Ch 22: The First Strike

The night was unnervingly quiet, the kind of silence that amplifies every rustle of the wind and every creak of metal. Kael sat inside his crawler, checking the drone's live feed on a cracked screen. Mira, perched on a ruined platform above, scanned the horizon with a scoped rifle she'd scavenged from one of the Wraiths.

"They're late," Mira muttered over the comm unit Kael had rigged from salvaged parts.

"They're cautious," Kael replied, his voice low but steady. "And smart. The hounds didn't get their reputation by rushing into traps."

"Still," Mira said, adjusting her scope, "this waiting is making my trigger finger itch."

Kael smirked faintly, his eyes never leaving the screen. "Patience. The longer they take, the more restless they get. Restless people make mistakes."

"Let's hope you're right," Mira muttered, though her tone was doubtful.

Hours passed, and the tension grew thicker. Kael's drone, circling a perimeter two miles out, suddenly picked up movement. A convoy—four vehicles, two heavily armed buggies, and two cargo trucks—was approaching from the south.

"We've got company," Kael said, his fingers dancing over the controls to zoom in on the feed.

Mira's voice crackled in his ear. "How many?"

"Four vehicles. Looks like two are combat-ready, the other two are probably carrying reinforcements or supplies."

Mira cursed under her breath. "That's more than I expected. What's the plan?"

Kael thought for a moment, his mind racing. "We stick to the plan. I'll lead them into the traps. You cover me from above and pick off anyone who tries to flank."

"And if they overwhelm us?"

Kael's voice was calm, but firm. "Then we improvise."

The convoy stopped just outside the refinery ruins, the headlights cutting through the darkness. The hounds disembarked, their figures shadowed but menacing under the dim moonlight. There were at least a dozen of them, each armed to the teeth.

"Spread out," a voice barked. Kael recognized the tone of authority—it had to be their leader.

The group moved with precision, fanning out as they advanced into the ruins. Kael watched their movements carefully, his hand hovering over a makeshift detonator.

"Wait for it…" he muttered to himself, his heart pounding in his chest.

The first trap went off with a deafening boom, a buried charge rigged to a proximity sensor. Two of the hounds were thrown back, their bodies crumpling like ragdolls.

"Ambush!" one of them shouted, and the group scrambled for cover.

From her vantage point, Mira opened fire, her rifle's crack echoing through the ruins. One hound dropped, clutching his neck, while another dove behind a rusted pipe for cover.

Kael didn't wait to see the chaos unfold. He jumped into the crawler and revved the engine, tearing through the ruins to draw their attention. As expected, the combat buggies gave chase, their mounted guns opening fire.

Bullets ricocheted off the crawler's reinforced plating as Kael weaved through the debris, leading the buggies toward another trap. When he reached the designated point, he hit a switch on his dashboard.

A row of explosive canisters he'd rigged earlier detonated, engulfing one of the buggies in flames. The second buggy swerved to avoid the blast, slamming into a pile of rubble and flipping onto its side.

Meanwhile, Mira continued to thin the ranks of the hounds on foot, but their leader wasn't so easily outmaneuvered. He'd managed to track her position and was now scaling the platform she was perched on.

She turned just in time to see him leap over the edge, his knife glinting in the moonlight. Mira fired, but the shot went wide, and the two of them collided.

The leader was stronger, pinning her down as he raised his knife for the kill. Mira struggled, reaching for anything within arm's reach, when her hand found a jagged piece of metal. She drove it into his side, eliciting a grunt of pain as he faltered.

Using the moment to her advantage, Mira pushed him off and grabbed her rifle, delivering a point-blank shot to his chest. He collapsed, blood pooling beneath him.

Kael wasn't faring much better. The remaining hounds had regrouped and were now converging on his position. He'd managed to disable the convoy's trucks with a mix of traps and well-placed shots, but he was running out of tricks—and ammunition.

As the hounds closed in, Kael made a split-second decision. He grabbed a small device from the crawler's dashboard and activated it. A high-pitched whine filled the air, followed by a pulse of light.

The device was an EMP emitter, something he'd salvaged and modified over the years. It fried the electronics in the hounds' remaining gear, leaving them disoriented and vulnerable.

Mira, hearing the commotion, took advantage of the chaos to pick off the last few stragglers.

By the time the dust settled, the refinery was eerily quiet once more. Kael and Mira regrouped near the crawler, both battered but alive.

"You alright?" Kael asked, his voice hoarse.

Mira nodded, though her face was pale. "Yeah. You?"

"Still breathing," Kael said, though he winced as he inspected a graze on his arm.

They looked around at the carnage, the bodies of the hounds scattered among the ruins.

"That was too close," Mira said, her voice trembling slightly.

Kael didn't disagree. "We need to move. There's no way this was the full force. More will come."

Mira nodded, climbing onto her bike. "Where to?"

Kael glanced at the horizon, the faint glow of dawn creeping over the wasteland. "Somewhere far from here. We'll figure it out as we go."

With that, they set off once more, the crawler and the bike kicking up dust as they disappeared into the endless expanse of the wasteland.