Project Lunarium: The Fall of Isen

Once Tarli finally woke up, the first thing he was able to see was a blurry field of grey that encompassed his entire field of view. It took him a moment to realize that he was looking at the ceiling, which was slowly stopping its spinning. He tried to move his head, but those muscles just didn’t seem like they were either willing or able to respond. The same was also true for his mouth, as his attempt to call to Softy turned into slurred babbles. He took his time to slowly regain control over his body, wondering if the morphine should have put him to sleep or not. Those autoinjectors have the most optimal dose, fitting almost every creature that wasn’t a werewolf, so his body’s reaction was kinda odd.

Maybe it’s because of this Wanderer thing? He asked himself, counting a bit on Karit replying, but it seemed he wasn’t there. I guess he’s busy or something.

He forced his head to slowly turn left and quickly noticed a yellow shape lying next to him. It was Softy. She was sitting on the floor, leaning her head on the bed. She had clearly been waiting for him to wake up and had fallen asleep at some point. He found her nose to be really cute in this position, causing him to fight with a nigh irresistible desire to touch it, but a quick head-shake and blaming the painkiller in his veins for such a thought managed to extinguish his desires.

Tarli got up slowly in order to check his leg and discovered that several leather straps were now binding a pair of thin and yet durable metal bars to his limb. Between them, Softy had applied a thin layer of plaster, reinforcing the whole structure, which was lighter and more comfortable than a bunch of bandages. It was a professional medical splint. Although it wasn’t the top-tier medical brace he knew could be done, considering what she probably had to work with and the fact it was far-and-away superior to the improvised crap he’d had before, he had no complaints. Not too long after he finished his evaluation on his treated leg, he noticed a bandage wrapped around his front paw, causing him to snort.

Tarli tried to get up off the bed, but the morphine in his blood was making that task unexpectedly hard. He did his best to stand up without waking up Softy, but failed spectacularly. A loud bang echoed across the empty room as he hit a metal bed’s frame with his splint, causing his heart to almost freeze.

Softy slowly opened her eyes and looked at him with a half-awake look.

“You’re alive!” She quickly jumped up towards the incapacitated wolfpony, helping him to sit down on the edge.

“How long was I out?” Tarli asked, trying to recover his senses while holding his head. He felt as if he’d partied too hard last night and forgot to drink even a little water.

“Few hours. You fell asleep so quickly. I had no idea that morphine would knock you down like that. I’m so sorry,” Softy blurted out the words, almost giving Tarli a headache. He patted her mane and smiled with a warm and yet hard stare.

“Chill out. At least I had a nap,” He said, looking at the opposite wall, to check if his vision had cleared out a bit. It was still blurry, but getting better.

“Your pulse was so low for most of the time, even though I gave you adenosine and adrenaline. Your body just refused to wake up. Your heart rate was stable though. I tried to monitor it the entire time, but…” Softy checked Tarli’s pulse by putting her hoof on his neck, which made him a bit uncomfortable. “I think I fell asleep. I don’t even know when. I-I’m so sorry. If something would’ve happened…”

Tarli muffed her words by closing her mouth with his paw before whispering, “Shhh... It’s alright. As you can see, I’m still here. I’m not that easy to take down”.

Softy nodded slightly, seeming to have calmed down a bit. Tarli sighed before quietly gasping as he remembered about the device in the central control room.

“How’s our computer?” He asked, pointing his paw to the wall in front of him.

“Well… I took a quick peek and it seemed to be ready to use, though It was demanding your paw print again, so I’ve left it alone,” she said as Tarli slowly got off the bed, fighting for his balance. Softy quickly moved to support him, preventing him from falling on his face.

“You should stay in bed and wait for…”

“No time for that,” Tarli interrupted Softy, slowly walking towards the doors.

The pegasus sighed, whispering Stubborn wolf, but her words fell on deaf ears, doing nothing to stop him from walking away. With no other choice, she followed.

________

“So, this is our AI,” Tarli said, walking into the central control room and noticing a holographic, bright-blue sphere levitating above the table. It seemed to be covered by some kind of cybernetic net that was moving across its surface.

“Well, yeah. I’m not gonna lie, it looks sick!” Softy tried to not sound too excited, but it was hard to stay calm. Especially when she had never seen anything like this before.

“Let’s see what we have here,” Tarli whispered as he put a paw on a small paw-print reader on a table. The sphere raised to the ceiling, increasing its size almost two times and illuminating the entire room in bright blue light.

“Central Command Assistant - loading completed.” The voice moved across the room before the blue sphere turned into a wolf’s head and began to stare at Tarli with its digital eyes.

“Welcome to shelter number 203. Assistant number 10221, nicknamed ‘Sarli’, is reporting for duty. How can I help you today?” It said, without moving its lips, though it was moving its head around, looking at a confused Tarli and shocked Softy.

“Alright, first off… can you give me details of what you are and what can you do?” Started Tarli, a bit unsure if the AI could understand him. The digital head stared at him and seemed to take a while to think about his words.

“I am a personal AI called ‘Sarli’. I am here to support the overseer during his tasks. If the shelter is fully operational, I can give proposals for action plans, rescue missions, overseeing the shelter, and inspecting the facility's devices in order to find any malfunctions. I also can pick up any stress calls in a radius of 10 km. I’m here to serve you as best as I can.” The head stayed still after finishing, waiting for Tarli’s response.

“I guess, it can be handy for figuring out where we are and what the hell is going on,” he said, looking at Softy, who was staring at the AI.

“Alright, Sarli. Do you know where we are and what’s the current sitrep for Isen?” Tarli said, pointing at the digital head in front of him. Sarli again took its time to process his words.

“You are currently in shelter number 203. Detailed localization: District: Moonshine Avenue, Saint Larki street number 9, about half an hour from the centre and twenty minutes from the nearest airport. Lunar forces are currently in a full retreat from Isen, but many units have been left behind, scattered across the city. According to the most recent intel I possess, the closest Lunar unit is the 203rd Assault Division and part of the 102nd Mechanized Division, with minor tank support from the 12th Heavy Tank battalion, stationed thirty kilometers from Isen’s suburbs.”

“203rd? That’s my unit!” Tarli jumped up, hearing that his formation was still operational. In seconds, he regained hope that he was not alone in this devastated city and that he would finally be able to meet back up with his teammates.

“Sarli? Could you contact them, please?” Said Softy, sounding like she didn’t want to irritate the AI.

“I’m sorry, I can’t. I detected a serious malfunction with the shelter's beacons. My readings tell me that they were destroyed during the artillery barrage on the first few days of the Lizards' invasion. You may need to find new ones and set a proper frequency in order to contact an HQ,” it answered, staring at the pegasus and causing her to slightly back off.

“Alright, where can we find them?!” Tarli shouted eagerly. Knowing that his unit was somewhere up there and how close he was to getting into contact with them, Tarli was ready to even bring an entire beacon here on his back if that’s what it took.

Calculating… The nearest radio beacon is located on Saint Larki Airport, which was turned into a temporary FOB during the invasion. However, Lizard bombing runs and artillery barrages have scorched and damaged a majority of the structures and the surrounding area, rendering continued occupation untenable. It appears though that the radio beacon did survive the fight. Most likely it is damaged and will require additional repairs, but this is the only possible intact receiver and transmitter in the immediate area based on my records.

“I thought the town hall had its own beacons in the case of the city being sieged?” Tarli managed to calm himself down and gather thoughts before continuing. “Sarli, tell me what’s the status of town hall’s defenders. Are they still holding up?”

“According to reports, they are completely cut off. They have no power, no ammunition, running low on supplies, and they are slowly being overrun by overwhelming forces. That information is a week old, so is thus considered outdated. The current situation is unlikely to have improved in the intervening time. It’s wise to stay away.”

Tarli expression dropped slightly. He knew that the town hall was what was helping to maintain morale among the forces around Isen. If they fell, Lunarium will be forced to withdraw and focus on the next big city of Narhi, which was just too far away, and most likely already been seized by Lizard forces. For all intents and purposes, Tarli and Softy are pretty much doomed. However, if Lunarium was still keeping their forces around Isen, it meant that either town hall was still holding or they were preparing to leave soon. Either way, they needed to contact them as soon as possible in order to survive another day.

“What are you thinking about?” Softy poked Tarli’s side, grabbing his attention. He looked at her and realized that she had no idea how deep of shit they were, or she was just being deliberately ignorant.

“I’m thinking…” Tarli started, going silent for a second, trying to get his thoughts back on tracks. “I think that the town hall is still holding. If we can reach the radio beacon on the airport and then meet the defenders, they could use this AI to contact the main forces near Isen and get the hell out of here.” It was the best opportunity to help the defenders and join them during the extraction, however, it had some holes, which Softy spotted.

“What if they’ve been overrun? If we come across any Lizards or if they find this shelter, they could use this AI to sabotage our comms.” Tarli was a bit surprised at hearing an ex-civil doctor list off the faults in his plan so quickly. Seemed like she wasn’t that naive regarding this whole situation as he’d thought. Tarli made a mind-note, Do not underestimate this cutie.

“I guess, we have no other options than getting this radio going and seeing if they’re still there. Worst-case scenario, we’re welcomed by rotten corpses and bullets,” he murmured, wishing that he was wrong. He wanted to believe that the town hall had not fallen, because, without it, the hope of a whole Free Wolves clan would turn to ash. Though, when he remembered the current state of Isen, he started to wonder if it wasn’t already too late.

“Let’s get ready. It’s gonna take some time to get to the airport,” he said finally, after a long break. Softy instantly pointed at his leg with a begrudging frown.

“What?” Tarli asked confused, following her hoof, but suddenly realizing what she meant.

“Don’t think I’m going to let you go with a broken leg,” she said firmly, but Tarli decided to not give up this fight.

“And you think you can stop me?” He said with a challenging smirk, causing Softy to gasp.

“Yes! I will. You stay here till I can be sure you can walk properly. I’ll use force to make you stay here,” she said, getting closer to Tarli with a serious look.

“Do it, cutie,” Tarli giggled, causing Softy’s face to turn red. Apparently, she didn’t like to be called cutie, but he knew what was going to happen. Softy tried to slap his cheek, but Tarli leaned down. With his face no longer there to bring her hoof to a stop, Softy ended up continuing her swipe, throwing her weight off-centre and causing her to lose her balance. She fell forward, but the wolf-pony quickly caught her, pulling her nose close to his face. Now he wasn’t sure if her face was red from anger or a blush. What he was sure of though was that he didn’t feel comfortable having her eyes so close to him.

“See? I’m pretty good even with a broken leg,” he said, smiling maliciously, trying not to expose his feelings with a blush that began to slowly develop. Softy was slowly realizing what just happened.

“Okay, okay. You can go…,” she said, hiding her face behind her wing before Tarli gently pushed her back onto the floor. “...but try to keep up, fancy-smile,” she shouted, quickly exiting the room, leaving the wolf-pony alone with the AI, which was trying to analyze their behaviour.

Don’t play with fire, mate. Tarli heard Karit’s voice in his mind, making him roll his eyes.

“C’mon. Just a little bit of messing around won’t get anybody killed,” he answered, forgetting about the AI which was staring at him.

“Who are you talking to?” the digital head asked, scarring Tarli. He didn’t realise that this floating cyber wolf was so aware of its surroundings and could discern that there is nobody else in the room.

“Doesn’t matter, prepare the map and instructions for us, if you can,” he said, trying to sidetrack the computer, but it was also wiser than he expected.

“Roger that. Meanwhile, you can answer my question,” it answered, making Tarli wonder why this AI was acting so similar to a living being.

“Just forget about it.” He waved his paw and the computer went silent.

I guess it’s not just another dumb AI, Karit said, somehow catching Sarli’s attention.

“I detect an abnormal incoming telepathic message and anomaly in the wound on your paw. May I ask you to take a quick blood test?” It said, popping up a small pawn reader with a synergy attached to it, terrifying Tarli.

“No… later,” he said with a clear look of panic in his eyes, remembering about the map he asked for, and ran out of the room.

______________________________

Tarli rushed into the living quarters and closed the doors behind him. He rested his head on a cold metal wall, breathing heavily, and having no idea why he’d gotten exhausted so quickly.

Seems like this AI knows more than we expected, Karit said with a tone of disbelief.

“I guess yeah. I don’t want it to know what’s going on… not yet. It would tell Softy about my condition,” Tarli replied, imagining Softy’s reaction. He could see her turning away from him, fearing what he had become. She was his only ally so far, and losing her because of this Wander bullshit wasn’t an option.

So what are we gonna do? I don’t think it’s gonna give up that easy, Tarli could feel some kind of fear in Karit’s voice. Clearly, he wasn’t a fan of this scenario either.

“Let’s focus on the task for now. If it’s not gonna leave me alone, I’ll turn it off permanently,” Tarit decided, already planning how he was going to do it without acting suspicious.

Alright. We should check if Softy is ready. I think she went to the armory

Tarli nodded and calmed his breath so Softy won’t sense that something wasn’t right, then he opened the doors and headed towards the room filled with uniforms and vests. As soon as he passed the doorway, he spotted Softy trying on clothes, as she was standing in front of a small mirror and staring with an unhappy frown. Tarli could feel his cheeks slowly warm up as he noticed how the uniform was accentuating Softy’s shapely figure, causing the wolf-pony to lose his tongue.

Softy noticed his presence and instantly turned around to face him, exposing her silhouette even more.

“How do I look?” she asked, her tone sounding as if she was simply in a clothes store, trying on a new skirt.

Tarit couldn’t say anything for a long time. The dark blue uniform was adhering to her body almost perfectly. She even cut out small holes on the sides for her wings. Tarli wanted to say that she was looking gorgeous, but instead of that, he blushed even more, making the pegasus giggle.

“I’ll take it as ‘Good’,” she said with an innocent smirk and approached the stunned wolf-pony, which caused him to blush even more.

Get your shit together, mate, Karit saved Tarli from his motionless state, shaking his head to gather thoughts again

“Are you ready?” He asked, trying to forget about what just happened. Softy opened a medbox resting underneath her right wing to show him what was inside.

“Yeah. I took some basic medications, water, some rations in case we meet a hungry wolf out there…,” she began saying things she packed. It was more than necessary, but Tarli wasn’t complaining. He had no mental strength left to doubt her picks.

“Then let’s go,” he said, standing in front of doors, letting her leave first. “Ladies first,” he smiled, raising his paw. Softy snorted.

“I’m still mad because of what you did in the control room,” she whispered, poking his vest before leaving the room.

“Whatever, c….”

Don’t! Karit interrupted Tarli, who noticed Softy’s murderous gaze.

“I think you need to work on your aggression,” he said instead, which was welcomed with another snort from Softy.

__________________

Saint Larki Airport used to be an average civilian airfield based close to the centre, allowing the newcomers to reach the city's centre without spending hours in public transit. Because of its localization, it was crowded almost all the time by wolves from across the country. A majority of it was covered by airstrips and hangars rather than one massive terminal like some airports, where wolves could find a rather small air fleet of surprisingly decent planes. Though small, it was very efficient. When the war had started, thanks to its localization, the airfield had been turned into a forward operating base. The first thing the Army did was replace all the civilian planes with combat ones and any chopper they could get their paws on. War or peace - this place had always been crowded, but now it felt empty, even though there were hundreds of wrecks scattered around. Days of continuous bombardment had turned the airfield into ashes, completely destroying the air control tower which now looked like a broken match surrounded by rubble. The main perimeter managed to somehow endure the carnage, more than likely thanks to its box-like shape, and the fact it was supported by thick metal beams in the case of an airplane crash. However, based on the fact that the eastern wing of the perimity had partially collapsed, leaving a huge hole spewing a column of flames and thick, black smoke, it wasn’t too hard to deduce that something big had to landed a direct hit. Whoever had been there had surely died, either from the explosion, the fire, or the smoke.

Tarli moved his stare across the airstrip, searching for any sign of life, but all he could see was an endless ocean of destroyed bombers, fighters, choppers, and vehicles, being slowly turned into shapeless silhouettes by the never-ending fire. It wasn’t a welcoming place, and he would rather run as far away as possible than take one more step towards this graveyard, but he knew he couldn’t. He had a job to do here.

It’s seen better days, aye? said Karit, dragging Tarli out of his thoughts. He answered with a short mutter, trying to fight off the pictures of what happened to everybody that had appeared in his mind.

“I hope we won’t stay there for too long,” Tarli stated, both to answer the question and to end the silence that had enveloped him and Softy. As he shifted his head to look at her, he found her searching for something in a nearby pile of rubble.

“What are you looking for in there?” He slowly limped towards her as she was just looking at the debris with a brick in her hoof. She sighed and threw the piece back on the rubble.

“So, this is Saint Larki Airport?”She looked towards their destination. It was more a statement than a real question, but Tarli nodded anyway, getting closer to what little remained of the fence surrounding the whole complex.

“Radio beacon should be somewhere,” he murmured as they moved into a labyrinth of wrecks and burned corpses. Tarli started to regret leaving the shelter, but he wasn’t sure if staying there was a good idea either. Especially because of the conversation he’d had with the AI.

“Maybe in the main complex?” Softy proposed, pointing at the dead, box-like building next to the airstrip, but Tarli shook his head.

“I don’t think so. It’s too obvious. I bet it was the first thing that got bombed. Beacon wouldn’t have survived that,” he said, moving deeper into the maze of twisted metal and bone.

A few minutes later, the two of them reached some old, partially burnt green tents on the opposite side of the airfield. Upon laying eyes on them, Tarli knew that these house-like constructions were where the radio beacon would be. It’s less obvious than the main perimeter or air-control tower, so if it survived the bombing runs, it surely had to be there.

Tarli and Softy drew closer to the first tent. The wolf-pony took a deep breath, preparing himself to see even more corpses inside, but as soon as he peeked his head through the canvas flaps, he found that the room was empty, as if nothing had ever been there.

“I guess, it’s empty,” he said, approaching a neighbouring tent. When he peeked into this one, he noticed three small tables with some radio equipment on them, and once again, no rotting bodies. After signalling for Softy to follow him with his head, they both entered and quickly made their way to one of the stations, hoping to find a cable that would lead them to the radio tower. Unfortunately, there didn’t appear to be one there. Tarli’s best guess was that someone had already scavenged and made off with it.

Before he could say anything though, a strange noise, as if something had been sneaking by and accidentally kicked a brick, came from behind. Both he and Softy quickly turned around and peeked out of the tent.

“There,” Softy whispered, pointing at the small pile of twisted metal scraps next to the destroyed fuel truck a few metres ahead. Tarli focused on the position but he couldn’t make out anything of note. He began to slowly approach the rubble, but a sudden pull dragged him away.

“I’ll go. I can run, you not.” Softy pushed past Tarli and began to sneak towards the mangled nest of steel before he had the chance to oppose. Suddenly, the rubble moved slightly, and this time, Tarli could make out some fur in the rubble.

Is that a wolf? He asked himself, looking for anything that would confirm his guess. When Softy was only a few metres from the rubble, suddenly, a huge silhouette jumped out of it.

“Werewolf!” she squeaked, terrified. The two-metres tall, bulky, two-legged creature started to wave his arms around frantically while growling. His dark grey fur and lunar uniform were covered in gasoline and oil, turning them completely black. A vest on his chest was full of holes and scratches, suggesting that he had been in a fight recently. His eyes were closed, and Tarli quickly realized that they were likely glued shut from all the crap covering him, or he was keeping them that way to avoid the pain of having said crap get into them.

“I can’t see! Who’s there! I will kill you all!” The werewolf was shouting, panicked as he looked for something in the rubble he’d come from. Tarli tried to get closer and calm him down, but the troublemaker found what he’d been looking for.

“Fuck! Take cover!” he screamed abnormally loud when he saw that the soldier had pulled out a heavy machine gun. The wolf-pony and the pegasus jumped behind a small wall of sandbags simultaneously, and just in time, as a few seconds later, a burst from a high calibre weapon filled the air, partially destroying their cover. Softy curled up, hiding her head under her hooves, and shaking like a leaf. The werewolf was shooting haphazardly, shouting insults towards the Lizards in an unknown language, and making holes in almost any visible object. These bullets could penetrate basically anything, so Tarli had to act quick, but he had no idea how to calm down an angry werewolf with a huge machine gun. Suddenly though, he remembered something that should work.

“Star!” With that single word, it was like a magic spell had been cast, as the Werewolf instantly dropped his smoking weapon on the ground.

“Gaze!” He yelled back, getting closer to their cover. “I’m blind! I can’t see!” the werewolf began to shout, once again waving his arms around.

“I’m a medic! I can help you!” Tarli shouted again, trying to shout over the gunshots still echoing in his ears.

Without Tarli having to ask, the big soldier sat down and waited for them. When Tarli moved out from behind his cover, he quickly noticed just how huge this wolf was. Even though he was sitting on the ground, Tarli’s head only reached his belly, making the wolf-pony feel even smaller than he usually did. Softy followed soon after, quickly running towards the blinded soldier with a bottle of water in her hoof.

“You need to lower your head, sir…” Despite how helpful she seemed to want to be, her voice betrayed just how unsure she was. It was obvious that she was afraid that the werewolf would grab his weapon again and start blasting. However, the werewolf was nothing but cooperative. He almost lied on the ground in order to give Softy easier access to his eyes.

“Alright, there you go,” she said after a quick rinse.

The werewolf began to slowly open his eyes, exposing his dark-yellow iris. He gazed at the pegasus with confusion as he cautiously stood up. Once on his legs again, he looked at his huge hands and a smile began to spread across his muzzle.

“I can see…,” he murmured with disbelief before moving his eyes to Softy. “I can see!” he roared happily as he gave Softy a hug, raising her like a doll, and squeezing her to his ballistic vest, “Thank you, thank you!”

Despite how gentle the werewolf was likely trying to be though, due to his size and strength, he was not so slowly crushing the poor pegasus, causing her to desperately gasp as the air was being forced out of her.

“Big boy, put her down. Otherwise, you’ll asphyxiate her, mate,” Tarli finally chimed up as he began to approach them. The werewolf instantly dropped the pegasus to the ground at hearing this.

“Pardon me. Are you alright?” He asked, leaning towards Softy who was trying to get some air back in her lungs.

“Yeah, no worries. I’m okay,” she said, standing up and wobbling slightly. She looked at Tarli with a smirk. “Apparently, this vest doesn’t only protect you from bullets,” she said, knocking the vest on her chest.

“Good thing I forced you to wear it,” Tarli answered, looking at the werewolf, who was staring at him strangely. “Who are you?” he asked the tall soldier, mildly terrified.

“Saccot Artla, but everybody calls me Scibbi. 3rd Assault Group, 203rd Assault Div…”

“No way!” Tarli interrupted, screaming happily. He instantly jumped towards Scibbi and hugged his leg, because he was too short to reach the werewolf's neck.

“You’re from the same unit as me. I’m T…”

“I remember you, Tarli,” Scibbi smiled widely, raising his teammate and giving him the same hug as to Softy. The wolf-pony was happy yet also confused, wondering — while fighting to breathe — how the hell he could not remember this big, walking pile of flesh, or what happened to the rest of their squad.

“Also, who is this small, cute creature here?” the werewolf said, leaning towards Softy like a predator approaching its prey, causing her to slowly back away.

“She’s Softy, my friend,” Tarli said as Scibbi started to sniff the terrified pegasus. She kept falling back till the wreckage of a plane prevented her from continuing.

“Smells good, I like you. And a friend of my friend is mine as well,” he said, standing up with a wide smile.

“Alright, we’re looking for a radio beacon that should be around here, so if you have any information on it, we need to talk.” Tarli poked Werewolf’s leg.

____________

“Can you explain what happened to our squad?” Tarli asked to assure himself as they approached a small device standing between the tents. The radio beacon they’d been looking for wasn’t all that impressive. Just a standing pipe wrapped in wires of at least a dozen different diameters. It wasn’t a proper piece of military tech, but it appeared to work just fine.

“Well… when the heli crashed, we decided to fall back to this FOB. When we arrived, well… as you can see, this place ain’t operational anymore. I assume the Lizards sent a flight or two of bombers to turn this place to ashes, so the squad moved towards town hall in order to use their long-range radio and make contact with HQ to check if they’re still holding up, but I’ve lost contact with them,” Scibbi answered while trying to clean his uniform. He eventually noticed Softy staring intently at his heavy machine gun lying next to him. The weapon looked like a box with butt to one end and a barrel half covered by a cylindrical cheese grater on the other.

“So why aren’t you with them then?” Tarli looked at his teammate curiously as he was trying to set up the beacon according to the instruction he’d received from Sarli.

“For several reasons. But there are two that were more important than the rest. The first being that I wanted to wait for you because we knew this FOB was gonna be the first place you’d come to when trying to find us,” Scibbi said, looking around a bit nervously, waiting for Tarli’s incoming question.

“Why did you leave me in the first place, then, huh?” His question was met with a sigh from the larger wolf, like he’d been expecting this. Leaving a teammate behind was never an easy decision.

“We had to go. Your radio was destroyed and we were concerned with all the Lizards that could have been crawling all over the place. Searching for you would’ve taken too much time and put everyone at risk. I was in opposition to abandoning you, but you know how little a private’s words matter.” Scibbi lowered his head as this decision seemed to be weighing him down. Softy quickly approached in order to contain a situation, as she noticed a spark of rage in Tarli’s eyes.

“What’s the second reason?” He asked, trying to change the topic. The fact that his own squad left him behind because of hypothetical contacts that never appeared was driving him mad, but he couldn’t blame him. Though he still wasn’t sure if he believed his version of events.

“Well, we had a radio beacon here. I was left behind to send out a message and try to gather up as many survivors as possible, but nobody answered. I was starting to think I was alone in this city,” said Scibbi, looking at Tarli with a mix of relief and repentance for leaving his friend in a building. Tarli couldn’t see it though, as he was busy with getting the wires of the beacon into the correct positions.

“Alright, I think I’m done,” Tarli said as he double-checked everything.

“I’m sorry for leaving you back in the building.”

Tarli sighed heavily.

“It’s fine. I was just worried about all of you,” he answered, staring at his teammate with a painful smile.

“No, it’s not fine. We all took an oath when we joined the army. Leave no one behind, and we broke it. I should have stayed and tried to find you.”

Well, he’s right. Leaving your squad-mate is never an option for Lunar soldiers. However, they didn’t know you were dead after all. Even I couldn’t have expected you to survive such a crash. Karit’s voice echoed in Tarli’s mind. The wolf-pony knew they were both right, but it happened. Suddenly, Tarli’s ears shot up as an idea came to mind.

“Scibbi, do you know Karit?” he asked his friend, whose eyes widened.

“Well, I know several Karits. Which one do you m…” Scibbi stopped short as he noticed the marks under Tarli’s eyes. As soon as Tarli realized what Scibbi was staring at, he tried to cover his face with a paw, but it was too late. “Wait a fucking second…” he whispered, turning towards Softy who was looking at them confused.

“Would you mind leaving us for a second, my lady?” he asked kindly, though Tarli’s mind was screaming at her to stay. She looked at them with no small degree of confusion, giving herself a few seconds to think about it. She wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, as she still remembered nearly being killed by the one asking.

“I’m not gonna hurt him, we need to talk.” Scibbi raised his paws with a warm smile on his face. Tarli wanted to say something, but he’d gone completely numb. It wasn’t a good idea to resist a request from a creature that big.

“Alright, but I’m keeping an eye on you,” she warily said, slowly walking towards the maze of wrecks. Once she had disappeared behind the closest one, Scibbi pulled out a pistol and put it between them, just out of Tarli’s paws range.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Tarit hissed, seeing his friend’s actions.

“Don’t act like you don’t know what’s going on. You can fool the pegasus, but not me,” Scibbi whispered nodding towards Tarli. “Only two types of creatures have marks like those. Undead and Wanderers. Which one of them are you?” he asked, staring at him dispassionately

Well, I’m fucked. Tarli thought, panicking inside. He began to look for an escape route.

“Don’t even think about it,” said Scibbi, pointing at his gun, lying between them.

“Alright, alright!” Tarli shouted helplessly. He really didn’t want to admit who he was, but it seemed like he had no other option. “I’m Wanderer,” he murmured, feeling worthless, moving his eyes to the ground.

“Really?” Scibbi asked, pulling out his knife from its sheath. Tarli freaked out, thinking that the werewolf wanted to stab him.

“Wait, what are you doing?!” Tarli yelled as Scibbi grabbed his paw and inflicted a shallow cut. From the wound, a mix of blood and dark dust began to run down the fur.

“Seems like you’re telling the truth,” he said, analyzing the liquid. Soon after, he resheathed his knife and grabbed his pistol. The wolf-pony was staring and the werewolf, trying to figure out what he meant.

“We’re gonna have a long talk then,” said Scibbi, sitting down on the concrete floor, and waving his arm towards Tarli, showing him to do the same. The wolf-pony sighed deeply, wondering how long it was gonna take.

“I don’t think this is a safe place to talk. Lizards can find us,” Tarli said, searching for any reason to delay the incoming conversation, but his attempt was meaningless, as Scibbi shrugged and waited for Tarli to start talking.