Team Fortress 2 The Scout Novels & Stories

They knew their Alpha well enough to recognize when his mind was made up. "Alright," Trent said, straightening up. "Team one, I want you loud. Make Marcus think we are coming in with overwhelming force. Fire weapons, howl, make it obvious. But do not actually engage unless you have no choice. Your job is to draw attention, not start a battle." The designated team leader nodded. "Understood." "Team two, you are our eyes. Scout the area, look for traps, count how many rogues Marcus has with him. Feed that information back to me through the pack link. And if you see an opportunity to grab Brandon without a fight, take it."

A young scout stepped forward. He was broad. He looked fast. He had the aura of someone who’d never lost a fight. Perfect. We stepped into a cleared circle. “Don’t go easy,” the seargeant said. “If she bleeds, she bleeds.” The others cheered him on, already convinced this would be a quick show. He circled me with a smirk. “You sure you’re not just a pretty face under that scarf?” I didn’t answer. I’d already sized him up.

“Clara. You should hear the rest.” Two more scouts returned by dusk. Their accounts were variations on the same wound. The boy was tall, but not broad. His wolf-smell carried no wild edges; it was disciplined, measured, terrifying in its precision. One swore he carried a blade at his hip carved from bone, etched with lines that pulsed faint blue when the moonlight touched it. Another claimed he spoke once, only once, to a captive rogue being dragged back by chains: “Tell her I don’t sleep.” The rogue had wept at hearing it.

"Tell me exactly what you saw." The scout's throat bobbed. For a second, he looked like he wanted to run. Then he whispered "I saw Luna Elara." The world stopped. Everything. The wind outside. The distant sounds of the camp. Even my own heartbeat. For one impossible moment, there was nothing. Then I laughed. A cold. Dangerous. Broken laugh. The kind that made warriors step backward. The kind that came from a man standing on the edge of madness. "No." The scout blinked.

The truth sits heavy, like a stone in my gut. If I can’t reach her, someone loyal to Arlo will have to carry a message. Someone who can be persuaded. By coin, by fear, or both. A twig snaps and I drop into a crouch, body melting toward the sound, careful to let the wind keep my scent behind me. Through the underbrush I spot him. A scout in Hollow-black leathers, lanky and young. His hand rests on his dagger like it’s a talisman, not a tool.

The first scout fell for the lie without fault, already turning to head in the direction shown, but his teammate halted him with a firm hand to the shoulder. "I already went East. If the girl's sent was there, I'd kn-" a loud gurgle cut into his phrase, followed by the shock howl of his packmate as the scout fell to the ground, blood oozing from a fresh wound in his neck. "TRAITOR!" Realizing what was happening, the second scout barreled into Zak, sending them both tumbling to the ground. I quickly launched out of my hideout, but Zak was quick to kill his opponent, rising from the short fight with a mere cut beneath this eye.

A seasoned scout standing to Jax's left slowly lowered his tactical rifle, his chest heaving as his hands physically shook against the metal stock. "But sir... I don't know if I can," the scout stammered, his voice tight with a deep, instinctual panic that overrode his training. He was asking a wolf to fire on the face of his own Alpha. "I mean... they look just like you and Jax. And..." The scout swallowed hard, looking physically ill as his trembling finger pointed deeper into the shadowed cavern.

“Kai is my lover, and the two alphas are mates. It’s… complicated, but I’d be very thankful.” The scout’s eyebrows shoot up as she hears Dereck. She then considers me and Kai once more before shaking her head in disbelief and then replies, “then I’ll request enough for everyone. I never thought two alphas could be mates, but you were one to befriend the oddest of people all the time, so I’m not surprised.” At last, the scout stops just outside a pair of large doors. She gives it a knock and then, with a loud voice, she says, “the alphas and Dereck are here now.”

Some kind of fluid sprayed out, dark and oily and wrong. It stumbled. For just a second, maybe less, it was off-balance, its perfect calculations disrupted by unexpected damage. I drove my dagger into its eye socket, the blade sinking deep into whatever served as its brain. The scout shrieked—a sound that was more electronic feedback than organic scream, like speakers blowing out and metal grinding and something breaking at the fundamental level. It staggered back, clawing at its face with jerky, uncoordinated movements. "WEAK POINT IDENTIFIED!" another scout announced, its voice cutting through the chaos. "OCULAR SENSORS VULNERABLE. ADJUSTING COMBAT PROTOCOLS. SHARING TACTICAL DATA."

She peeked her head up to look at them through the door window, confirming they were the two from earlier. One was a Scout breed, bred by the Aliane to track anything no mater how old the sent was. Once they picked up on the trail the only ways to get them off it was either to start a fire around the area or to shoot them. The other was a Hunter breed. Hunter breeds are stronger than the Scout breed, so they were often paired up. The Scout would track the target while the Hunter would chase it down. The third breed type is Soldier; a K9 bred to be large and strong, used almost exclusivly during raids and battles.