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"What?!" cried Vandal. "We can't retreat! We have the bridge of Cologne! We lost too many good troops and equipment to retreat!"

Alyx was a little taken back from the outburst. "It's High Commands decision, not mine. It's for those purposes we cannot continue pushing across the Rhine. It would be too much more costly to continue this push! Most of the Eagle Fighters died covering The Comets, and the Hawk fliers are practically exterminated. Not to mention the Panzermann Army was not supposed to be here!"

Takara stepped between the two and took the Wolf's paw in hers. "Command is right, hun. We have no supplies, our equipment is in the river and our weapons are scattered and broken." She gazed to the bridge, plasma and rockets exchanged across both sides and the banks, lowering her voice softly. "The German-Clunkers will be back to reinforce the Panzermanns...We must leave now and regroup while we still can..."

** ** Vandal closed his eyes and sighed long. "Alright, pick up then what you can and let's head west..." He opened his eyes and gazed upon the smoking, smoldering bridge. Archaic rotor planes and Hawk fighters dogfought each other above the crumbling city, or strife the other's side. Buildings collapsed at random from stress, fires and urban warfare. He could see Rhino-Rifles and Elephant Guns discharged their energized slugs of miniature suns, while Panzermanns built plies of casing and shells around their feet's. Both rocked the ageing bridge with every fire and discharge, a layer of dust shook off, crumpled iron and steel struts, and wooden boards and supports snapped off.

Alyx, Takara and the Jaguar Squad had gathered what they could and milled about, waiting for Vandal, who slowly turned and began a pained walk back west. He felt something agonizing beginning to gnaw at his heart for leaving his brothers and sisters behind, but had to so he could fight another day.

They began to walk from the decimated courtyard, until Alyx turned around and had noticed the Wolf staring blankly ahead. Takara turned to and saw a great tide of anger wash over him, then fury and sadness. He curled his paws into fists, every knuckle cracking as a growl began to escape his muzzle.

The Wolf turned and howled to the low sun, running to the edge of the hill-top complex, still roaring a feral war cry. Takara made to stop Vandal, but Alyx grabbed her arm, watching as the Wolf drew his Doe Carbine and leapt to the complex below, disappearing over the wall.

"What is he doing?! There's nothing to be done for them down there! He cannot save them all!"

"No..." sighed Alyx, who closed his eyes and reached out, feeling the presence of two bright souls. "But he can save one of them..."

"She's here?..."

"Yes... And he would die so she may live..."

He could hear her screams through the Void; their Love bridging the distance war had placed between them. He slammed into the ground below in a kneeling position, his fist burying into the dirt as he knee ached and leg trembled and quaked in pain. Adrenalin and a reinforced bone structure negated what his body felt, and if he could, the burning rage within would have blocked out all but his feral desire to protect his love.

A low, menacing growl escaped his muzzle as he began to sprit down the slopping embankment to river side. He found another complex garden, a few shattered fruit trees and a few shell holes. The fighting seemed to have moved through another strewn wall and into a street below, the sound of a firefight echoing below.

He ran down the small gap between the houses and was about to round a corner, when solid rounds ricocheted off of the cobble walls. Vandal leaned back against the wall as plasma was exchanged in kind, followed by a howl of a Hyena as he ordered his squad back.

"Fall back! Back to church! We'll make our stand-"

The ground rumbled as cobble cracked beneath the treads of a super heavy tank. "FUCK! LANDSKNETCH! GET OFF THE-" A plume of stone rubble and dust replaced the frantic officer, obliterated by the shell of the main cannon. All that remained was a hole about a meter across, and quickly filled with vanguard mechanized infantry. The spiked threads of the tank smashed ancient brickwork beneath, the low riding carriage stained red with blood of the living and dead.

The Wolf lied flat and waited as the poised hunters passed by, intent on killing their fleeing prey. The low grumble of the tank lessened as it continued down the street, its cannon reloaded and sounding off again. Vandal whispered a prayer for the fallen and continued on, standing and sprinting to the other side of the street. Had he more equipment, he would have put that tank out of commission himself.

Realizing the streets themselves were too deadly to continue on, the Wolf found an open house and ran up to the second floor. He peered out the window and found some of the gutter works to still be intact. He gave it some test pulls and proceeded to climb out and up to the roof. Although there was a risk for snipers, much of the high-rises and bell towers were destroyed in the initial and counter assault.

He slung his carbine over his shoulder and began to charge across the roof on all fours, tackling jumps too wide to make on just two feet. He swung on cloth lines and leapt across chimney pipes in his race to the bridge, occasionally slamming into walls and digging claws in to scaling up to roofs too high to jump up onto.

Below, he could hear the cries of agony as pockets of Evolutionaries withstood Clunkers throwing themselves into their guns. Crackling plasmid slugs disintegrated armor as HE rounds destroyed buildings and hard spots of resistance. The stone walls echoed death throws as the streets ran red.

Smoke, dust and ambers burned his fur and skin, tears forming in his eyes as he struggled through the thickening smoke of war. Vandal had almost stumbled many times down gaps and holes in roofs as he was quickly losing sight of what was beneath him. A third floor building with an open window was just a few meters ahead, so the Wolf picked up the pace and leapt straight in.

And landed on a Clunkernaught sniper! Both grunted in pain and confusion as the enemy slammed his head across the window ledge, while Vandal landed flat against cold metal.

The Wolf shook his head, then realized he was against the enemy, and proceeded to shove his claws into the enemy's face, one claw finding the flesh of an eyeball, the other shattering an optic lens. He drew the Clunker back against him as he stood, who now began to cry out in agony. The Wolf cried back, and rammed the Sniper's head repeatedly into the window ledge, and after a few hits, blood began to stain the ledge. He finished off the Clunker with a paw to the back of the head, and slamming the enemy's throat into the ledge, a sickening crunch of the wind-pipe filled the room, before the body fell from his grasp and slumped to the ground.

After a minute of steadying his breathing and let the adrenalin flow from his system, the Wolf began a steady decent down to the main floor. Upon reaching the cobble floor, he found a room scorched and pockmarked with bullet holes. In the corner, a pile of bodies was made.

He slowly approached, realizing he had stumbled upon an senseless act of execution. The largest of the bodies had been bound and scalped, his eyes having some device into them to keep him from closing them, and a slit across his neck, still wet. In front of him laid a slimmer body, her pointed ears cut off close to her skull, and her dress torn, a knife laid between her legs, covered in blood and entrails.

And to Vandal's horror, two smaller bodies lying next to each other, both scalped and ears clipped, with a bullet hole between the eyes of both...

The Wolf wiped tears away as the surveyed the scene, stumbling upon a site of horrid mixed-family "cleansing." He fell to his knees and cradled the heads of these children; uttering a death prayer through stutters and weeping, and rested them back softly on the ground.

He wiped the tears away set the horror behind him, beginning in renewed vigor to the bridge of Cologne, knowing full well what would happen to his beloved Dion should she be captured, or killed outright could he not make it in time to save her.

Plasma burns and sulfur filled the air as he drew closer to the bridge, clearly seeing the firefight taking place on the old structure.

Almost out of nowhere, white streaks filled the air, short-ranged missiles launched from mobile platforms threw there volley of Hellfire Whirlwinds upon the siege of Cologne. A flash of fireballs surrounded the bridge as the air was devoured in hunger of the flames. They caressed the steel struts, not buckling to the advances, but tore and strangled at the lungs of the Evolutonaries, stealing the breath from them in cruel desire. Beasts and augments both fell, the Enemy willing to sacrifice a few to kill many, leaving the bridge intact. Then came the rush of air, Mother Nature weeping to fill the void of air, and dragged with Her a great windstorm of dirt and water, shaking the bridge to its legs buried beneath the Rhine.

Vandal attempted to scream in despair, fearing the worst, but was throw to the ground in the great torrent of rushing air. Dust and dirt filled his vision as he clambered and stumbled to his feet, feeling light headed and dizzy. Suddenly, he tumbled head over heels and into a shell hole. He felt around, growling in frustration, and climbed back up out of the hole. Finally finding the lip, he crawled out and shook his head of dirt. He looked up to see the bridge still standing, the guns of each side silent for a moment as groans through burnt and shriveled lungs and charred augments filled the chocking particulate filled air.

He started in a quick jog, still trying to shake off the debilitating rush of air, and made his way through the smoky air to finally come to the bridge, fires were burning, charred bodies and spasms of those taking their final breath upon a bridge already stained and painted in wasted blood...