A missile crashed into the ruins.  Rubble began to fall.  “Get out of there!” a partisan shouted.  He ducked behind a rusted car.  Someone grabbed him by his rifle’s strap, and pulled him down.

“Keep down!” Smati growled.  She pushed a strand of her oddly-cut red hair behind an ear.  The sound of automatic gunfire filled the air.  There was a shrill shriek of a missile’s engine.  She glanced up, seeing two partisans get torn apart by a Breed TAC.    She saw another partisan run toward their position and jump over the rubble.  There was a loud thumping heard above them.  The group looked up, seeing a gunship turn a corner, coming at them.  The partisan who’d jumped was an orc.  He held a stinger anti-aircraft missile.

“Keep that thing busy!” he shouted over the din of the gunship’s turbines.  “All I need’s one shot!”

Smati nodded and grabbed a nearby M16 and aimed it at the TAC.  She fired three bursts from it.  It wouldn’t do anything to the large gunship, but it would draw its attention.  Oh, fuck, she thought, seeing the two metal storm boxes on its nose turret aim squarely at her.  The turret suddenly aimed downward, but it was too late.  A missile crashed into one of the large turbines of the vehicle.    It shifted to one side and crashed into the ruins of a building.  Debris clattered onto the pavement and Smati saw a lifeless body land not far from the wreckage.

“We’ve still got those damn machines!” someone shouted.  “Use the HEs!”

Smati was going to shout something, but the sound of a Breed TAC firing cut her off.  She reached for one of the pouches on her belt and pulled a canister.  It was a high-explosive grenade.  She saw the TAC roll over the debris, before she pulled the pin and flung the grenade at it.  It landed right in front of one of its treads.  The thing rolled over it and the explosive went off.

“Nice work, girl!”

“Yeah!” Smati shouted back.

“This way!” someone else shouted.  He waved to them, standing inside the doorway to a ruined skyscraper.  At one time, it had reached towards the heavens.  Now, there was very little left, but it was very defendable.  Smati headed towards it, followed by a few other partisans.  There was still the sound of gunfire, but it was quieter, as she and the other partisans entered.

“Yeah, blow that bridge,” a female Drow said.  “What do I have to do?  Light the fuse myself?”

“No,” a human woman said.

“Then hurry up, and blow that thing!  It’s only a matter of time before that Legion armored column comes through!”  She sighed.  “Ryan was out there, setting those damn things in the dark, so he wouldn’t get caught.  Now go blow it up!”

“Right!”  The human woman turned and ran through the lobby of the building.

“Harriet,” Smati said.

The Drow turned.  She wore a pair of goggles over her face, to shield her eyes from the flash of guns and the sun.  Her hair was also cut short, a little more than shoulder length.  “What?” she asked.

“Gunship’s been taken care of.  There might be more drones around though.”

She groaned.  “I hate those machines.”   Harriet looked up at her again.  “How many left in your squad?”

Smati turned around, seeing two elves, an orc and four humans.

“Seven, good.”  She motioned to her.  “C’mon, there’s something you need to see.”

Smati, and the seven others followed her to a table.  On it was a crudely drawn map, with sloppy handwriting on it.  “What now?”

“There’s a few buildings we need cleared, here, here and here.”  She pointed on the map at three squares.  “I sent my brother and Rylin to clear ‘em, but there’s been no word from any runners for about an hour.”

“PREDATORS!” someone shouted.

“Shit.  HOW FAR OUT?”

“Seventh marker!”

Harriet shook her head.  “How’d they get that close?  Anyway.”  She looked at Smati.  “Go clear those buildings and drag Rylin and my brother’s sorry asses back to the docks.  And for the love of god, don’t shoot them like you did the last guy who shot his mouth off at you.”

“He shouldn’t have said that in the first place,” Smati replied.

“Just go!”  She grabbed a nearby M4 and slid a long, rectangular magazine into it.  “EVERYONE!  ABANDON THIS POSITION!  MARKER NINE!”

“MARKER NINE!” someone else shouted.

Harriet looked back at Smati and her team.  “Good luck out there.”

“Don’t need luck,” she said.

Harriet just shook her head and ran for an exit.

Smati looked back at her team.  “C’mon.”

*****
One of the partisans ducked behind a ruined car.  He peered over it for a second and ducked back down.

“What’s there?” Smati asked.

“Two ubers,” he said.  “Both full SWAT.  We can take ‘em though.  Least they’re not as tough as those legionnaires.”

“Don’t remind me!” the Orc muttered.  He pulled the bolt back on his M29.  “Take ‘em out!”  He peered around the corner of the car and opened fire.

Smati covered him and before the two PDFs could realize what had happened, they were dead.

“They ain’t so tough,” one of the humans said.  A shot echoed through the ruined skyscrapers.  He gargled and fell.

“SNIPER!” someone shouted.  Before anyone could react, two more shots echoed, claming one of the Elves and the Orc.

“There!” Smati shouted, pointing to another set or ruins.  The group made a run for it.  She looked over her shoulder, seeing another of her team fall.  She didn’t care though, as they slipped into the building.

“GET DOWN!” someone shouted.

The other Elf looked up for a split second, before his head was blown apart.  The corpse fell into a snow drift.   Smati grabbed one of her squad and pulled him to the floor.  Another shot fired, this time it splintered a wooden support beam in the building.

“Hey, you!” the same voice called.

Smati looked up.  There were two men, lying flat on their stomachs, peering through a hole in the roof.  One was a Drow, wearing the same goggles Harriet had been and was dressed in black armor.  The other was a human, wearing a PDF jacket and cammo.  “You Harriet’s brother?” she asked.

“SHH!!!” the human chastised.

“They already know we’re here, Rylin,” the Drow said.  “It doesn’t matter!”

“Those guys have mics on their rifles!  One of the only reasons we haven’t been picked-off yet is because their bullets can’t get through the concrete there!”  He moved just a little bit, and another shot echoed throughout the area.

“We were lying low, until Hadassa sent you to get us!” the Drow continued.  “They were just about to leave, when you showed up!”

Smati growled.  One of her companions looked at her.

“Look,” Rylin said.  “Alysdir, calm down.  On the plus side, there’s more of us now.  There are three snipers out there, and from the way they entered, that’s the only spot all three of them can fire at.”

“Your point?” Smati interrupted.

“You guys are on the ground floor.  If Al or I move even an inch…”

“Don’t call me Al,” Alysdir said.

“…We’re dead.  And those bastards are patient!  You guys can slip out one of the other sides, where only one of the snipers is.  There should be a window, on your left.  You guys have any smoke grenades?”

Smati shook her head and looked to her squad.  “What about you?”

“Got two,” one man said.

“Should two be enough?” Rylin asked Alysdir.

“They’d better not mess it up,” the Drow said.

“We won’t,” Smati said.  She looked at the man.  “Gimme one of those things.”  She took it in her hand and pulled the pin out, keeping the lever down.  “You two take the other sniper out.”

“Right,” he said.  “Wait, what about the third one?”

“If you can get those two, in the confusion, Al can probably pick him off,” Rylin said.

The Drow growled.  “Don’t call me Al!” he replied.

“What?”  Again, another shot from the Breed snipers whizzed over their heads.

Smati growled again and crawled on her stomach toward the window.  She waited a second and threw the grenade out.  Her ears caught it clattering on the ground.  She waited for the hiss from the device to emit the white smoke, before jumping through the window.  Another sniper fired and she rolled onto the ground.  Not taking any chances, Smati closed her eyes and let her more animalistic traits shine through.

Very few people would believe her if she told them what she was.  Fewer still would survive her rage, if they mocked her.  Smati felt the transformation from human to werewolf wash over her.  Unlike other werewolves, she could control it perfectly.  She was a member of a werewolf pack known as The Crimson Moon.  Very few of their kind remained, many purged by The Breed in their genocidal wars.  She didn’t care though.  All that mattered was that she maintained her power, which required bloodshed, on her part.  The transformation was complete and she ran toward the door, on all fours.

She ran into the building, hearing another shot.  Still on all fours, she found a stairwell and climbed it, quickly.  In the room, at the top of the stairs, was a PDF SWAT officer.  He had his rifle, aimed out the window, and stood there, waiting for someone to stick their head out, so he could kill them.  Smati growled instinctively.

The PDF turned.  Smati stood on her hind legs, leveling the M16 with him.  Her paw-like hand.  “Butcher,” she growled.

The PDF pulled a handgun from his belt and opened fire.  Two bullets hit her, but, because she was a werewolf, the lead only stung.  She retaliated, while he was still firing.  A few spurts from her assault rifle, before she threw it away and leapt at him.  He screamed as they fell out of the window and into the white smoke from the grenade.  Smati growled and tore into the PDF’s neck, ripping the black balaclava to shreds in her mouth.  Satisfied, she flung the body away and stood up.  With a groan, she began to revert back to her human shape.  Fur slipped back into her skin, and her face shrank back to a more human look.  The smoke was beginning to lift.  She ran for the window she’d come from and jumped through it.

“I see him!” Rylin shouted.  “Take him out!”

Smati looked up, through the hole, seeing Aysdir on one knee, sniper rifle raised.  He fired, and a large brass casing fell down and landed at her feet.

“C’mon!” she shouted.  “Let’s go before they set ‘em up again!”  She stepped out of the way as the Drow and Rylin jumped through the hole.  The other surviving members of her squad were there and on their feet.

“Back to the tanker?” Rylin said.

Smati nodded.  “And keep up.  If I show up without either of you, Harriet can go risk her own ass to go find you.”