"Hawkeye 3 spotted red units in Tooshin, around four klicks south of Lodsh, Sir!" "Understood, how many?" "One of their stag-titans and what looks like a company of grunts, heading north. The stag is carrying some sort of ballistics, Sir!" The old anthro squirrel in a tattered uniform jumped up unto his desk instead of around it, and then over to the monitors. The young recruit, an anthro fox tried to make out anything on the heavily distorted video feed full of static. Suddenly the feed pointed into the sky, shaking violently. A screach could be heard over radio, while the video became completely unusable. "She says, she spotted a red recon pidgeon, in pursuit." The recruit translated. "I heard it." He made a grimace. "Hawkeye 3, disengage. Contact Alpha Black and wait for instructions." The response was not intelligible, the static turned into whistling noises. "She's too far away, Sir!" "She'll be fine." the squirrel grunted, although his face expression showed concern. "That group must have been scavenging the old airbase. That's a NATO stock anti radar missile, and I don't like that." "Why? I thought radar doesn't work anymore. What could they want with it?" "That missile seeker is 50 years old tech from the early 80's. It's not smart but it's probably still gonna work. Gonna be happy enough to lock on to any strong enough radio emitter." The old squirrel explained. The fox eyes went wide, as his gaze shifted from the static-covered cathode ray monitor over to the batteries and coils of their make-shift radio-unit to the cables that connected it to the radio mast outside. "Sir, we gotta turn the radio off!!!" "Relax, private Dent. That's an air launched missile. On it's own its completely harm-less. " ... Several clicks further north in the snow covered outskirts of Łódź, Alpha Black crouched low behind a crumbling wall, growling at an anthro wolf, who scribbled on a notepad with a pencil. Short bursts of automatic rifle fire could be hurt, as well as single shots. Alpha Black was a wolf. Not just any wolf, he was the leader of the pack. On all fours, the feral stood nearly 2 meters tall if he got up. Right now the squadron was hunkered down, while pinning the enemy in a somewhat stalemate. Neither could advance without getting shot. He was hungry, and the enemy had a tasty feral bull he wanted to sink his teeth into. It would feed his whole pack, all 4 that were left of it. Two of his own offspring and the single female that had survived. Only problem was the 30mm anti tank cannon the bull had strapped on his back. It's explosive shells would blow any feral to smithereens. The enemy could go nowhere so his plan was to wait until nightfall - then move in under the eery light of the burning sky. The anthro relayed his commands with hand gestures to the pair who then scaled a crumbling multi-story concrete building full of shell holes half a block away. Soon later there was a single muzzle flash from the roof, and a high pitched scream - over on the other side, that suddenly fell silent to the sound of more gunfire. Alpha Black licked his fangs at the thought of fresh red blood in the snow, while the snipers once more relocated. Other than that he could just wait. Life had been simpler before the burning sky. He had just been an ordinary wolf. He was the strongest, so he led the pack, found food, mostly ferals, sometimes a farm animal. Then the sky started burning. Every single night, the haunting blue green light appeared. As an animal he didn't know what it meant. Then the war came. Human war machines, everywhere. Artillery, bombs, soldiers... Then the *changes* happened. Many in his pack died, horribly disfigured. He mourned his mate. She died in horrible spasms, and he had howled all night after eating her corpse. But the survivors grew, like him. Becoming mighty predators. He also became smarter. He couldn't tell how and when, but he knew that back then his mind had been simpler, focused on simple things. The humans had it worse. Their technology failed, their buildings crumbled, their machines had no fuel. Nine out of ten must have died. For a while that was plenty of food for his pack, but then it got sparse. The few ferals that survived were left were as changed as they were. Cunning and not easy prey. So odd alliances emerged. The reds enslaved the ferals. Mostly herd animals, those easy to subdue and take as soldiers into their army. They also had much more anthro soldiers left, all wearing gasmasks in an attempt to preserve their humanity. It was futile, the mutating agent was everywhere, in the water, in the food, in the air. Underneath their masks they changed just as much as those who didn't wear them. But for a while they had more soldiers. They ended up getting the upper hand for a while, sweeping west mile after mile. Then everyone had run out of ammunition, fuel and spare parts. Tanks and artillery were abandoned. Now the reds were all but meat for predators like him, who the blue side readily allied with. What was left of the blue army had the tech and the soldiers. He had the fangs. The war had become messy. Rumors were, the blues still had an aircraft carrier somewhere on the other side of the planet, fighting over island with electric biplanes recharged from its reactor. The whole Baltic was blue, thanks to the Navy. When the steel ships run out of power, the Scandinavians once more manned wooden long boats, men turned into beasts, using oars and wind to bring them to their prey. And they brought giant polar bears with them, strong, deadly, unstoppable, wherever they went. Danzig, Riga, St. Petersburg. They had free reign. Good hunting up there. A load screech overhead pulled Alpha from his thoughts. His tail started wagging as he spotted giant wings under the low hanging, snow laden clouds. It was the hawk lady. The blues named her Hawkeye 3. And she had caught prey. A feral pidgeon, enslaved by the reds, now freed - by death. Some bursts of automatic fire from the other side went skywards, resulting in an angry screech, but most of the bullets hit the pidgeon she held in her talons. Hawkeye dropped her prey near Alpha, where the maimed pidgeon landed in the snow with a splat, turning it red with blood, spreading oversized pidgeon feathers everywhere. A transmitter collar, not unlike the one Hawkeye was wearing was wound around the pidgeons neck. Blood still welled from it, as the pidgeon's body refused to die and tried to regenerate despite the broken neck. The hawk picked into it with her beak, severed the collar, and tossed it towards the anthro wolf, who stared at the mighty hawk somewhat shaken by the display. There was a dog-tag on the transmitter - it read T-3247. Hawkeye started messily devouring the pidgeon. Watching that made Alpha salivate, which the bird feral commented with amused chitters. She kept eating though, turning her back to Alpha while lifting her tail, giving the wolf a nice view of her avian cloaka every time she dug her beak into the juicy oversized morsel Alpha Black had to hold back. She was teasing him, but she did not like getting interrupted eating. He had to be a good boy if he wanted his share, so he just watched her eating. A mesmerizing sight. The bloody chunks vanishing in her sharp beak, then lumps going down her feathered neck. And all the time the little flashes of pink. He did what any able male wolf would do. He sprouted a nice shiny erection, his knot on display. He lifted his leg and urinated against the crumbling wall, filling the air with the pungent smell of alpha wolf urine. Hawkeye ate her share, then subtly changed her behaviour by making a step back and leaning a bit lower. She let out a feral avian cackle as the giant black wolf lept unto her lithe form and pressed his feral cock under her tail. The she hawk ruffled her wings and pressed her rump back into the needy wolf's crotch. He let out a guttural growl, which she responded to with chitter as he invaded her avian depths, all the while occasional rifle fire kept sounding around them. Alpha took a glance around, making sure they were well enough covered, while the anthro wolf and a few others were staring. He didn't care. He humped the hawk joyfully, then, with a final growl, accompanied by another feral shriek from her, buried his knot deep into her depths. Her talons dug into the snow, as she felt his seed squirt deep into her insides. It wasn't the right seed to fertilize her eggs, and the wrong time of year to beat, but it felt good. For both of them. There was always a thrill accompanying it. Alpha could easily made her his pray and feasted on her. But he didn't. She gave him something he was severely lacking. Company. Across the boundary of species. And it filled her with hot sticky warmth on the insides. He was stuck to her now, so she pulled the pidgeon carcass closer and let him feast on what was left, while his canine cock throbbed inside her. She watched him eat. Seeing his fangs rip savagely trough the flesh and bones was even more messy than her own eating, and it reminded her what a strong cunning sexy canine he was. She was the alpha predator in the sky in this area. He was the literal alpha on the ground. And they had an interesting friendship across species. With benefits. The anthro wolf had his pants suspiciously in his pants, much to hawkeyes amusement. She didn't mind giving the anthros a show. They were too small to really satisfy her physically, but she didn't mind the company. Hawkeye chittered something, which Alpha translated to the anthro soldier in a guttural growl he had learned to understand. "Change of plans." the soldier relayed to his peers. "The reds have reinforcements inbound. We attack in ten minutes." Ten minutes later, everyone was in position. Alpha had been able to pull out of Hawkeye, who got ready herself. Then he sat on his haunches and rose his muzzle to the skies to began a low and loud bone chilling howl. The sound sent some icicles and debris raining from nearby abandoned buildings. The howl was answered. One of his pack had made it in time. His daughter. South of the position. A bit later, the other female fell into it, too, a bit further north. When the howling stopped, all hell broke lose. A single explosive shell obliterated the crumbling wall, just after Alpha Black had leapt over it in full charge. He got hit by rocks, dirt and a few bits of burning shrapnel, but he shrugged it off. Fire and return fire lit up positions of the anthros on both sides. The cannon fired once more, but missed by even more, blowing a hole into one of the crumbling buildings. It collapsed, to the screams of an anthro soldier who didn't make it out in time. Bullets ricocheted of the metal gun shield on the back of the giant black bull, who lowered his horns in defiance. He was also hit by small arms fire but shrugged it off as if it was nothing. Then an mind-rending screech came from above as Hawkeye 3 dove down from the now almost pitch black clouds. One of the anthros had given her a handgrenade to hold in her talons, which she tossed from above into a group of hunkered down reds as she dove towards the bull. The soldiers scrambled, and were promptly decimated by rifle fire, just as the grenade went off. Hawkeye didn't bother with the bull itself, she sank her talons into the squishy gas-mask wearing soldier behind the gun shield. His comrade barely escaped, jumping off and diving in the snow. Hawkeye flapped her wings and rose back up into the sky, the impaled soldier dangling from her talons. Bullets ripped through her feathers, and she lost a few, but like with most ferals, those would heal very very quickly. Alpha Black watched her glide away as he rushed towards the red position, feeling pride for his airborne voluntary pack member. Sometimes he wished he *could* make puppies with her. He bounded over the debris they had taken cover behind. His teeth ripped through uniform and gas mask of one unfortunate soldier, then he tossed him aside. The others shot at him, and the bullets felt like burning angry needles in his hide: pop,pop,pop. It made him angry. His claws pinned another soldier to the ground and the rifle spun aside, clattering. Then he ripped the soldiers head off, sprinkling the snow in a red shower as the scream was interrupted by a horrible sound. The remaining soldiers ran in panic. But the bull saw him and charged right at him - the now useless gun-barrel swaying left and right aimlessly. Alpha Black evaded, while the blue anthros who had followed his charge now went after the remaining red soldiers. There were some casualties, as expected in a frontal assault, but it was already a pretty decisive outcome, even if a few of the reds would get away. next to Alpha, the giant bull rammed head first into a crumbling concrete wall as if it was paper. Alpha jumped past him, trying to get to his prey's back - then had to evade a hoof-kick to his head. He was very very angry. But bulls were stupid, especially in that state. All he had to do was keep the titan busy. He leapt once more around the bull, snarling. Just a little bit longer, until... A giant mist-grey creature leapt over an abandoned rusty truck on the other side of the street. The bull didn't see her coming until her claws swiped across his flank, ripping deep gashes into its fur. The bull bellowed, screaming his pain and defiance at the wolves, then swiped his head at the smaller she-wolf. She narrowly dodged the horns. It was the moment Alhpa Black had waited for. He leapt up unto the bull's back and a moment later sank claws and fangs into his neck and spine. For a thrilling five seconds, the fight turned into a rodeo ride as the agonized bovine tried to shake off the giant black wolf, while the grey one darted out of the way, to not be hit by the trashing hooves. Then, with a loud crack like a tree splintering, the bulls spine gave way to crushing fangs. With a last, terrible scream, the bull collapsed. The gun barrel dug into the rubble as he fell, and it made made a metal screeching sound as the weapon was ripped out of its hinges by the leverage. Alpha didn't care, and neither did his daughter who evaded the uselessly kicking legs of the downed titan and promptly sank her fangs into its throat. The pack would feast tonight. ... "Major Conner, we got news from Black squadron, sir!" private Dent reported. The old squirrel rose an eyebrow. He had been warming himself on a fire made in an old coal stove in the corner of the building. "They broke through on the west side of Lodsh. The opposition has been routed. The pack took a gun-titan down. Moderate casualties on our side. The wolves are feasting, and the troops are securing the area." "Finally some good news. Where's the catch?" "Hawkeye 3 sir. She carried the message here personally. She gave air support to take down the gun titan and got hit my small arms fire. Nothing serious, but her radio collar was hit. Battery and transmitter shorted. "That's bad. We don't have any more spare parts." "We might, Sir. She took down the enemy recon pidgeon, which had its own collar. But it's with the Black squadron right now." the fox added. "Maybe Ivanov can salvage that. He's good with red electronics. Where is she now?" "She said she's heading back to her nest to roost for the night." "Fair enough". Conner smiled "Two ferals in one evening, that bird deserves a medal." "I don't think she'd care for a piece of metal, Sir." Dent replied. "You never know, girls love their vanity, regardless of species. Male birds bring their partners presents, too." The Major replied with a smirk. "We should use the momentum. The reds have their base in eastern Lodsh, in Zrodlinska park in the museum ruins" Conner walked over to the desk where he had a map of the town. "They have anti aircraft guns here and here, so Hawkeye 3 can't fly near, but the wolves should be able to approach from here." He pointed at the south where a photo of a burnt out mall was shown. "How many titans do they have, Sir?" Dent asked, looking at the map. "With the bull and the pidgeon down, they should only have a few deer left in the area. At least two, including the stag carrying the missile. We might be able to cut them off before they can reach the base. The issue is the wolves likely don't want to hunt for a few days, now that they had that bull. And by that time we lost the momentum." "Hawkeye 3 mentioned that she told Black's unit about the approaching group. That's why they attacked early. Maybe they can push and cut them off." ... It was night now. The burning sky was visible through occasional holes in the low hanging clouds. Eery green and blue curtains danced over the night sky, as radiation from the sun and the stars hit the upper atmosphere. Black had been told that Earths magnetic field was spontaneously changing orientation. For a few hundred years it was going to be chaotic and basically non-existent, as if someone had thrown an off-switch. That allowed charged particles from outer space to hit hard on the Atmosphere, leaving trails of ionized particles behind. The outer atmosphere in turn heated up and expanded, and caused nearly all man-made satellites to re-enter as fiery meteors - including the man made space stations - after the sats had already been disabled by the radiation. The charged ionosphere was also what made radio not work and what had caused the power grids and most modern microelectronics to fail. Even if you just hung a long wire into the sky it sometimes started arcing. Wolves typically didn't hang wires into the sky, and Alpha Black has also never been reliant on power or microelectronics. What he wanted to do was sleep, with a full stomach. That's what the rest of his pack did, but not the anthros. They were insistent that they had to use "momentum", to not let the reds "regroup". He tagged along. He wouldn't hunt tonight, but it didn't hurt to stalk out future prey, right. Alpha sniffed the air and growled. The anthros around him knew his language well enough to immediately and very silently find cover and firing positions. His nose picked up the scent of a stag. And where a stag was, there would be these annoying gas-mask-wearing appetizers. He flexed his shoulder, forcing a rifle bullet that had embedded itself there to squeeze out of the wound and fall into the snow below. He hated those. The stag could smell the wolf. He had been nervous already, but when the scent of the predator entered his nose he froze in place, which immediately alerted the soldiers around him. Rifles were pointed in all directions, anticipating the ambush, but they still couldn't see the group of anthros waiting for them. One of them panicked and fired half a clip into a shadow in the first floor of one of the buildings. Glass shards sprayed in all directions, as the broken window was pulverized by assault rifle bullets, but the shards landed eerily silent in the snow below. Alpha waited a few more seconds, then he voiced his demands in the form of a guttural growl. The red soldiers wouldn't understand a word, but their stag did. Alpha couldn't make out what he told the soldier next to him, but he assumed the suggestion to immediately surrender was relayed. Instead of surrendering, the most of the rifles got pointed towards his direction. More or less. What part of 'drop your weapons, we have you surrounded' exactly didn't these idiots understand? To proof a point, one of Alpha's anthros fired a single shot. One of the gas-mask wearing soldiers, the one who had shown bad trigger discipline earlier, went down with a scream, clutching his leg. The remaining assault rifles swung around, pointing into the dark alleyway where the shot had come from. But they didn't shoot this time. Alpha made another growl and stood up letting the reds see the yellow glow of his feral eyes and the reflection of the northern lights on his bared fangs. He growled one last warning. The stag stared back, his gaze not unlike a deer caught in headlights. The reds dropped their weapons. The stag dropped deer-pellets from his rear. It felt good to see the instinctual fear the appearance of the black furred pack leader alone could strike into the hearts of prey, if given the appropriate show. The stag could certainly have put up just as much a fight as the bull. Those antlers looked vicious and Alpha did not really have the urge to take him on alone if it could be avoided. Now the tricky part would be to turn this into prolonged subjugation. The anthro's had this weird notion of 'taking prisoners' and treating them with certain standards - sometimes, and some more than others. He still didn't fully understand why sometimes they would allow their defeated opponents live, and sometimes they'd slaughter them all. And what was the purpose of this struggle in the first place if not to eat your prey? Surely this war had had a purpose at some point, but by now this barely seemed applicable anymore. There was little difference in anthros with and without gas masks, except whom they had been allied with before everything had gotten weird. Why they kept fighting for the remnants of the same army was - complicated. For him and his pack the situation was so much easier. Fighting meant catching prey. The fact the prey was enlisted in one of the armies just made it slightly trickier to catch and more challenging. But one advantage of these 'rules' was that - being defeated and taken prisoners, the gas-mask wearing anthros would quite compliant now. As soon as they had dropped to the ground, members of Alpha's team came out of their hiding places, rifles at the ready, and collected the prisoners weapons, then rounded them up. The only problem was, this arrangement didn't necessarily include the stag. He'd know he still prey, and Alpha was still a predator, so in order to get continued cooperation, he'd need a different approach. The stag was weighed down by the heavy missile strapped to his side. Alpha could see his legs tremble slightly as he approached. The stag lowered his head, holding his antlers in a defensive stance. Alpha kept his distance, his tail held high in a posture of dominance but not overly displayed aggression. 'Impressive rod you have there.' He conveyed in a low growl. The stag blinked. 'You're lucky. My pack just ate. I'm not hungry right now.' Alpha conveyed, walking behind the stag. He got a glimpse of the stags balls, before he turned around. 'You could run of course. My pack would love to hunt you and track you down. I doubt you'd get far.' The stag answered in a mix of a snort and a bleat. Alpha understood that he was not going to leave his comrades behind. That was great news, but he did not show any change in emotion. 'Then I would advise you do exactly as your soldiers are doing. If you make troubles I'll end all of you. Submit to me, and you'll be treated like the anthros treat their prisoners. Alive. Disobey and you all die.' The stags body language suggested reluctant submission, but Alpha Black didn't really buy it yet. Words alone did not properly convey the message he wanted to get across. 'Submit. Turn your back to me and hold still.' The stag was trembling, but he did as ordered as the wolf approached him from behind, then sniffed on the stags rear. He smelled of fear, deer poop, and a pretty strong musk. It was winter. Breeding season for these deer. Alpha gave the balls a teasing lick, dragging his canine tongue up under the stags tail. Delicious, salivating he had to hold back not to just bite into the tasty prey, even though his stomach was full. The stag snorted, trembling, but he submitted. To the animals embarrassment, his own cervine cock went out of its sheath. Although it lost the size contest with the rocket dangling on his side. Some blue anthro soldiers smirked. One of the stags disarmed comrades paused, protesting against what was happening to their Titan, Alpha ignored it. A barked command from the anthro wolf that was Alpha's companion shut him up and brought him back in line. Alpha's own cock throbbed. He preferred females, but there just was no better way to assert dominance over another feral than by pinning him under his body and fucking his ass. That went for pack members that needed to be told a lesson just as much as cocky prey. He mounted the stag, his weigh forcing him down to his knees. The missile landed soft in the snow next to him. The ends of the antlers came dangerously close to Alpha's nose as the stag lifted his head. But contact of Alpha's canines with his the stag's neck fur quickly restored complete submission. He felt the massive powerful feral tremble in a weird mixture of fear and unwanted sexual pleasure underneath him, as he started humping him the way wolves do. After his cock squeezed into the stags innards, his own hips humped him in a quick rhythm that kept going until Alpha squirted his load into the stags rear a minute later. His teeth had drawn a few drops of blood from the stags neck, but nothing that wouldn't literally heal in minutes. With a suppressed bellow, the stag came too, his cock twitched as it shot its seed into the cold snow below, melting stained furrows into the white mass. By the time the stag had recovered from his climax, Alpha had already dismounted. He had not knotted. White cum and a few deer pellets leaked from the stags twitching rectum. "Get up and follow the others." Alpha growled. The stag took a bit to recover and stand up, the weight of the missile weighing him down. Alpha was pleased. He sat down on his haunches, lifted his head high and started a victory howl into the night. Soon the call was answered. ... "Sir, that was a message for us." Private Dent opened the door to the shack that pretended to be a field headquarters and saluted. The old squirrel was awake. "At ease, private. I heard the howl, what's the transcript?" "Alpha Black located and engaged the group Hawkeye3 spotted earlier. Decisive victory, enemy surrendered. They took prisoners." "What about the titan and the missile?" "Also captured, as far as I understood it, Sir." A smirk formed on the squirrel's face. "Surprising restraint from Alpha. Well, I told you, not to worry about that ordnance. Now, what could we possibly do with it?"