The enforcers exploded forward in a storm of muscle and fangs, sweeping down towards her. Jett spun away and darted into the jungle of the core room, surrounded by the looming stacks on all sides, her ears filled with a muddy whirl of electronic humming and tersely snarled orders. Hunching her shoulders and staying low, she deliberately followed the circular loop of the room, steering away from the data core as she led the wolfkin on.

She could pick out the footfalls through the crackle of electrics telling her that at least three wolfkin were moving nearby, trying to corral her.

Slowing her breathing, Jett focused. Running blindly through the maze with the enforcers chasing would not buy the time that she needed. Slinking into the shadows, she concentrated on regulating her breathing, doing her best to quiet her steps and blend into the background noise of the room.

Evidently her pursuers had the same idea. Try as she might, Jett could no longer hear the enforcers moving around her, and the overpowering combination of the chemical coolant and hot electrics made it impossible to smell them too. The blind were hunting the blind.

Knife clutched tightly, she slipped from stack to stack, staying in the shadows, sharp eyes watching all directions for any glimpse of movement. More than a minute ticked by as the game of shadows played out. Tension clawed at her, and she became sure that the wolfkin were simply toying with her, watching and waiting.

Then a yowl of pain suddenly pierced the background hum of the room and she froze, her body going ramrod stiff, ears pricking up as she listened out for more. The clatter of claws and low growled orders was just discernable, fading away into the gloom. Evidently Rapid had made his presence known to the wolfkin.

Steeling herself, Jett started moving again, creeping her way forward with aching slowness. Slipping from behind another row of stacks she glanced down one of the narrow paths and spotted the sinewy, dark form of an enforcer facing away from her, his head raised, sniffing left and right as he hunted for a scent.

Time to hunt the hunters.

Moving as quickly as she dared, Jett approached the enforcer, hoping and praying she could reach him before he turned. Step by step she drew within range, and just as he started to rotate she lunged.

In the dark he didn't see her in time. Jett dove low and fast, sweeping under the reactive swing of his baton. Having no intention of standing and fighting the enforcer, she tumbled by and slashed her knife at the back of his leg. The blade cut through the heavy fabric of the enforcer's uniform and gouged the flesh beneath. Jett rolled clear as the wolfkin growled in pain, trying to spin and follow her, but the deep cut had slashed his hamstring, leaving him to collapse to one knee.

Jett twisted to her feet and dove behind the nearest stack as the enforcer tried to snap off a quick armbow shot, but the bolt hissed wide, thudding into one of the processors in a shower of sparks.

She didn't wait around. Even as the enforcer hollered for back up she was sprinting deeper into the darkness, knowing that with his wound he'd never be able to chase her down. Twisting and turning she tried to keep her bearings in spite of the adrenaline pounding through her veins. Something growled to her left and she jinked away from it, instinct vying against her rational mind as the came of cat and mouse continued.

The glint of the metal claws flashed in the corner of her eye and Jett dropped, only just avoiding a vicious blow that would have torn her face open. Hera's strike instead ripped through one of the coolant stacks, the sharp blades parting the ceramic casing as easily as the air.

Jett scampered backwards as Hera's full form appeared in the narrow space between stacks, advancing with wrath in her eyes. Great sweeps of her clawed gauntlet threatened to open Jett up, spinning through wires and circuitry without care, some kind of insulation on the glove itself preventing any of the current in the room passing through those claws to shock the wolfkin.

The time for goading was long past. The only sound that came from Hera's jaws were frustrated snarls each time Jett ducked or twisted away from a killing blow. It took every scrap of courage she possessed not to just turn tail and run as the furious enforcer advanced, bloodlust driving every step. Knowing she needed to keep the wolfkin distracted, Jett waited for an opportunity.

Hera lunged, aiming a diagonal downward slash that would have carved Jett open from shoulder to hip. She judged her leap as close as she could, not wanting to leave any room for Hera to react as she tried to clear those lethal claws. With inches to spare she cleared the swipe, catching the top of the nearest processing stack with her claws. She curled up with gritted teeth and lashed out with both footpaws.

She connected hard with Hera's chest as the wolfkin contorted her body in an attempt to follow her movement, trying to swing her claws again. Both paws thumped her attacker in the chest plate, sending Hera stumbling backward, but even off balance she managed to rake her claws along Jett's right leg.

A yelp of pain slipped from Jett's mouth as she scrambled her way up onto the top of the stack, stooping to fit her slight frame into the gap between the machines and the ceiling. She felt the warmth of blood trickling down her leg and glanced down to see four ugly gashes in her lower thigh.

Luckily it had been a glancing blow; it hurt but the cuts were skin deep. Shuddering with relief Jett bounded off, skipping across the tops of the stacks and leaving a cursing Hera in her wake.

Moving virtually on all fours, she skipped from stack to stack as fast as she could, her paws scrabbling for purchase against the smooth tops of the machines. She knew she'd be difficult to track properly from the ground level – each stack stood at least nine feet tall and in the forest-like arrangement they would hamper the wolfkin visibility.

Or so she thought.

Backtracking the way she came, she made it maybe fifty yards before the dark form of a wolfkin suddenly emerged from a gap in the stacks to her right. She tried to screw her body away from the outstretched stun-baton but the crackling top caught her square in the flank.

Jett shrieked as painful energies jolted her body. She lost her purchase, her momentum sending her crashing head over heels, straight into one of the stacks ahead of her. She crunched shoulder first into the sturdy casing and tumbled to the ground, dazed from the impact, her limbs twitching violently from the residual jolts of energy.

Grinding her teeth together with the effort, she struggled to all fours only to find herself staring at the large footpaws of the wolfkin who'd surprised her. With her gut churning sickeningly, she looked up. The enforcer glared down at her, as though he'd just cornered a particularly persistent cockroach.

Jett recoiled fearfully as the wolfkin raised his armbow, fear overwhelming her as she stared certain death in the face.

Then a huge form came bulldozing out of the dark with a roar and slammed into the enforcer, lifting the wolfkin off his feet as he fired, leaving the bolt to thud harmlessly into the stack above her head. The newcomer ploughed forward, crushing him against the nearest processing tower with punishing force. Bolted to the ground, the machine held, but a storm of blue sparks snarled and hissed from the impact point. The wolfkin howled as the current jolted him, before a heavy truncheon smashed his jaw into a ruin of blood and broken teeth. He dropped in a limp heap.

Jett blinked in amazement as her rescuer turned around, extending a paw to help her up.

"Bronco?!" she exclaimed. "How did you...? Did it work?"

"Oh, it worked. Your friend Karno really knows how to make a mess – you're quite the pair."

"Where is he?"

"In here somewhere. We spilt up to look for you." Bronco glanced around before returning his attention to her. "You okay?"

"I am for now. What about Gallant?"

"She's getting the kin we released out of this death trap.." He paused to deliver a thunderous kick to the head of the groaning wolfkin, knocking him out cold. "Is Rapid...?"

"He's causing trouble around here somewhere." She pointed towards the centre of the room. "I've got a download running from the data core now. I'm taking as much as I can out of this place. All the secrets this place is hiding. But we still have to stall the wolfkin for a couple of minutes until it's finished and we can get out of here."

He nodded. "We can do that. Come on."

Shaking her limbs to clear away the cobwebs of the electric shock, she followed Bronco's towering form gratefully as they began to make their way back towards the centre of the room. He didn't leave much room in the narrow corridors of space, almost turning sideways to move quickly. Jett limped along in his wake, the pain of the gashes in her leg beginning to make itself known.

A series of growls and crashes sounded ahead of them. Despite the lingering numbness in her limbs, Jett tensed and raised her knife as Bronco crouched lower, slinking forward and drawing his truncheon back to swing.

They rounded the row of stacks to find Karno and Rapid brawling with three of the remaining enforcers, the albino foxkin lashing left and right with his axe to hold the attention of two of them while Karno rolled around on the floor with the other, jaws locked and claws raking at one and other.

Jett started forward but Bronco caught her arm, shoving her away in the direction of the data core.

"Go, get the files and get out," he hissed into her ear. "We'll keep them busy."

Before she could argue he threw himself into the fray. One of the enforcers trying to deal with Rapid spotted the new threat and launched himself at Bronco with a bark of warning to his comrades, jamming his stun-baton against the haft of Bronco's truncheon. The pair jostled for position in a drunken dance, and Jett knew she had to take the chance she'd been given.

Every bone in her body wanted to help her comrades, but instead she turned away and started running.

The pain flared in her leg as she forced herself to put weight on it, knowing she couldn't waist a single precious second. It wouldn't be long now before the download was completed. They just needed to keep the wolfkin away from it.

She cleared the stacks again, the sphere of the data core rearing its glimmering head in the dimness of the emergency lights. Jett quickly skirted the platform and scuttled across the gangway, heart blasting in her chest at the thought of just how close she was to the end of...all of it. Skidding unsteadily to a halt beside the monitor she'd hooked into, her eyes locked onto the percentage bar of the download.

Ninety-eight percent completed.

There couldn't be more than a minute left on the download now. Her claws flexed anxiously as she watched the white block creeping its way those final few millimetres.

"C'mon, c'mon," she murmured, shaking her head in frustration. With the fur on the back of her neck prickling she chanced a look back over her shoulder.

Jett quickly wished she hadn't. Loping through the eerie blue lighting of the core room was Hera, her metal-clawed gauntlet dark with blood. The lithe-framed wolfkin leader lowered her head, a deep, threatening growl reverberating in Jett's ears. She turned to face Hera, glancing at the download bar.

Ninety-nine percent.

Jett stepped out onto the walkway to bar the wolfkin's path, drawing herself up to her full height and meeting the enforcer's gaze. She'd been close to death a lot of times in the last few weeks – this wasn't any different. Hera took a step forward.

"Hey, bitch!" screamed a voice.

Hera whirled around and Jett's gaze snapped to where it had come from.

Out of the stacks came Rapid, the albino's fur spattered with blood, his long coat discarded to reveal his lean, scarred torso. He stalked towards the wolfkin, his axe twirling murderously in one paw.

"We got scores to settle, you and me," Rapid spat.

Hera didn't reply, sinking down into an aggressive posture, ready to throw herself at this new threat. Her claws clashed together once, then she attacked. At that moment the monitor bleeped politely and Jett spun away from the confrontation.

The download was finished.

Jett leapt over to the monitor, double checking every file had transferred error free before unhooking the block-drive from the jack-port. Holding it reverently, she eased it into the padded protection of her rucksack, making sure it was secure and strapped in place. She couldn't afford to have this one broken.

Turning back, her eyes widened as she watched Rapid and Hera engaged in a dance of death at the far end of the walkway. They circled viciously, each trying to gain position over the other, their weapons questing for blood as they moved. The calculated savagery of enforcer training was pitted against Rapid's years of experience brawling in the underbelly of Wildhearth.

But this was no contest of chivalric combat. The encounter was short and brutal, over before Jett could take more than a couple of steps out onto the walkway.

Rapid lunged, his axe swiping for Hera's flank. The enforcer hopped back, letting the blade whistle by, a hairsbreadth from crushing into her torso. She lashed at his face with her claws; Rapid jerked his head back, avoiding a slash that would have opened his throat. They crashed together, limbs tangling and jaws snapping at one and other. Rapid jammed his axe haft against Hera's wrist as she tried to bring her claws around to carve him open, then shot an elbow backwards, cracking her in the jaw as she lowered her head for a bite.

Hera grunted in pain, but was already another step ahead, her free paw catching Rapid by the scruff of his neck, digging deep enough to draw blood before she heaved him backwards, sending the foxkin into an awkward stumble. He lashed out with a wild swing to keep her at bay. Hera neatly backstepped into a crouch, letting the axe head carve harmlessly through the air.

Then she charged, powerful hind-legs launching her at the foxkin. Standing considerably taller, Hera slammed into Rapid with shocking force, throwing her free paw up to block the reverse swing of his axe, and plunging her bladed gauntlet into his gut.

"NO!" Jett blurted helplessly as Hera bulled Rapid against the guard rail, her metal claws buried deep in the foxkin's stomach. Snarling, the enforcer twisted away from the rail lifting Rapid bodily and slamming him onto the ground flat on his back, her claws digging a trench in his torso. Rapid gurgled and coughed, his axe clattering away and vanishing over the edge of the platform.

But the foxkin gang leader had one last surge of bloody-minded rage left in him. As Hera started to pull away he let out a feral scream and jerked his head up, clamping his jaws shut around the side of her neck, all four of his limbs scratching and clawing at Hera's body, gouging into the fissures in her armour. He shook his head from side to side, his jaws snapping shut over and over as he gouged chunks of fur and flesh from Hera's body.

The wolfkin hissed in pain, trying to pull herself away, but Rapid clung on with the last seconds of his life, ripping and tearing at his hated foe with a ferocity Jett had never seen. With a violent wrench of her clawed gauntlet, Hera virtually tore her attacker in half, ripping Rapid's lower body open in a spray of gore. At last that final burst of savage energy fled and Rapid's jaws sagged open. His corpse thumped wetly to the metal plating of the room. Hera staggered away, snarling with anger and pain, clutching at the deep wounds in her shoulder and neck.

Then her murderous gaze turned on Jett.