For Sarah, who is a little bit Wolf
A.C.
The great steel Wolf loped across the land, and death was in her eyes.
She was thirty metres high at the shoulder; each leg was as wide and tall as a tree trunk, and the barrel of her body was fifty metres end to end. Pistons and servos charged as she moved, metal sliding over metal, cables pulling, motors whirring, and upon her back her crew of humans cheered and roared. Her eyes glowed yellow and sharp, and her teeth shone silver.
Ahead of her, Hyena limped and struggled. Hyena was as large as Wolf, with a tough metal hide, and he was quicker than he seemed. They’d fought several times already, vicious snarling scraps that had left both damaged. Twice Wolf had closed her jaws round his neck, and twice he had reared, twisted, escaped. Once he had caught her between his own bone-crushing teeth and nearly ended her.
But Wolf was clever, and lightning fast. Her steel claws were sharp as razors, her eyesight keen, her shoulders powerful. And her faith was strong. She was Wolf! Ghost of the forest, scourge of the tundra, lone destroyer, Wolf! Her crew were many, her will indomitable! Wolf!
She had chased the enemy Construct for days, through woodland, over hills, across plains. She was patient and careful, never letting her prey rest, never letting him get too far ahead. Now, as the sun set on the third day, they were nearing the end, and her crew knew it.
“WOLF!” they roared. “WOLF!”
Hyena clambered to the top of the next hill, gasping. Wolf sensed his fear. Her vast mouth opened and she laughed.
“WOLF!” she heard. “WOOOOOOOOOLF!”
Wolf felt her crew. She felt them. Every little human gave her strength, their energy feeding into her, beating through her silver veins. We are Wolf, she felt. We are Wolf. Her hind legs fired like springs, and she leapt! Her claws raked Hyena’s back, her teeth fastened round his neck, and her huge spring jaws clamped shut!
Hyena kicked at her as they tumbled into the next valley. His weight crushed her, but she didn’t let go. She felt his armoured hide buckle. She could see his crew now, the tiny humans panicking and scrambling around, and, as their faith faltered, his strength drained away. He was growing weak, while she was still strong!
Then Hyena twisted and somehow loosened Wolf’s grip, rolling until her jaws slipped from his neck to his shoulder. Wolf felt the crunch of steel and the spark of electrical systems exploding – but it wasn’t the killing blow, and now she was off balance. She slipped, and the muddy ground collapsed beneath her, sending her reeling.
Furious, she scrambled back to her feet. Hyena was moving again. He was badly injured, limping worse than before; the sparks and fires on his shoulder lit up the night, and pieces of his casing lay scattered on the ground. Humans too – fallen from his deck, shaken loose from their harnesses, lying still or running for cover.
Wolf raced forward, feeling her crew’s excitement. One more attack and he would be down, she knew. One more!
But Hyena was heading towards the end of a spit of land, and suddenly Wolf realised what he was trying to do. She snarled in fury and chased. She was only metres away from him! His right shoulder was ruined, he could barely move, his crew were weak, he was weak, he was prey!
“WOLF!” shouted her crew.
She leapt and her steel front paws stabbed at his hindquarters. She pressed down with all her weight and Hyena staggered once, twice, then his back legs collapsed – he was down!
And then he rolled, righted himself, tipped forward – and disappeared.
Wolf shook her head in fury, and then carefully stepped forward. Ahead, the ground vanished into a steep slope. Hyena was sliding and scrambling down, out of control. He rolled, then splashed into the river below. The sound of his fall echoed around the land, the water, the boom as he hit, the shriek of twisting metal and the shouts of his crew.
He lay in the river, motionless. For a moment, Wolf wondered if he was dead. But then he shook his head and got to his feet, and his lights glowed dimly in the dusk. He didn’t try to climb out of the water. Instead, he stumbled forward and let the current carry him downstream.
Wolf growled. On board, her crew swore. Should she follow him? She wanted to. But the cliff was deadly, and the river too. And it marked the end of Wolf territory, and the start of Puma. She would not want to face both…
She shook her head and slowly regained her calm. Hyena was gone. Maybe Puma would get him. Maybe he’d escape. But he’d never dare come back to her lands again. She padded back the way she had come, feeling the triumph of her crew, hearing their laughter. The scattered metal and parts of Hyena’s shoulder were still lying around as a prize, and the humans…
The humans would either join her crew or be left on the ground as Worms. The parts would be used for her own repairs. Wolf padded up to the top of the hill and smiled a wide-mouthed grin to the night sky, her long metal tongue lolling.
“Wolf,” her crew called. “Wolf. Wolf! WOOOOOLF! ”
Wolf laughed, threw back her head, and howled at the moon.
The ground was always weird.
Coll could never get used to how it didn’t move under his feet. On board Wolf, the decks were always shifting, swaying as she paced, even as she slept, and Coll’s body swayed with her by habit. But the ground was hard and unmoving. It made him feel like he was about to tip over. And it was too low down, so the world seemed to curve up as if he was standing at the bottom of a bowl. And it didn’t smell right. And it was dirty.
He scraped mud off his boots and looked around. It was early morning; Wolf was half asleep, stretched out on the ground with her eyes closed and her huge steel ears twitching. Coll could feel her in his mind, the giant mechanical Construct. She was enjoying the sunshine and paid no attention to the humans crawling over her, cleaning her, mending her, smoothing out her woven metal pelt. As she breathed, her sides moved, and the deck moved, and her humans moved. Coll, from the ground, watched them enviously.
“Hoy, dozy!” He turned, and a canvas sack hit him in the face. Luna grinned at him. “Get to work.”
Coll grinned back and they headed tailside. The remains of last night’s battle with Hyena covered the hill and now all the youngsters were on salvage duty. Luna skipped ahead and Coll followed her. She was the same age as him but shorter; since his twelfth birthday, Coll seemed to have stretched like a telescope and now he was a clear head taller than her. She was still faster.
They got to work. Most of the debris was Hyena’s, ripped away by Wolf’s massive jaws. Huge thick hairs made of burnished metal, electronics, hexagonal carbon-fibre panels – it could all be reused. Most valuable of all were the tiny scraps and dribbles of anthryl, dark silver, glinting in the sunlight. Anthryl was the incredible, magical material that held everything together, gave them life. Panels and cables could be replaced, but without anthryl there would be no Wolf. It moved in Coll’s hands like grainy liquid metal.
They worked for an hour, searching and scavenging, until Luna stood and stretched. “That’s two sacks – let’s head back.”
