tanks as the approaching Dire Knight ripped apart the battlefield with an insane amount of firepower. Two more Dire Knights had turned around and left General Stone by himself as he set out trying to find the escaped wolves.
We were trapped, the infantry was more numerous than we had expected and were advancing on us and pinning us down, surrounding us. With the Dire Knights closing in, we didn't stand a chance. McRaze had nearly exhausted her psionic energy and couldn't attack the Dire Knight.
I saw it catch up with Connor and shoot him apart. Bruna was shapeshifting already, and I quickly removed my armor and uniform so I could go with her. As she changed I began to as well, and she kept biting me, accelerating my transformation.
The Dire Knight stood over its kill triumphantly for a moment, but that was its fatal mistake. Lieutenant Colonel Rose was fully enraged and had already transformed. The terrifying beast charged straight at the Dire Knight and before it could open fire he had clambered up the side and began punching and clawing at the armored glass protecting the pilot.
The Dire Knight began shaking and stomping, trying to shake off the wolf. It wasn't enough, the beast cracked the glass in its raw fury and then broke a hole through it. He reached inside and with a jagged slash of his claws he removed the pilot's face. The Dire Knight began shooting wildly in every direction, its full salvo strafing the approaching infantry and killing many of them as they advanced.
The other two Dire Knights opened fire on the compromised armor and took it down. As a wolf I saw the lieutenant colonel was still atop it, his arm trapped in the hole in the armored glass.
While they shot apart their own mech and killed the wolf on top of it, Bruna and I made it to them, and we too clambered up one each. The pilots were surprised to see us. and didn't have time to react.
I looked at Bruna atop the other mech, unsure what to do. She looked back at me and as our eyes met she said: "There's an emergency release lever, turn it and pull it out."
She showed me how gripping the lever in her claws, turning it, and pulling it out. The armored glass was ejected, freeing - or rather exposing - the pilot. He screamed in terror as she pulled off his helmet and bit him on top of his head, worrying his neck until it broke.
I did the same thing, clumsily gripping the lever and trying to hold on as the Dire Knight began to dance around, trying desperately to shake me loose. I managed to eject the armored glass, and the pilot produced a handgun and shot me over and over until he had emptied the clip. I felt the bullets hit me, but the pain only made me angry. The bone and tissue damage he had caused me with the gunshot wounds made one of my arms go limp. I still had one functioning claw and I used it to cut the straps of his seat and lift him from the cockpit. I tossed him to the ground, and he landed with a hard thump. Then the whole mech fell over and landed with an even heavier impact, throwing me free.
Red anger drove me towards him where he lay injured on the ground. When I reached him, the beast took over and I finished him off.
The skies were darkening under all the smoke, casting the whole battlefield in shadows. It was then the Dreich went among the infantry, a flash of dark robes, batlike and vicious, killing them quickly one by one. Without the sunlight he dared show his true form, the vampire had plenty of blood, and sipped some from each victim, his strength and speed increasing as he went. They tried to shoot him, but to him it was like they were responding in slow motion, and he easily avoided where they aimed. Some of them even shot their own men as he darted out of the way.
Adam and the rest of the pack charged at the scattering infantry and further decimated them. Finally, the ones who were left panicked and fled, seeing everyone around them getting killed by monsters and all the armor destroyed and burning. I just lay there, watching, as my wounds disabled me while they began to close.
The battlefield went quiet, and I saw most of my friends were still alive, picking over the remains of the enemy force. I slowly got to my feet, growling and ready to kill anyone who got to close to me, be it friend or enemy. Bruna came up alongside me and barked at me, her voice driving back my aggression, subduing my anger and making me obedient. She stared me down until I submitted.
We started to change back into out human form, which actually accelerated my healing. By the time I was a man again, my wounds were almost entirely closed, and my body had pushed out the bullets. I suddenly realized that one more mech remained, General Stone.
I looked to the direction he had gone, but he had disappeared. I waited in awful suspense, while Bruna got her uniform and body armor on. When nothing happened, I too got dressed and put on my own body armor.
Then we saw Halo approaching, alone and staggering and wounded, still as a wolf. He walked upright and carried something. The remaining pack members gathered, and we saw what he had taken from General Stone. He held it up anyway, his claws gripping it. It was General Stone's head.
We had survived and we had won the battle. The war was not over, but there was a lot of hope, as we had defeated the army of The Cabinet. Whatever horrors remained, we would face them.
For Lieutenant Colonel Rose and all our dead, we let out a long and mournful howl, a song of wolves.