The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Birth of the Wolfpack

Truk slowly stretched his neck, sighing in relief as several of his vertebrae cracked as they popped back into place. He had thought he was in shape as a nestari. But the last couple of days training with the First Dragon's Own had shown him just how much of a gap there was between well-trained and elite. And he wasn't elite.

"I taste the ashes of my failure," Fordricht gasped as he came to a staggering halt beside Truk, who was leaning against the side of a Wolverine armored personnel carrier. "How can these House Lash nestari be so much more fit than us?" He looked up as the squad that had been two squads behind the one they were training in, ran by at nearly a full sprint.

Then Ballan was stumbling in to run into the side of the Wolverine.

"Pere de la Nuit!" he gasped, flipping around to look at his fellow nestari. "Who thought it was a good idea to train with the Dragon's Own?? I would like to shoot him in the face."

"Get ready to eat a bullet then, my French friend," Truk said with a chuckle as he continued stretching. "Because that was all you."

"What?? Oh, damn, so it was," Ballan managed between heavy breaths, eyes closed as he sagged against the side of the Wolverine.

"To answer your question, Ford, it's because they eat, sleep, and drink war," a familiar voice rumbled.

Truk looked up with a smile.

"Wolf!" he exclaimed as a certain giant figure stepped out of the shadows, a grin on his face. He straightened up in time to catch the big vampire by the forearm and pull him into a quick comradely embrace. He then stepped back and gave Lash a slap on the shoulder.

"Got tired of driving the bus and decided to sit in the back with us degenerates?" he asked with a grin.

"That's one way to look at it, my friend," Lash said with a chuckle even as he took Fordricht's forearm in greeting, then Ballan's.

"Sometimes I yearn for the days where I was just following orders, not giving them."

"I hear that," Truk replied as Ballan and Fordricht both nodded on understanding.

As Jensen and Kazza staggered up, thoroughly winded, Truk gave them a quick, appraising look before returning his gaze back to the big vampire.

"Now that you've rejoined us the trenches, I sense you're doing it for a greater purpose," the veteran nestari noted.

Lash chuckled again.

"I guess almost two weeks in each others' company 24 hours a day lets you know me a bit, hey?" Then he sobered. "And you'd be right."

The Lord Commander paused to let the rest of the former Van Tallert nestari trickle in before he went on.

"I've reviewed Darktower and Kassidy's attack plan," he began after Absinthe stepped back from her greeting hug to join the rest of the team gathered around Lash.

"And it's sound. But it's also a head-on collision with whatever forces will be defending the Nocturnum."

Lash paused to pull a portable hologram emitter from a pocket. Activating it, he then crouched and set it on the deck. As the rest of his team joined him there, he waved his hand over the emitter and an image of Varos Ejzhaka, the City of the Night appeared.

"Now, as you've all been involved in Qos Viran operations before, I'm sending you in as a Qos Viran team again. So, whatever you were doing with the Dragons, immediately stop."

"Thank the Dark Father," Morel muttered, a sentiment echoed by several of the team.

Smiling at the comment, Lash asked: