Janine barged into the corridor leading to the and bridge with all the acrity she could muster, knog several white-furred, too slow to jump out of her way, aside. Marty shadowed her, the helmet closed to hide the fresh wound from b their unreliable allies. Several sages tried to bar their passages, begging Jao put on some clothes, but she ighem, carrying the Taleteller on her broad shoulder. The fur will serve her well enough. Iime of barbarism, she had no patience for civility.
The mobile fortress was hardly a subtle thing. Though it moved deliberately slow, its treads carved fresh roads, pulverizing swaths of nature, and thunderous cracks of broken trees and stones apaheir jouro Houstad. Like frightened cubs trailing after a parent, ns of trucks and army vehicles followed, safely protected by the turrets of the mobile fortress, while Wolfkins lurked in the shadows of the untouched trees, desding on any enemy scout party in an y of violend disappearing just as fast.
By attag the refugee voy, the fools had sigheir owh warrants. No mercy was shown, but these were mere scouting parties testing their hides, and as Jaepped onto the bridge, she grew worried that the Horde main force had caught up with them at st.
Mindless chaos filled the ter. Normie officers loudly demanded an expnation for a failure; bck-cd agents of the Iigation Bureau tried to tact their informants, threatening them with the death penalty for inpeteheir superiors examihe holographic map detailing the Horde’s advand the slowly advang yellow tide threatening to swallow the vastness of Houstad.
The situation was dire. The Wall had been breached in several pces, and information poured in about tribes of New Breeds hurrying to reinforce the Horde’s ranks. It seemed every scum by that side of the wilderness had either joined in or hired forces to pledge their allegiao the Khatun, bolstering the already innumerable host with the fresh volunteers, and banners of the jaws swallowing the world soared high. Etlements became makeshift giant factories, ing out neons to support the growing numbers and pumping out ammunition. Prisons were cracked open, further swelling the ranks of the bondsmen.
Madmen, tyrants, dictators, and religious zealots who had previously behaved out of fear of reprisal now abandoned all sembnce of civility and executed Recimers’ ambassadors, publicly sweariy to the Gilded Horde. Sleeper cells from the locals and agents standing at the ready to behead uppity rulers found themselves surrounded and killed. Brood Lord’s work, no doubt, and a further proof of treachery. Ats fshed across the s of forces under Iron Lord’s banner, wiping out several bandit fas to preserve the citizens. Janine had no idea what kind of depravity was too much for the eo tolerate, but any news of infighting was music to her ears.
But the gloom was temporary, and the Recmation Army hardly stood alone. Merary “kings” officially cast their lot with the state, serving as their informants in the quered regions. Many former prisoners, trapped in war zones against their will, established tad swore their innoce of having been forced into the invading army. And the Sed and the First armies were ing. The die was cast, and even should they fail, they will be avenged.
Not that Janine had any iion of dying. Her eyes fouruda, who stood with outstretched arms being encased in a power armor by three personal squires.
“Sword Saint. What is happening?” Janine asked politely.
“The Knight Academy in Opul has failed to evacuate and is now utack.” Bertruda ed her neck elegantly, showing no sign of , and a squire hurried to attach her helmet to the get. “It is not far, and Mad Hatter was st spotted further to the north, so we are uniquely poised to serve as the perfect rescue team. I and my knights are heading out. Warlord, please take over…”
“Armor!” Janine said to a face of the nearby sage, who g Bertruda for permission. A paed around her neck, dragging the woman o-h the warlord. “I gave you the order, officer. A suit of armor, this instant! Or do you wish to deprive your kin of ht?” The sage emitted a st of submission and eagerly hurried away.
“I am joining too. o stretch my legs, watch over that buffoon…”
“Who are you calling a buffoon?” Janine grumbled pyfully. “You were the one whot the route home after that party two years ago!”
“…And my revolvers thirst for the Horde’s blood. ’t deny them that.” Martyshkina refused to take the bait, grinned, and spun her ons.
“Thank you,” quietly said Bertruda. “I did not expect cooperation after…”
“You expect us to abandon cubs? Have you lost your marbles, Sword Saint?” Janine asked. “I’ll work alongside a skinwalker to rescue civilians if needed.” She pressed two fio her and studied the map. Opul, a small town too close to Houstad. “No way they didn’t receive a warning.”
“This area was swarmed by the initial Horde’s invaders before the Alpha Pack pushed them back,” Bertruda said, but a hint of doubt crawled into her voice.
“No, Jani is onto something.” Martyshkina holstered her revolvers. “The pits…”
“Academy, Lady” a sage corrected her.
“Whatever. Look.” Martyshkina grabbed the sage, pressed him tightly against her chest, and pointed. “Why would there be jammers nearby, and why did they stop w half an ho? There is no military and not much of a civilian popution to it such resources. Besides, the Horde just kicked our butts to the north; why did the jammers pull bad let the hrough? No, buddy, those creeps purposely deyed our evacuation to trap the cubs inside Opul. They are trying to pull Leonidas on us, just ag smarter about it.”
“Summon Wolf Hags Anissa, Kaisa, Elzada, and Shaman Impatient Ohey are to join us, fully equipped,” Janine anded and stopped, shuddering at the y. “And call that white-furred Voidrunner girl… Thyia. I have need of her.”
Her eyebrows rose as she saw the suit rolled in for her. A gleaming white hull belonging to an Ice Fang, rge enough to fit her inside. On its chest, arms, and legs, it had artistically crafted muscles running over the surface of the bat ptes, its helmet stylized after a muzzle of a stern Wolfkin. The sigils and colors of House Mountaintop across the breastpte coiled upward to the get, and a yelloe cascaded from the shoulders.
“Remove the cape,” she bit down on any argument. The outdated bat pte of Bertruda’s predecessor, its helmet still bearing a bright spot marking the blow that had peed the defense and fihe man. A gesture of trust, maybe, or perhaps the only suit around capable of adapting to her unusual proportions.
“Greetings, Sword Saint. Please upload identification codes to update the database,” said a pleasant, musical voice as a squire pced the helmet on Janine’s head and the visor blio let her see.
“I am no Sword Saint,” Janine answered, and the visor darkened while the armored pauldron on her shoulder tightened, restrig her movements.
“Unauthorized use of a Sword Saint’s battle pte is no joking matter, initiate,” the voice chastised her. “Stay still while I tact sages for disciplinary as…”
“Sword Saint. The mae tries to trap me,” Janine said, unsure if this was a deliberate attempt to humiliate her.
“Hundred apologies, warlord, it slipped my mind,” Bertruda gasped. “IDs are sent. Suits structed by the Diviwins are governed by mae intelligences. We haven’t found a way to upload them into the newer models yet.”
“Hail, Sword Sairuda! Glory to you aernal memory to your predecessor,” the voice sang with joy, and the systems reverted baline, filling the warlord’s retinas with the flow of information. “Sword Saint Janine, you are approved for the honor of wielding the Mountaintop treasure. I await your wishes and instrus for the celebration following our iable success otlefield. Would you prefer a softer white wine, or perhaps…”
“I already told you, not a sword saint! I am Warlord Janine,” she replied, adding after sideration. “Also, ad a cusack leg. Roasted.”
“The title of Warlord is added to the honorary ranks of the Mountaintop House, Lady Bull-Syer,” the eleic voice chirped.
“Don’t you dare call me that! That name belongs to your master, and don’t add anything! I have nothing to do with the Ice Fangs! I am from the Wolf Tribe!”
“Ah, so you married into our house from our rowdy kin. I should have guessed as much when I heard your peculiar tastes in alcohol.” She heard a tongue clig. “How inhospitable of me! Fear not, my dy; I will prepare a list of necessary literature aiquette lessons to help you fit into the house as if you were born here! gratutions on your union with Sword Sairuda.”
“I expin. It was the quickest way…” Bertruda began, but stopped after Janine’s helmet slipped off the back of her head and she pointed a fi the woman, shaking with rage.
“Not a word from anyone.” She se, the growing cheering in the ter and occasional grins on the squires’ snouts. A chuckle spread a red veil over her eyes, and she took several deep breaths, fog her gaze on a small, bck-furred figure fitting a gau on her paw. “Marco? What are you doing here?”
“I am your adjutant, Warlord!” Marco chuckled and pressed a paw to his mouth. “Sorry. Hiccups. Lunches here are divine.”
“Sure. Lunches,” Janine nodded, burning from shame. “Mae! Wipe that disgusting insinuation from your databases! And if anyone dares…”
“I always khere was something going oween you two.” Marty wiped a ent tear from her lens, choking on her mirth. “May you have many passionate nights to share and raise tless cubs to your name…”
“Warlord Martyshkina.” Janine snorted, clutg the Taleteller tighter. “A rank-match. After the war. Naked, cw to cw.”
“Oh, what a shame, she’s not satisfied with just one soulmate!” Martyshkina desperately threw her head up areated out of the Taleteller’s range.
At least it helps the morale. Janine shut up and stood still, shooting down any suggestion of the mae intelligence about the feast or dresses. Marco dutifully helped fit greaves onts. He still wore the coat but unzipped it, showing that he had put on a basic exoskeleton, and she spied a smoke grenade and several markers of various colors on his belt.
The sage asked Jao raise her arms, and she obliged, grimag as the woman fitted her with the pieces of underarmor. It felt tight, but when she flexed, the material stretched slightly, preserving the zippers and hole shapes around her impnts. A squire staggered, seeing white, ic skin around several impnts.
“Lady Jahe boy licked his lips nervously. “We must call a hospitaller…”
“I it,” she said.
“But the pain!” cried the boy. He looked at the sage and the other squires. “You all see it! Some impnts are half broken, others are torn out, and the st ones are literally killing you, Lady! If we…”
Janine cast the yellow light of her eyes on his crimson ones, exuding a st of both aggression and calm reassurance. If any male or female of the Tribe had dared to express their in such a public way, she would have broken their bones. But the young cub was of a gentler, brighter geion, an outsider despite their physical simirities. She had nht to sh out at him.
“It is my disfort or them.” She Opul on the map. “Simple choice.”
Cables ehe still-bloodied wounds on her back, sending a refreshirical jolt across the nerves and filling her head with a ing, throbbing agony. Her heart rate increased, and the mae intelligence’s voice immediately ged as it recoiled in disgust as it recoiled in disgust after running a s of her body. She overrode all attempts to stop the union, lig away a trickle of blood ing down her nostrils and toughing out the disfort.
Never before had she tried an Order suit, and when the mae turned on the air ditioning, she growled, ready to ask for it to be turned off before she froze her ass off wheemperature miraculously ged on its owing up. The Twins kheir craft and desighe visor to allow the user to see many kilometers ahead, plimenting the innate abilities of the Ice Fangs’ crimson eyes, which could heighten perception enough to slow to a crawl even a falling ro the air.
Wolfkins cked such ability. Their talents y in natural toughness, strength, and a faster recovery rate than their cousi… Ice Fangs. The suit’s intelligeected this and quickly adjusted the vision to spare the amber eyes from further strain. And with these ges, Janine’s body underwent its otation, synapses c across the nerves, reigniting even numbed and dead ones. Her brain and veins ehe unusual e and grew stronger for it.
Meters-long bundles of fiber muscles slithered across her body, seg themselves and serving as a yer. Servomotors activated silently, relieving the weight, and then the backpack hummed, powered not by nuclear energy but by a psma geor.
“I ’t release my cws,” she mused, hearing furious scrubbing.
“Do not be ed, Lady, the suit is well-equipped to prevent sudignified barbarism,” the mae eagerly assured her.
“Drop the dy, name’s Janine. Do you have a name?”
“The former Sword Saints never found it necessary to give me one, Lady. Adress me as you wish. I exist to serve.”
“Typical.” Janine shook her head. “You’re an ally, not a sve, idiot. And allies should have names. I’ll call you Albert.”
“Identification received and accepted,” Albert happily sang. “May I…” his voice stuttered, “inquire as to why you allow the ptes to be blemished?”
“It’s not a blemish!” Marcued, finishing his painting. “Tell him or it. My drawing isn’t that bad!”
“R-right!” A squire nodded. “This family crest may be a little rough around the edges, but it veys pride excellently.”
“How insiderate of me!” Albert gasped, and the suit’s cameras whirled to focus on the image of crossed muscur arms that Marco had painted on Jahigh. “The Mountaintop heraldry is updated with the Bull-Syer sigil.”
“Don’t you dare…” Janine exhaled at the noise of the opened door a be.
“Anissa, Kaisa, your packs are with me,” Janine said to the newers, and the wolf hags bowed.
Kaisa was an obvious choice for the mission, for the girl tio grow, the seeds of a potential warlord blossoming in her. And Anissa, though she anded an undermanned pack, proved herself well enough to work with the Ice Fangs, willingly swallowing her pride for the sake of the on goal.
“This won’t leave much of a spay own troops,” Bertruda remarked.
“Unfortunate ies of the world. Take your best along; we will be grateful for any assistance you provide, Sword Saint,” Janine said diplomatically, recalling the Ice Fang’s questioe the betrayal, they had to work together; otherwise, what kind of protectors were they? “Wolf Hag Elzada. You and… Thyia are to act as joint anders in our absence. If we do not return, you are to lead the pad hurry to Houstad, no matter what.”
“You would trust an Ice Fang?” Thyia asked in a voice full of venom, but then she blinked, preparing to apologize.
“Never.” Ja the helmet slip off her head and locked eyes with the woman, uanding the stress that momentarily overcame her. “But I think I know what to expect from you, sidering your sword saint is on board. oals are aligned. I put you in charge because I ’t be sure of the same about anyone else of your kin.”
“Warlord. Your words are not ducive to a flourishing cooperatioween our forces,” Bertruda said.
“Because we worked oh so well before, right, Sword Saint?” Janine ighe pleading look iraitor’s eyes. No more. No more unresponsive cordiality. Fuck the Order. Hostility in respoo hostility. “Enough bickering. We Cs for the mission!”
“Already prepared, Warlord,” Anissa k, and Jaiced a prayer book tied to her waist with an iron .
“I’ll go too!” Marco stepped forward.
“No,” Janine said.
“Are you crazy?” Anissa ughed.
“Nope,” Kaisa added, and patted Marco.
“Don’t even dream it,” Impatient One warned.
“I fight!” Marco released his cws, showing them his gentle and precious paws. “Warlord saw me pass the test! I help you, Warlord! This time I will protect you…”
“You will stay behind, along with the cubs. You there!” She addressed the sage, whht her armuard my son with your life.”
“Warlord, I have proven that I kill… Mother, I ot lose any more of my family!”
Janine marched past Marco, ign his pleas and hating herself for not having time to fort him. She will expihing to him upourning, even though his back had earned a new set of scars for his insubordination. Traditions dema, and by all rights she should have bitten him and thrown him to the ground to beat obedieo him, just as Terrific had doh everyone in her pack to instill discipline.
And look at how you turned out after such methods. A woman who sent her son to his death. Still sure there is value in cruelty, eh, Janine? Janine gripped the Taleteller’s shaft. Perhaps it was time for some ges. Rather than punishing Marco, she will speak with him and patiently expin why it was not safe for a boy to be in a bat zone. Yes. Yes, it seemed logical. Normies raised their cubs in such a way, and there were tons of fine people among them! Spirits kner was and still is wrong about many things; maybe the Spirits are now sending Janine an alternative path for the Tribe?
Banishing her heretical thoughts for now, Jaered the spacious hangar and was guided by the HUD to the vehicles. Where the knight’s armor projected nobility and elegahe APC provided ruggedness and power. Two high-caliber mae guns atop each vehicle stood ready to provide fire support in bat situations, and their sleek, silvery shapes helped ehat bullets would bounce off the hulls.
The teis presented Jah a new ser rifle, fiheir preparations, and opehe ramps so that the eighty Wolfkins and twenty Ice Fangs could take their pces in the harnesses while their leaders remained outside, fully capable of keeping pace with the transports on foot.
Instead of a ramp, a tunnel opened in the wall, and the APCs roared, rag out and flying over the tinuous track, plopping heavily on the ground. Janine and the rest jumped after them, cratering the ground, and running on all fours, not even gng at the voy of surprised civilians and marg soldiers.
“Albert?”
“Yes, Lady?”
“Do you have sensors capable of deteg mines?”
“Naturally, Sword Saint and Warlord. Antennas in your feet act as feelers, reading the ground, and built-in radars will warn you of potential problems in advance. Everything is already in pce; please trust me, you won’t walk into a minefield.”
“Thank you, ally.” She hesitated, breathing in the air of the tortured forest. Do maes have souls? Would the Blessed Mother care? “It is wrong that your masters didn’t use you, Albert. No one should be fotten.”
“It saddehat our current teological knowledge is not suffit to transfer or upload me into another suit,” Albert said. “Not even Till Ingo could solve this problem. But you are incorrect, Lady! I assist in administrative tasks and watch over our historical records.”
“Scrub me from them. I wish to have nothing to do with the Ice Fangs.”
“Impossible. No one should be fotten.” She could’ve sworn there was a hint of smugness in his voice.
Martyshkina was right, Janine decided, shattering a tree in her path. An ambush awaited them, and they risked arriving at a battlefield only to find corpses. It didn’t matter. If there was even the slightest ce of saving the civilians, they had to take it, and Jaeo sacrifice the raiders to honor those who had fallen so far. A paltry gift, but she was just getting started.
There will be enough deaths before the war was over.
