The Defects ran in a tight group through the broken streets of the edges of Peakpoint. Val lagged behind slightly as she got used to her new exosuit. It was one of the extras laying around in the staging room back at the compound, and had a slightly heavier loadout than she was used to after rotating with the Scouts for the past year.

The exosuit was a balanced model made of nano-infused steel with several external power sources built into the chestpiece. Thin and relatively light, it would offer decent protection while not limiting her mobility too much. Inside the exosuit, Val had changed into a tight-fitting sleeveless shirt and shorts, exposing the matte-black traces of nano running down her arms and legs. Direct contact between her traces and the exosuit’s internals allowed her to augment her physical abilities, the suit amplifying every twitch of her muscles.

Running just in front of her, Kaya and Wallon were decked out in similar exosuits. Or rather, they were similar in size and form factor, but both had opted for models focusing on energy manipulation rather than nano enhancement like Val’s. Kaya’s suit seemed to be focused on energy storage as a variety of external power sources were embedded into her armor. She carried a rifle in her arms as she ran, but it was the largest mobile firearm Val had ever seen. It rivaled some of the stationary turrets the Guardians manned along the exterior of the city.

Presumably her Defect limits her energy capacity significantly. I also detect that she is running an energy regeneration subroutine, continuously absorbing energy from the ambient nano.

Noir’s sudden interjection into her thoughts startled Val as the Daemon broke their self-imposed isolation. She had expected that Noir was keeping a closer eye on the physical world than they initially let on, but this was the first time they were taking the initiative to volunteer information directly like this. She thought about asking about what changed their stance, but decided it wasn’t worth it. Obviously they were going into a dangerous situation, and despite Noir’s proclamation that they only wanted to run analysis on her nanosystem, Val’s death was not beneficial to either of them.

Val’s mind raced as she tried to formulate a response. It seemed like Noir’s personality was inquisitive by nature. They just couldn’t help themselves from trying to solve little mysteries: Kaya’s exosuit configuration now, the relative dimensions of the compound with the surface buildings earlier. Probably talking about combat directly is a bit of a stretch, but… I can work with this.

Reaching out in her mind towards Noir, she tentatively tried to establish a connection. Sounds like a sensible conclusion. And Wallon’s seems designed to give him more control over his energy output. His exosuit seemed relatively plain except for the pair of heavy-duty energy regulators built into the forearms of his suit. But the suit I’m really curious about is Bri’s. What do you think about that?

Although the primary goal of her question was to tease a response out of Noir, Val was also genuinely curious about Bri’s suit. The metal was a darker sheen than the other exosuits, clearly a different material. Judging from the cracks left in the concrete with each of Bri’s steps, it was extremely heavy.

I don’t detect any nano interface between Bri and her suit. In fact, I’ve only ever detected body enhancement usage from her. I suspect her Defect impairs her ability to interact with external nano.

Val’s eyebrows rose. No wonder I couldn’t break free from her earlier. Zavis’s armor was certainly larger, but that was entirely a construct of his nano. Like Val’s exosuit, his nano-based armor would actively enhance his movements. By comparison, Bri had just her own brute strength to move her incredibly dense armor.

Incoming request from Zavis. Patching you into the squad channel now.

Val felt another connection bloom in her mind, one that she was very familiar with after her time in the Guardians and Scouts. Suddenly, it was like she had a sixth sense that gave her the positions of the other Defects. Val could reach out over the link to get a rough sense of their emotional state or send short non-verbal messages. Val quickly applied her usual link settings to the connection, tagging incoming transmissions with the sender to make it easy to keep them straight in her head.

Zavis: I’ll keep this brief. We’ll work on some new formations later, but for now, let’s stick to the tried and true. I’ll pull them to me and tank. Bri, engage any Enhanced. Wallon, cut down their numbers. Kaya, overwatch. Val, protect the Scouts and get them out of there. Once they are away safely, join Kaya and support from range as needed. Remember, securing the Scout patrol is our primary objective. Everything clear?

Val felt pulses of acknowledgement from Bri, Kaya, and Wallon, and hurriedly added her own to the mix.

Zavis: Alright, in that case, let’s speed up. Time is of the essence.

He and Bri put an immediate burst of speed, separating out ahead of the group. Kaya and Wallon sped up more gradually but eventually Val found it difficult to keep up even with them. She gritted her teeth and focused on going even faster as they finally entered the forest on the outskirts of the city.

Val heard the sounds of combat before she saw them. Her eyes scanned from side to side, taking in the forest in front of her and trying to find the optimal path over roots and below low-hanging branches. She felt the other members of the Defects just up ahead. Putting on another burst of speed, it was only several more seconds before the treeline opened up into a small clearing.

Val’s eyes widened as she took in the scene. The clearing was complete chaos. There were at least fifteen direwolves circling what she assumed was the Scout patrol, who were closed in around an injured member. They were able to repel most of the attacks, but even she could see it was a losing battle.

Zavis stood between the Scouts and the largest group of wolves, his large tower shield shifting back and forth to deflect the pouncing beasts. On the opposite side of the clearing, Bri was tangled up with two extra-large beasts. Val had never seen one before, but she knew these must be the Enhanced beasts the mission alert mentioned. A few of Bri’s weapons already lay broken around her as her opponent’s Enhanced skin seemed impervious to her weapons. Bri had resorted to a combination of punches and kicks to keep the beasts at bay, but didn’t seem to be doing much permanent damage.

It didn’t seem like any of the humans were having much luck against the wolves, actually. Zavis’s mace landed bone-crunching impacts and the Scouts sliced through skin and muscle, but the wolves seemed to heal at ridiculous speeds. Bones snapped back into place, flesh stitched itself back together, and the wolf was back in the fray in less than ten seconds.

A loud crack rang out from behind Val, and she watched as a wolf besides Zavis collapsed to the ground as a bullet blew out half of its torso. Apparently, Kaya’s rifle had no problems penetrating their tough hide. Without hesitation, Zavis spun around and brought his mace down on the wolf’s head. Unable to dodge, it was finally enough to ensure the beast stayed down permanently. However, the movement opened up his right side and another wolf eagerly pounced at him.

Val went to send Zavis a warning over their link when a small object hurtled into the side of the wolf’s face before exploding. It didn’t kill the beast, but certainly broke the wolf’s jaw and gave Zavis enough time to close his guard. Val’s eyes drifted over and spotted Wallon standing next to the Scouts tossing his contraptions into the crowd of beasts, mostly to disorient and interrupt them. She assumed he was holding back from using anything more powerful until the Scouts were evacuated.

Right, that’s my job. Val circled around until she was opposite the group from Zavis. There were only two or three wolves harassing the Scouts on this side, so it seemed as good a place as any to try and break through. Val bit her lip as she tried to think about how to proceed. It was unlikely she could take down any wolves herself. In that case, her plan had the best chance to succeed with a little help. She hadn’t heard much chatter over the party link, but hoped they wouldn’t mind as she reached out to them.

Val: Hey I think we can get the Scouts out on this side, but I need a little help. Kaya, if you can take down this wolf and Wallon can distract this cluster, I can distract the last wolf and we can create an opening.

In addition to her message, Val also tagged the wolves she wanted Kaya and Wallon to take down and pushed that information as well. Their displays would then be able to highlight their respective targets, making it faster and easier for Val to coordinate the combined attack.

Wallon: Sounds good to me, bombs are ready!

Zavis: Good plan, I’ll cover their retreat. Kaya still needs time to prepare her next shot, go in 5.

A synchronized countdown appeared in Val’s vision. Val sent an affirmative over the link and took out her pistol. Tensing her legs, she leapt forward as the countdown hit zero. The sharp crack of Kaya’s rifle was accompanied by the leftmost wolf in front of Val crumpling to the ground, while a small cluster of explosions distracted the group of wolves on the right.

Covering the ground towards the group quickly, Val raised her pistol and fired off a few shots at the wolf standing between her and the Scouts. The small caliber bullets did nothing to the creature, but it turned and growled menacingly at her. Good enough.

Raising her voice, she yelled out to the Scouts. “Come this way! We’ll cover you!” The Scouts looked at her with wide eyes for a moment before scrambling into motion. Three leapt forward to secure the path out of their encirclement towards Val while the fourth picked up their injured teammate.

A lucky shot from Val took out the wolf’s eye, causing the beast to howl in pain. Taking advantage of the beast’s distraction, the Scout patrol ran past the wolf towards Val. Holstering her pistol, she jumped forward to interpose herself between the Scouts and the wolf as it shook its head, recovering from the pain.

“Circle around the outside of the clearing to let our sniper cover you as long as possible. Then cut through the forest towards Peakpoint!” Val yelled to the Scouts. She heard the Scouts shuffling off towards the forest following her directions, but she couldn’t afford to take her eyes off the very angry wolf in front of her.

The wolf pounced at her, claws extended and jaw open wide. She dodged to the side before snapping a kick at the wolf’s head. She made solid contact, but she might as well have kicked a statue for all the damage it did. Hopping back out of the way, she opened up a little breathing room and took a quick look around the clearing to reassess the situation.

Zavis had filled the spot the Scout patrol vacated, completely encircled by the wolf pack now. But he seemed as unbothered by the situation as before, shield gliding smoothly to deflect incoming attacks. Val was surprised to see Wallon standing back to back with Zavis. She had expected the man to take the opportunity to separate out at range, but it appeared he was still comfortable in the chaos of a melee as well.

Bri seemed to be having a hard time against the two Enhanced wolves. Their razor-sharp claws had managed to rend through her armor in several places, and blood flowed freely down the outside of her suit. Despite that, she still moved well and kept them distracted. Another shot from Kaya landed into one of the Enhanced, causing it to stumble and letting Bri land a quick flurry of blows before she retreated again.

Val risked a quick glance over her shoulder to confirm the patrol had indeed made it to the safety of the treeline. They had managed to achieve their primary objective, and the Defects seemed well positioned to achieve their secondary objectives now.

Val licked her lips nervously, feeling the sweat drip down the back of her neck. Well positioned, except not a lot of help coming for me, she thought as she watched the wolf in front of her warily. She had faced direwolves in the Scouts before, but it had been in controlled circumstances where it was an entire party against one or two wolves. Facing a direwolf solo should be an easy task for a User, but despite her upgraded status, she wasn’t just immediately stronger.

Hey Noir, it would probably be best if you analyze my nanosystem in a variety of conditions, right? Including under more strenuous conditions? How about giving me a hand here? You'll get some interesting data out of it. Plus, you know, I won’t die.

No response came for an agonizing second before she felt a wave of resignation from the Daemon. You know I can see what you are doing here, right?

Val grinned despite herself. Well, is it working?

… Fine. Even I have enough pride to not let you get killed on the first day. Let’s see what you can do, User.

Val drew out a dagger from its sheath along her leg, the nano along its edge flaring to life as she connected it to her nanosystem. A regular knife probably stood no chance at dealing any real damage to the wolf, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve. She just hoped that they would work.

Only one way to find out.