Decay. Rot and decay. Those were the first things Sixclaw smelt whe she stepped foot off the craft. She forked over a bit of cash to the driver as the rest of the squad stepped off. Even a mile off from the city, the odor was overwhelming. Shrouded by a cloud of smog, the true shape of the city was obscured. Sixclaw's eyes watered and she coughed. "Oh shit."
"Yeah, you get used to the smog eventually." said the garbled voice in her ear.
"I'm not sure I want to get used to it." replied Sixclaw.
"Shit, I should have thought of that. Uh, maybe just try to breathe less?"
She sighed. "Better get out of here quick, before this smog makes us sick. Where to from here?"
One-Eye laughed over the comms. "Where the fuck else? Further in."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Unknown was sitting on a chair on his balcony when the news came through. Newcomers to the Utopia. "Send them a welcome party before the scavengers get to them." said the weasel. "Damnable scavengers, after all this time, they're still around."
"But at least the main routes in are safer now. We made sure of that." said a voice behind Unknown.
Unknown smiled and scratched the scar on his neck. "Yes we did."
"Well, newcomers don't come often. Double up the patrol, make sure they're armed." said Unknown. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The ground crunched under Sixclaw's paws as her team walked to the city outskirts. Suddenly, a loud screeching whine cut through the air. "What was that," asked Deyna.
"Fucking Pseudogs." said the voice from Sixclaw's earpiece. "Hide and don't make a sound. They can't see well."
"Hide and stay quiet." whispered Sixclaw, pressing herself into a small crevice in the nearest trash pile. The rest of the squad sought refuge in similar positions, where they waited.
She could smell it long before it was visible. A stench of rotting flesh, recognizable through memories impressed deep in the minds of everybeast there. Sixclaw's eyes went wide as it crested the hill. That's not a fucking dog, She thought. Paws that were flat and wide, almost circular, leading up to a short body with long legs. The head was similar to that of a horse, except the eyes. The eyes were situated in the front of the head, and they were large and bulging. It let out a bark of pain as it slithered down the trash heap, leaving dark brown fur caught on sharp edges. It's back legs were broken and dragged behind the awful beast, giving the back part an almost snake-like appearance, if not for the long front legs propping up the monstrosity. Sixclaw thanked her lucky stars that the eyes were blind, for everybeast there would be dead if they were not so.
It stopped in the middle of the clearing, and began to eat some strange gray foam out of the trash, showing three rows of small, sharp teeth. A small shift in a pile of rubble revealed the location of a soldier. The Pseudog promptly turned and lunged towards the hapless Skullian, dead eyes flickering through the smog. A scream rang out.
"Shoot it!" yelled Sixclaw, drawing her pistol and firing. Gunshots echoed as the Pseudog reared up, the Skullian still dangling from its maw. More red blotches appeared on its body as the rest of the Hitman Team came out of the garbage heaps and engaged the Pseudog with their pistols.
Gunshots seemed to have little effect on the beast as it lunged directly at Deyna. The otter drew a longsword and jammed it into the Pseudog's chest. Deyna pushed the creature onto its back and sawed vertically down the chest as it flailed at the warrior. A lucky shot from the Pseudog managed to push off the otter, enabling it to turn the tables and jump onto Deyna, snapping its jaws at his throat as he held it off. Sixclaw pulled a stripper clip from her pouch and loaded her gun with record-breaking speed before putting the barrel to the back of the pseudog's head.
The cat pulled the trigger until there were no more rounds in the clip and the clicking of the trigger was audible.
As deyna pushed the dying Pseudog off of him, One-Eye's voice crackled in Sixclaw's ear.
"You... Killed a Pseudog." said the wildcat. "That's quite the feat. Get out of there quick, they know when one of them dies."
As if right on cue, wailing came from the dunes. "Fucking run!" yelled Sixclaw, turning towards the city and sprinting. The rest of the team, along with Deyna, followed. As they left, the body of the dead Skullian seemed to blend into the trash, forgotten.
A/N
The design of the Pseudogs is based on a creature described to me by an associate from the UK. He called it the Roadrunner, but I decided to call it a Pseudog to pay homage to the S.T.A.L.K.E.R series.