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A great howl echoes across the base from the northeast, and nearly every head turns toward its source.

"Another wolf caught behind human lines?" Tiva asks, clearly doubting herself the moment she gives voice to the thought.

"The power behind that howl…" Haken says, awed. "The force of will! Couldn't you all feel it? No ordinary wolf can rend the air that way."

You, too, felt the power behind that ominous and beastly call. It makes your blood run cold and your bowels tighten with inexplicable fear. Moreover, a nagging feeling itches maddeningly at the back of your brain, as though the rage behind that clamorous bellow was somehow directed at you personally.

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"Someone's coming from the north!" one of your scouts calls. "Looks like it's a wolf, and they're alone…no wait, there's a few soldiers chasing after them!"

You can hear gunshots, and the wolf, you can see them now, weaves back and forth in hopes of avoiding being hit.

"Shit," Tiva says, appearing by your side. "That's Lapu!"

She's right; the boy's golden-blond hair is a dead giveaway, waving like a beacon in the afternoon sun as he bobs back and forth, fleeing for his life.

"Make a pathway in!" Tiva yells at the foreguards. "We're not leaving him out there!"

Not long after you spot him, Lapu's pursuers give up the chase, apparently not terribly keen on assaulting your main forces by themselves. Lapu leaps over the barrier, breathing hard, legs trembling as he collapses in a heap, long lupine tongue lolling from his muzzle as he tries to catch his breath.

Tiva crouches by the boy, cradling his head in her paws and smoothing his soiled fur. "What did they do to you?" she murmurs.

You eye Lapu closely. His strange behavior lately makes his late entrance concerning, but for now you'll keep quiet and watch.

"Welcome back, Lapu. We were worried about you."

"Bad timing, Lapu. Things are gonna get real ugly real quick around here."

"How did you get here, Lapu? I thought we were cut off in all directions."

"Get back from the defenses, Lapu. You're a liability, and this isn't a game."

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The boy's eyes darken. "Good to see you again, too, ass. I came over with Haken, but I just couldn't go through with it."

"Go through with it?" you say skeptically. "Go through with what?" It feels like there may be something he's not saying. He's embarrassed, or possibly afraid.

"It was too much. The fighting, the killing…so I stayed on the bridge, I didn't know what else to do."

"Lapu, you dumbass," Tiva says. "What were you thinking?"

"I got caught between two squads. They grabbed me and brought me in for questioning. I didn't know anything useful, though." He forces a laugh.

"Lummox," Tiva says.

"Who questioned you? What did you tell them?" Haken approaches the boy, and he doesn't seem all that happy to see him. "I should never have brought you here. If you weren't behind me, then you should have stayed on the other side with the rest of the cowards."

"I don't know his full name," Lapu says, eyeing the ground, "but one of the privates called him 'Morris.' Like I said, I didn't have anything useful to tell them. It's not like you told me your plans, Haken.

"I did overhear something interesting, though. The military's under strict orders not to wipe us all out. Apparently we're starting to get a lot of media attention on the outside, and they probably want us alive for their experiments, too. That's why they're holding back. You should see the weapons they have back there, Haken. Explosives, mortars, vehicles…did you really think they'd just let us win? The only reason we have a chance is because they're not allowed to just blow us up."

The big wolf grunts and nudges you, pulling you aside. "I don't trust the boy," he says under his breath. "What do you think?"

"Something's wrong here, and I don't trust Lapu either. I'm going to take him aside and see what I can get him to admit to."

"He trusts me, Haken. Let me pull him aside, see if I can get a read on him?"

"I think he's been through enough. He's our packmate, and he deserves to stand by our side."

"Cowardice and indecision sounds like Lapu. There's nothing unusual about his story."

"I don't know what to think. He's probably telling the truth, but we should keep him back from the line just in case."

"I don't trust him either. We should assign someone to watch him and keep him away from the front."

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Haken spits in disgust. "A coward has no place on the battlefield."

"I agree," you say sharply. "But we're fighting for our lives. He has nowhere to run. We're wasting a resource if we don't allow him to fight."

"Fine. The boy can stay. But you'd better keep an eye on him."

Haken stalks off as Tiva pulls Lapu up to his feet beside her and limps him along to the front line.

"You going to be okay, Lapu?" you ask, concerned about his mobility.

"Should be fine soon," he replies. "Twisted my ankle when they were chasing me, but it's already starting to heal."

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A deafening roar splits the air, and the earth erupts several paces ahead of you, fragments of asphalt spraying in dark, blistering shrapnel, embedding themselves indiscriminately in flesh, bone, and concrete. Your defenders stand fast, lifting fallen comrades back to their feet with a calm belying the panic welling up inside, threatening to send them running off in terror.

Haken picks himself up off the pavement, cursing violently. "They must have changed their minds! We're disposable after all!"

"I don't think so," you say, shaking your head as you look over the impact zones. "Look where they're targeting. They're not going for a direct hit, and they know we'll heal from shrapnel wounds. It's a show of force. They want us to surrender."

You share a few words with Haken regarding last-minute tactics, tense and waiting for the inevitable.

The heavy roar of revving engines splits the silence, and four armored vehicles bolt from behind the assembled soldiers, their coming heralded by several violent explosions tearing away at your defenses. Each of the transports are small and maneuverable, tearing up and over ruined asphalt on four wheels, each with a rotating turret mounted in the tail section and a smaller, albeit no less menacing, machine gun affixed above the passenger seat.

Behind them, the ground soldiers move in quickly, and you can see now that some of them are armed with long cylinders held over their shoulders. That must be where the attacks are coming from, you think. Handheld rocket launchers!

"Get down on the ground!" a distorted voice shouts, impossibly loud and coming from all directions. You squint at the transports, trying to pin down the source of the sound. Each of the vehicles have three boxy speakers attached, facing your direction as they come at you left, right, and center in a pincer movement. Together they amplify the speaker's voice—a commanding presence from all corners of the battlefield. "You have sixty seconds! Revert to your human forms and get on the ground with your hands above your heads, or we will open fire!"

You rush over to Haken. "I've got a plan!"

"We should send out our most agile runners to take down the transports and turn them against the humans."

"We could draw them in with a fake surrender. They're vulnerable when they're close." We might even be able to take them without killing them.

"We'll dig in here. We chose this position for a reason. If they have to take us alive, they'll need to lay hands on us first."

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