It was a routine transfer to one of the Hades Division's outposts; where Schneider, the youngest and most brilliant mind of the engineering corps in the Division, was supposed to be escorted to and start a cycle of revisions and maintenance on the army's system.
The convoy was advancing towards the outpost by ground; through a dense and arid desert. The intense sun shined right above them, the heat warmed up to the point where the air felt heavy on the squad's skin and lungs... all they had to distract themselves from the suffocating sensation was the noise of the engines and the metallic sway of their armament and slat armor of the vehicles.
The trip had been long and exhausting. Behind Schneider's frowned visage; all the little genius could think of were profanities and how much more pleasant the trip could be if he had designed these vehicles himself -These fucking idiots wouldn't build a good light bulb even to safe their lives. All our tech could be godlike if I was in charge of everything; and I wouldn't need to endure such precarious goddamned conditions... FUCK!- He thought to himself. But sooner than later it'd over. After rising above the tallest dunes on the desert, they finally spotted the fortified Hades towers far on the horizon. Little they knew that their journey would end before they could approach any further.
A cloud of sand suddenly precipitated around the convoy; the visibility was highly reduced in the fraction of a second. The whole convoy had to slow down. The intercom creaked -ALL UNITES; STATUS REPORT-. Following up the head commander in Schneider's shuttle yelled at the specialist in turn -I want to know what's on the radars, NOW!- It was soon evident; the Umbra Wardogs had ambushed the convoy, SPC soldier couldn't even spit a word before the shuttle suffered a heavy impact, they heard an explosion, they felt a forceful tremble. Schneider tried to see the situation through the window, but the sand cloud made it impossible. Intercom creaked once more, between the noise of a firefight all that Schneider's crew could understand was -... REPEAT... WITHDRAW IF POSSIBLE-.
The SPC reported; the former impact had severely damaged the motor systems, they were stuck. Everyone wielded up their armament assuming combat position. Suddenly the door of the shuttle bent with a violent blow, and right away it was propelled towards the inside of the shuttle impacting against SPC with such strength he didn't show life signals after the slam. A dark silhouette of huge size could be spotted through a light cloud of sand that entered through the teared door. No time to think the three soldiers left alive in the shuttle, Schneider included, opened fire against the silhouette.
Not even the force of two riffles and Schneider's drone where enough to put up against the beast's endurance. It recovered from the damage just as quick as all the magazines where emptied on it. Followed by a threatening silence, two massive and muscled red arms flung against the head of the two sergeants while they tried to reload; but it was too quick. A pair of immense hands grabbed their heads and constricted until they cracked.
The only one left was the ginger brainiac, he stared at the Wardog with disgust and anger, he had to hold his shivers when he heard the howls of the Wardogs in the outside. He wasn't ready to give up, he aimed his homing chips SMG at the dog and pulled the trigger as if pressing harder would change anything, the drone unloaded projectiles fiercely... the huge beast barely reacted; with an annoyed expression on its face, it spread its jaws like a shark and in a flash its tongue lashed against the drone. Next thing we know is that the beast is chewing the drone. The young redhead watched the scene perplexed as he heard the crushes and crackles of his beautiful machine being turned into junk by the jaw of the Wardog.
After destroying the drone; the beast spit up the pieces and looked up. Before him was Schneider, defenseless and showing a troubled expression of worry and uncertainty. After looking at him for a brief moment the Wardog decided that the ginger lad looked cute and funny. The red giant babbled -you will be a nice pet- and then started humming a cacophonous tune as he imagined how the dogs would toy with and torture Schneider whenever they were bored. Both SGT's bodies dropped off of the dog's hands, collapsing on the floor of the shuttle. Slowly the huge red hands prowled towards Schneider, he tried to push them away but he was far too weak. The Wardog subdued the lad's attempts easily and started pulling him to take him away, between whinings and grunts an afraid Schneider was dragged out of the Hades shuttle.
After being pulled out of the vehicle; disheartened, Schneider could barely distinguish the scenario between the murky air filled with ashes and sand; glares of fire and shady figures of his destroyed convoy drew themselves in the vicinity. Howls kept blaring as the dogs scavenged what was left.
Soon enough the young engineer was abruptly thrown into the trunk of a Wardog vehicle to be taken away to a mysterious captivity destination. An eternity passed through his mind when finally the caravan seemed to stop. The lid of the trunk clicked and it opened with a slam. Schneider was pulled out of it without any care by a random Wardog who held him tight while a female dog approached.
Their eyes crossed; she stood right in front of him and put her hand on his shoulder while the other stroked his cheek gently with her long claws. -Down.- She firmly said with a hoarse voice. Before Schneider could react he suddenly felt a strike on the back of his legs that brought him down to his knees. She smiled as she stared down on him with a cynical visage. She tightly gripped his hair with one hand; while with the other she slipped her index claw from his cheek down to his uniform's collar, and started tearing it. He tried to resist but his arms were promptly apprehended on his back by the Wardog grunt as the mistress completely stripped the lad away of his clothes, to finish; she leashed his neck with an improvised strap made out of distressed leather and a rusty chain... he whimpered as they giggled.
The female Wardog walked a few steps ahead of the leashed boy. He stood still with a blank expression until she pulled the leash like suggesting him to follow her. Then he reacted; he looked up, his gaze stumbled upon the biggest scrapyard he's ever seen, his eyes seemed to be popping out of his face as his yaw loosened open. He took too long and his new mistress wasn't patient; she growled and a Wardog followed immediately kicking Schneider to make him move. At this point they didn't care whether he cooperated or not, he was taken inside of the scrapyard hit after kick after hit. Ultimately with a violent pull of his leash he was lashed in into a small isolated rift crudely fortified with mountains of scrap. A strident slam clanked behind him, he looked back and found a metallic grid enclosed him.
The Wardogs walked away. Some sort of peace finally. Schneider lied kneeling on the floor, he tried adjusting the leash on his neck to a more comfortable way, and gave himself some time trying to recover some strength after the beating. Then he looked up and observed his surroundings. He was surprised; a grin took over his face. This place wasn't his final destination, poor Wardogs; they are doomed, he thought... had they known he who Schneider was; they would've never EVER confined him in the most grandiose war scrapyard ever hoarded, but they were too STUPID! He was seeing light at the end of the most tortuous tunnel; soon he started plotting his revenge as a loud celebration was pumping outside of his "cell".
Of course; this is all scrap, junk, garbage. But putting all this crap together to make it work is not even a challenge for ME! The boy stated to himself. He started gathering, tinkering, tweaking and discarding all sort of pieces. It'd take him time; but his counterplay was guaranteed.
He didn't keep track of the time. How long had it been? 3 days? 3 weeks? It all was finally coming to an end; FINALLY! After all the time the Wardogs had him captive; leashed; naked; enslaved as a jester, boxing bag or human toy whenever they felt like. Fed only with leftovers they dropped from time to time... they even had cut his hair in the way they found most funny... indignation... hatred.
The final night was going by quietly. The dogs were asleep; the cell was never watched for the harmless ginger puppy. Out of the darkness an intense focused explosion boomed. Howls started spreading all over the place immediately. The first pack of dogs showed up quickly to the front of the puppy's cell. They barely poked in front the entrance right before hearing a second boom, a reddish flash glowed towards them and just like that they were covered in flames, screaming, howling and wallowing in pain. But they stopped suffering after being delivered lethal shots that ended with their lives.
Another pack of dogs was heading to conflict zone. They saw a glow and smoke, out of the ashen clouds a silhouette was emerging imposingly. The dogs paid attention until clearly spotted him; him! The puppy, dressed in rags and improvised precarious armor. The puppy... who evidently had a chance to build his mass killing machine. As the red puppy walked towards them, a flaying machine loomed above him; it was then when they realized a ticking sound on them, they looked down on their bodies and saw blinking red dots, bipping. At the next moment the flying machine spit a rain of projectiles down on them and they started blazing.
-Rinse and repeat- Schneider giggled.
