The person who ran into the embrace of Janine and Martyshkina might have looked strao some. Horrifying even. She was a metal skeleton with ribs fused together, aernal grinning smile, the dim white forever sm in the lenses sunk deep into the ium, often instilling fear in anyone who hadn’t spoken to this petunt child. Jaossed her axe to Impatient One, and, together with Marty, took Lyudochka into a spin.
There was no clever trick about that metal body; no brain case was hidden ihe chest ile limbs, nor was she an AI. Born as a human, she had been uploaded into circuits and processors. She had ‘grown’ during their separation, if such a word could be applied to an ageless mae. Her thoracic cavity expanded; longer, multi-jointed limbs repced the previous humanoid appendages. A cloak of woven s and white cloth rustled; its upper ends seamlessly ehe smooth surface of the bones.
“I’ve missed you so much, Moms!” The girl, no, the woman, cried, hugging them. “Sorry so much for writing so rarely; a bunch of stuff happened, and then even more stuff happened, and then this and…”
“Beat it.” Martyshkina patted her skull. “We also haven’t been the exempry parents tely.”
“Then we all suck at unig! Let’s fix it.” Her jaw closed, surprising Janine. She hadn’t been able to when they found her in the underground boratory. “How have you been doing?”
“Existing,” Janine answered evasively and noticed ornate insignias welded into her cub’s limbs. “You are an ambassador in Houstad?”
“Sorta.” Lyudochka jumped ba the ground and proudly showed them her staff.
The top was made of gold, the bottom of ptinum, while the shaft itself was of stainless steel. Letters of spiritual wisdom covered the golden part, while warnings to temper religious fervor and focus on f friendship covered the lower end.
“Well, to tell the truth, I worked as a clerk in the embassy.” Lyudochka scratched her . “Gaining experience, meeting new people, filling out papers for immigration, but then the war broke in, half of our terminals exploded, wounding my colleagues, and Abel ventured on his murder spree, while Mister Wickedbreed was st seen at the Wall. It was scary and stressful when Lord Steward himself had promoted me, but!” She pointed a thumb over her shoulder at the giant standing silently at her back. “Ur-Champion arrived after Abel had to be recalled before he joihe Recimers to wreak retribution.”
“Is that bad?” Janine ruffled her hair. “Lyudochka, sorry if I sound like an ass, but you said your people were wounded. We wouldn’t mind weling Abel into our ranks for a while.”
“First for a while, then forever. At least such was the reasoning of the une’s geezers,” the woman dropped her voie to imitate hushing. “Please don’t tell them I said it; they’ll scream at me again. I am sure they have valid s; it’s just that I don’t get them. The Gilded Horde is ao all; we should team up against it, not py politics.”
“Our mouths are sealed,” Martyshkina promised.
Lyudochka gestured, and the two women leaned in so she could whisper in their ears, “I’m sort of freaking out here and really want the real ambassador to return. I don’t have the fai idea if I am doing a good job, and I keep asking the military about the whereabouts of our people, and no one knows anything! Argh!” Her voice modutors veyed the r frustration. “All I want is to do the job well, but I am not the right person to hahe situation well!”
“But you are doing your duty, regardless. Take pride in that,” Janine advised her. “A us lighten your burdens, daughter. Anissa!”
“Warlord?” Anissa closed in, watg Lyudochka warily from a distance. “Why does the mae call you mothers?”
“Because she is our daughter.” Martyshkina spped the Oathtaker across the back.
“But… you are women! A girl and a girl ot produce offspring!” Anissa stammered. “Are you a mutant, Mom? Am I one? Was it an immacute ception? Or did you eat a k of steel before coputing? Is that why she is like this? Or was it Warlord Martyshkina? How did this happen? What did you do?!”
“And you never deemed it fit to tell us, why?” asked Impatient Oepping closer to Lyudochka.
“Shamans have their ows; we have ours.” Martyshkina shrugged. “Lyudochka is not to be treated as a Wolfkin. She is gentler, less rigid than us…”
“She is literally made of metal,” Anissa noted, baring her neck at Janine’s snarl. “Observation, not an insult, Warlord!”
“…But her is she an outsider, and her name will be added to the memorial stones.”
“You are Anissa, right?” Lyudochka shoved herself past the warlords and shook paws with the wolf hag. “Mom told me a lot about you. Is it true that you used a spio…”
“To club a bastard to death, not my proudest moment,” Anissa fihe sentenervously examining the lifeless fihat touched her and shuddering.
Lyudochka stopped; her head turned smoothly to look at Impatient One, who quickly rubbed her muzzle against the metallic limb and frowned. “What… what is she doing? Is this a ritual to ward me off?”
“I don’t care that you are a soulless abomination and a foul affront to all that is natural; I care that it isn’t possible to mark you as part of the Tribe,” Impatient One answered, rubbing her muzzle again. “Why ’t I st-mark you?”
“My surface s itself, Impatient Ohe ambassadained her posure. “Mom, what about Ignacy, Bogdan, and Marco? I meet them?”
“Bogdan,” Janine’s voice almost broke, but she held on, accepting Marty’s paw on her shoulder. “I failed him and many others. Ignacy is fine, but Marco is injured.”
“Injured… But he is only a child!” The ambassador pressed a hand to her mouth.
“Happens in service. He’ll be fine,” Janine asked in a tohat left no room fument. “Lyudochka, we brought several of your people back with us. Maybe they’ll know about the ambassador’s fate. Anissa, escort your sister to Ignad expiuation, the back to us.”
“How I expin when I don’t even uand... I mean, yes, Warlord.” The wolf hag saluted and rushed to the mobile fortress apanied by the g of Lyudochka’s legs. On the run, Anissa turo the metal woman and asked, “ I have your number, sis? Don’t really have enough time to chat right now, not with the war happening.”
“Sure thing!” Lyudochka slipped a hand into the bag around her waist.
“Brings back memories,” chuckled Marty. “Mommies.”
“Any other cubs you failed to mention?” Impatient One asked icily.
“None of your business, Shaman,” Martyshkina said.
“It is a part of my business, as we are charged by the Blessed Mother herself to maintain a icle of each family iribe.” The shaman frowned. “ you imagihe shame if we fail to mention her lineage?”
“I don’t think you o worry about it, Impatient One,” Bertruda said. “It’s uhe dy reproduce.”
“Didn’t stop these two from ejeg her somehow, so anything’s possible. I am just preparing for the worst.”
“To the aer, at once!” Janine barked, not wanting to have this argument with the shaman right now. What wasn’t forbidden was allowed, and adoptions were never added to the list of unworthy sins.
The Iable domihe ter of the airport, a pace of steel, tracks, turrets, sensor arrays, missile unchers, and bristly ons. Its ammunition fully replehe terpiece of the Third stood ready to aid the packs in any way it could, and to rain Abyss down on anyone approag Houstad.
As they hurried inside, Bertruda flinched, notig obvious aggression in the air. Usually rowdy, the packs stood unmoved, fully armored includis, watg with unblinking le the Ice Fangs standing opposite of them. The Order’s host outnumbered the Tribe’s three to one, an unnecessary testament to the sequences of betrayal and who had paid the price.
Gone was the usual banter, and a low growl passed through the tense packs as a Sunbde knight-captain gave the and, and the knights raised their banners, hailing the return of the warlords and weliruda. A mistake. It would be better for the Order to let the wound heal rather than cutting it wide open with their fake pretense of g. And the situation will worsen even more when the news of the Ice Fangs’ failure to protect Mard their refusal to pay the blood debt bees public.
Janine had sidered banning this revetion, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to do so, knowing full well that someone would tell the truth and then she would have to murder the disobedient soldier. She did not want to see another Wolfkin die because of the Order’s either direct or ireacherous as ever again.
No Wolfkin clumsily offered a pce at a bonfire and food to the defenders or knights. Hunters and scouts did not sneak into the ranks of anroup to tease them. Shamans didn’t expin the faith in the Spirits to curious souls, and the sages refrained from edug warriors and males. If the reports spoke true, for the first time sihe two groups had united under Ravager, several shamans had bahe ice boys from attending prayers. Lacerated One puhe shamans responsible, but the fact remained.
When they had left this pce, a unity had ed them. Now, the threat of violence hung in the air, and any wrong move could spark the irrecoverable. Without the Blessed Mother, the alliance of the Tribe and the Order was falling apart.
“Anissa!” She heard a screeg voice, and the long, segmented body crashed into the wolf hag as she and her panion stepped onto the ramp of the mobile fortress, bringing a flush to Janine’s cheeks. “You’re alive! Oh honey, I was so worried sick upon hearing about Janine’s capture! Let me just check if everything is fine real quick…”
“We are tougher than this…” Anissa giggled, hearing the melody drummed by the toxiaths on her helmet. Lyudochka raised a finger and stopped, but then Chak whispered words to Anissa, earned a kiss, and slithered off her, pursuing the pany.
“And you!” Chak’s coils he group; his bck eyes faced Janine’s. “Where is my armor, barbarian!”
His outburst drew a couple of chuckles from the rows of soldiers, and Alpha nodded in approval of his game.
“My armor,” Janine corrected him. “It broke like a rotten egg under Mad Hatter’s fingers.”
“My crew maintained and repaired that marvel, you ignorant, savage pest! I spent sleepless nights polishing it, repg damaged servomotors, bundling fiber muscles, and keeping it of dirt!” The bck clusters of his eyes shifted. “Your armor? A brute such as yourself wouldn’t know how or when to recharge its geor! Your armor. Bah! You piss and drool on it and cim to possess and know these things. Ridiculous. Lost my armor, lost my rifle, but kept that useless axe. Whatever.” He sighed, falling in line. “What’s done is do’s good to see you all alive. Visit me at the maintenance bay, cil. We’ll see what we do to ehat you’ll stay alive. It will be unseemly if my wife’s mother is not present at our wedding.”
ess. Ja her to the mog ughter of Alpha and the gratutions for Martyshkina aruda. Pead tranquility. You are a whiff of sand carried by a storm, rexed and unbothered. Her paws ched, the fingers pressing hard against the palms. You ’t murder your daughter’s soulmate even if she’s pletely wrong about choosing this i!
As they approached the Iable’s ramp, Alpha lightly elbowed her sisters and Jacob, who followed after Lyudochka. Janine didn’t uand the meaning of that at first, but then she looked at the ground. Chak’s sharp legs had cracked the stone during his inteampede, scattering pebbles. One such pebble disappeared… Wrong. It had been stepped on and crushed to dust without so much as a crack.
An invisibility field, advanced enough to suppress noises of anything that touched it.
Iterna brought more than just the Problemsolvers. Their deadliest servants, the Shadows, lurked here. A clear viotion of the sigreaties, but Alpha didn’t raise a fuss. What in the Abyss is going on here?
The group ehe crawler, reached the elevator, and it carried them to the bridge doors, where Lacerated One rose from the floor, bowed low, and then remai the entrance alongside Impatient One, ready to y down their lives to protect the war cil from any ued intrusion.
Calm discipline prevailed on the bridge. Dragena, her arms folded behind her back, listeo the officers report on the preparations, occasionally relocations as she studied the holographic map of the city. The operators, stationed in the cavities oher side of the main bridge leading ter’s throne, finished gathering information on the supplies. Jaie, dressed for battle, sat in Cristobo’s seat, coordinating the regiments of the provincial forces. Zurkov used a walking stick to traverse around and faced the mayor.
“This isn’t over, Jaquan,” he hissed into the mayor’s face. “The Dynast will hear of it.”
“Please, issioner, none of them died, and we evacuated them to safety as per agreement…” Jaquan spread his hands, smiling sweetly.
“Don’t py coy with me. Six of them have burns on their necks!” Zurkov smmed his e against the table, and Jaquan had to catch him before the man could fall when his leg gave way. “At attention!” he yelled, spotting the Wolfkiering.
Anji leaped from her seat, closing the distand pg a paw on Kaisa’s shoulder. The two women touched foreheads momentarily, saying nothing as Jaook her pce beside Alpha, her back to the viewing ss and the lower deck where the operators worked, while Bertruda fnked First, sheathing the exposed edge of Elegand pointing it down.
“Janine.” Dragena broke from the map and embraced her. There was no warmth in her voice or passion in the gesture, but Janine appreciated this ritual heless. “Are you capable of fighting?”
“I murder, Dragena,” the warlrowled. “You are not keeping me from the battlefield.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” the woman answered coldly. “Bertruda. Your arm?”
“W, Warlord,” Bertruda replied. “Scars already formed.”
“Sorry for not being there, sister.” Janine blinked in surprise, finding herself in the iron hug of Ashbringer. Her named sister spoke without spite or the usual mockery, l her voice but not dropping it to a whisper and ign that the Sword Saints heard it. “I should’ve returo the voy, been at your side.”
“Ashbringer. It isn’t your fault,” Janine reassured her, embrag the woman, their differences fotten, and she no longer cared about one-upping the arrogant and prideful soldier.
“He’ll be fine,” Ashbringer said intensely. “My boys and girls, I have tokens. We’ll find a way to fix him, don’t worry.” She lifted her head, looked at Kaisa, and nodded.
“You were a fool to take him out of the pits,” Alpha stated bluntly.
“Yes.” Janine blinked away tears. It was selfish. So many of her soldiers had died. Bogdan hadn’t been avenged, and her soul wailed, t her heart over what had happeo Marco. But she couldn’t help it. “Yes, I was,” she agreed wholeheartedly.
She brought him here. She trusted him to the Ice Fangs and doubted the wisdom of tradition. Brood Lord took the limbs, but it was her hubris that permitted it to happen to begin with.
Ashbringer broke away from Janine and stepped up to Alpha, releasing the cws.
“Shut it.”
“Are you challenging me, little sister?” Alpha asked and grinned. A touch of fear spreading from her caused people to shudder.
“I am telling you to shut up.”
“Kneel, sister.” The smirk ged into a scowl, and fangs fshed in the mplight. Muscles bulged at the white neck. “Or be shamed.”
“There is no shame in proteg kin, sister.” Ashbriepped close to Alpha, and their bodies touched. It wasn’t just brazen ce. At that close a distahe taller warlord would have struggled to nd the first blow with her longer arms.
Not that it mattered. Not against Alpha.
“Spirits speak through you, Ashbringer,” Alpha snorted, rexing herself. “I overstepped the bounds. The lesson has been learned.”
“Don’t worry, sister!” A paw spped Janine on the shoulder, and she jumped from the uedness. Onyxia was behind her, her toes gripping the edge of the ptform, and she had crept up on her named sister without so much as a crack. Janine’s heavy nding thump brought a smile to the shadowy lips. “While I draw breath, no hordemen will approach the kiddo. And…” She swallowed, gng aside. “Iterna owes me, and we are calling in that debt. Don’t argue! It’s my decision. Their medical services are superior to ours...” She turo First. “And far more trustworthy.”
“Enough.” Dragena stepped betweewo groups, sileng any further barbs. “The Horde is ing. The question is whether they’ll y siege or attack immediately. Based on the evidehered from their previous invasions and the fact that their terpiece, that Mad Hatter, is ing, the tter is more realistic.”
“They’ll ram their army into ours, no lubrication,” Martyshkina said.
“Foul,” Dragena said. “Not inaccurate. They gain nothing by being deyed here, so stalled they won’t be. The ander is not here, but she has never failed to arrive in our toughest times. It won’t be any different now, either. But with or without the Blessed Mother, we are staking our cim in Houstad. The Horde breaks here.”
“Idiotic,” Onyxia said. “We’re not built for trench warfare. The Third is famous for our swift attacks, ambushes, and fluidity otlefields. This pce is mere rock, steel, and gss. Let the Horde have it; there is nothing to devour here. What do we care about useless aoys or pretty paintings in museums? When our enemies overstretch themselves, the gleam of our cws will greet them in the darkness of the forests, and our shells will deny them the luxury of sleep. Before the First and the Sed arrive, we will fertilize the fields with the corpses of those who oppose the state. We’ll haunt their nightmares and poison their reality, never relenting until they break!”
“You just love forests,” Martyshkina accused.
“I do, and I am tired of pretending otherwise.” Onyxia spun, stepping oform. “Darkness is our home, and starless nights keep us safe. When I die, I’d love to be buried in the de forest around here, in a pce where the sunlight never reaches.”
“Noted. But you miss a crucial point, sister.” Dragena raised her paw, stopping Janine fruing. The map ged to the image of the terraf plex. “Our future. The future of our desdants and the future of those we serve and protect. If it is destroyed, the ecosystem of the region will suffer. The damage will be severe enough to set back the restoration project by decades, if not turies.” She snapped her finger, and the image disappeared, giving way to the regional map.
This model showed the predis of the geologists and biologists, highlighting forests, parks, farmnd, kes, and rivers. Slowly, the pnts withered, and patches of yellow and gray sand ate up rge rings among the dead brown fields. These rings of desotion grew and soon covered everything; leaves fell from the trees, and the trunks cracked uhe occasional wind. Lakes dried up, leaving hollow craters. Over the course of a year, the thriving region was repced by nothing but another desert.
“This is the predicted result if the plex is severely damaged or destroyed, based on several simutions. This oute we will deny,” Dragena said and addressed Janine. “Sister. The northern gates are yours to hold. I will join you shortly after the battle begins.”
“I am joining you,” Jaie decred, rising to her feet with the whine of w servomotors. She stubbornly met Dragena’s emotionless eyes. “I refuse to abandon my city or my people, Warlord.”
“And what of your wounds, Captain?” Dragena asked. “The Iable will soon be down to a skeleton crew, and the New Breeds capable of blog teleportatiathered in the plex. I had po put you in charge of our crawler, as it pys the most crucial role in our coordination and support.”
“To hell with it!” Jaie fired. “Our citizens have died, been wounded or ensved. And you expect me to cower in the rear? Jaquan joihe volunteers. Put his unit here ahe professionals fight!”
“As you wish, Captain,” Dragena said evenly. “Janine’s pack will be reinforced by the mixture of volunteers and soldiers.”
“Well, if that’s the way it is, then I’ll go get suited up too,” Zurkov said, struggling to get to his feet. “I…”
Jaquan kicked his walking stick, and the poli fell to the side, almost hitting his head oable, but Bertruda and Martyshkina’s paws caught him and helped the man to stand.
“Son of a whore,” the man cursed.
“That was the practical demonstration,” Jaquan said cheerfully. “issioner, I uand your desire, but I do not share it. Personally, I’d be happy hiding in the back. Houstad will need help to rebuild. Zurkov, we have had our differences, but I hope you overe your prejudices and tio serve our city as bravely in the years to e as you have served it tely. I’ll do my part here.”
Zurkov’s face darkened, but he said nothing a, supported by Jaie. Dragena resumed her speech, addressing the warlords and assigning positions iy for them to defend. Hearing her orders, Janine experienear despair. The city seemed endless; its sprawling streets, even cut to the most important districts by the walls, stretched on and on, iwining and f a colossal byrinth. Subways, skyscrapers, sewers, and factories—not ting apartments—presented a nightmare to try to hold on to. Ohe walls shatter, the hordemen will spill across the ey, doubtless giving them ample opportuo fnk the defenders.
Surely Dragena could see it, too. What good was the clever pt of fortifications if they cked the o properly man them? Itle against the New Breeds, the regur troops will not have the luxury of a safe retreat. Everything will be decided in a frontal frontation.
“What about the Horde’s superon?” she voiced her . “The ohat wiped Opul off the map.”
“I believe that Mad Hatter intends on capturing this pce retively intact.” Dragena highlighted three possible locations on the map where the Horde could deploy the Sky’s Wrath. “By the time we ge her perception about the feasibility of such a goal, it will be too te to use it. Make no mistake in uimating our opposition or thinking the victory is granted. We are fag approximately a force of two huhousand, much of it New Breeds. The nd itself is groaning uhe sheer mass of bat vehicles bearing down on us. It is do or die.”
“Butcher them all and watch bodies fall.” Alpha gritted her fangs, rumbling out the words. “If the worst es to pass, it was an honor, sisters, brothers, allies, and the traitors.” She gred at the Ice Fangs. “I’ve never been the best person around, but you accepted me, and for that I’ll give it my all.”
To their credit, the Ice Fangs took the insult in stride. Alpha was testing them, Janine uood. Zero and Dragena always had a positive influen the stro warlord, cooling down her violent urges, and right now her named sister was testing the white-furred, guessing how much they could be ted otlefield.
“Warlord Dragena,” First said, breaking his silehe Order has received no assigs. May I inquire as to the reason?”
“What good are soldiers who ot follow orders and refuse to cooperate? What good are troops inpetent enough to lose cubs?” asked Ashbringer.
“Ashbringer, please, let us be reasonable.” First started in a soothing voice. “We had our differences and arguments, true, but you ’t think…”
“’t think? Are the mindless beasts for your ilk, First?” Alpha interrupted him in a deceptively calm tone. “Or has the Order deemed it fit to tell us what to think now? Give me back my sisters. Return Predaig and Eled. Give Marco his limbs back this instant. Resurrect our every lost kin, then you’ll get the right to tell us what to do.” She spat on the floor. “Sihe beginning of this war, the Order has dotle more thas oride, and the packs are now riled up; they are enraged with you, and they have every right to be. We won’t quench that fire; the tales of your betrayal shall survive everyone present. Step outside and t how many of us are left. The Tribe is close to our owin.”
“This is why you have to accept our aid,” First insisted. “And not engage in useless arguments. The demise of the Wolf Tribe was never in our iions, and we’ll sooner die than see our kin disappear.”
“What sort of cohesion do you expect of our forces in our current predit?” Alpha dropped the mog tone. “First, open your eyes and try to see the situation from our point of view. We have tried everything to appease you and to build a kinship with the Order, a you still betrayed us. How we rely on you now, when not a single one of our leaders holds a shred of respect toward your hides?”
A stomp interrupted First’s response, and Dragena stepped betweewo groups. The impact shook the ptform, causing the operators to turn in their seats, and Lacerated One charged in, taking up position at the warlord’s side, looking for any signs of insubordination from the Wolfkins present.
“Enough. We are soldiers. Disagreements and grievano longer matter. The Wolf Tribe will meet the enemy in the old way, fighting on the side of those we trust.” She o Alpha. “But the Order won’t be fotteher. You wish flory and triumph, and that shall be given to you in abundance. After interrogating the prisoners and learning all we about Mad Hatter and her anders, I believe I know a little of how she thinks. Seeing the city weak, she’ll une singur assault to overwhelm everything we have, using her own might to break through the defe their stro point. My guess is that she won’t try any plicated approaches and will e in from the west. That means the north and south will be left unattended. We will weather the brunt of the storm.” Her cold eyes looked at First. “So that you secure the destru of their war mae and stand triumphantly on our corpses at the end of it, Grandmaster.”
“We do not a pursuit of glory,” Bertruda said.
“Mayhap,” Dragena ceded. “sider it as a bonus iive to ehat no Ice Fang is offehink us ungrateful and paranoid if you must.”
“Mad Hatter isn’t in the and alone,” First cautioned. “Whoever she chose to and the rearguard will bolster the rear’s defenses.”
“That was ated for.” Dragena took a terminal from the table and ha to First. The grandmaster read the information, and a thin smile appeared on his lips. “Yes. We know who it’ll be and how to bait them.”
“I am afraid I must point out a fw in your pn, Warlord Dragena,” First said, handing the terminal back. “You said north. For that to work…”
“I have never made a mistake, Grandmaster,” Dragena answered, watg the observation sole showing the crawler’s corridors. “Now silenot a word, that’s an order.”
The doors to the bridge opened, and Schalk stepped inside, quickly saluting the officers.
“Your will is done, Warlord.” He fshed a smile. “It took more effort than I am willing to admit, but the unions and my boys have loaded every beast from the zoos onto the trucks. If any of those disgusting animals escape... well, I don’t know, shoot me, Ma’am.” He noticed Janine. “My deepest dolences about your children and sisters, Warlord.”
“Impeccably done.” Dragena ined her head. “Warlord Janine and I will join the defense of the western gates. Your unit will be added to the crawler’s security. I uand the unusualness of su order, but the bridge pys a crucial role in our pns.”
“We get to sit out the fight?” Schalk beamed, then forced a cough. “I mean, yeah, of course you t on us, Warlord! Smash the bad guys, my girls and boys will keep the pid warm; don’t you dare worry, ma’am!”
He saluted ahe bridge. As the doors sealed them off from the corridors, Dragena calmly returo the map, issuing orders and outlining strategy. The operators and several officers exged goo ed to bother the warlord for crification. Finally, the you of them, a boy of twenty-six and a veteran of taigns, left his seat and approached Dragena, baring his throat. The warlord waved away Lacerated One aured for the soldier to speak.
“Warlord,” the operator never bowed, holding his throat exposed, imitating the Wolf Tribe’s tradition. “I believe you have made a mistake. You assigned Warlord Jao defend the north before.”
“Never in my life have I made a mistake, brother,” Dragena assured the man. “The deaths of Keon and Maxim Puchkov. The ambush on Captain Cristobo. And precise knowledge of our vulnerable locations is avaible to the Gilded Horde. None of that was an act.”
“Whie?” Janine demao know.
She she air and sensed no st mark from the operator but caught a very familiar st from an opened recess above them. Overjoyed, she rubbed her snout against the man’s neck, marking him as kin on her own volition and granting him the unofficial privileges of more senior crew members for his bravery.
“One. Another. Both. Maybe the third. her. We will waste no effuessing,” Dragena said. “One way or ahe path to your target will be open, Grandmaster First. I advise you to use the southern gates for the majority of the Order’s units. Allies. The Gilded Horde believes us to be foolish and brutish. They think our civilization is weak and pathetic. It is an apt time to educate them about our ing.” A snap of her fingers brought back the image of the terraf plex. “Janine. I have a job for your soldiers.”
