“There is a reason why adaptability is so highly prized amongst commanders of the modern militaries. The reason is simple. No matter how meticulous you planned things out, no matter how foolproof your strategies are, no matter how well you trained your people to execute those ideas, one truth remains and often reared its ugly head when you least expect it to.

No plan survives contact with the enemy.

Something WILL go wrong and mess up all your carefully plotted out plans, some factor you had either missed or never even considered, maybe something the enemy kept in hiding until the last moment, or maybe some of your well-trained people might just fuck it up at the crucial moment. You’d never know.

That’s why we prize adaptability in commanders, since it’s the adaptable ones who usually managed to turn a fuck up into something salvageable.” - Albert Henry McDouglas, famed commander from the Union Wars, circa 319 FP.

“They’re there as usual, big bro. Usually they stay there till around sunset, so we ought to get things done as planned,” reported Jacob the next day, after another reconnaissance run to make sure their targets would be present. “Our target’s there too, and I don’t see no adults near the area like usual. The brats seem alone.”

“You’re sure it’s the right kid, right?” asked Vincenzo from the side. Jacob had gone on the recon on his own that day, to allay suspicion and to finalize the bribes with their inside man in the city, so that the patrols that passed near the mercenary camp would be sloppy and lazy ones. He was not the most attentive when it comes to recon other than the obvious things, however.

“Definitely her, big bro. I know I’m not that attentive, but you literally can’t miss that girl. Only one there with white spotted fur. Saw some smaller blondes too, but not sure if any of them are our other target,” said Jacob as he defended himself with a huff. “Either way, same as usual, bunch of maybe a dozen and a half to two dozen kids, nothing that looks threatening to our plan.”

“Fine. We’ll proceed as planned, then,” said Edwin with a nod as he addressed the rest of his motley crew. “Neb, Kat, Xev, you three make sure to keep your hoods up. Your faces are scary enough it might well scare off those kids. Ace, you keep things quiet as usual. Vince, you and I are gonna back Jacob, who’ll make the first grab. Once he makes the grab, all of you go all-in.”

“Gotcha,” replied Nebula with a scoff. She had looked lightly on their targets, but then again, she had reason to. They were mere children. What trouble could they cause to the group of adult, experienced kidnappers, even if they weren’t human children? The brawny, somewhat chubby woman was a lay bum, and despite her size, mostly relied on her inborn blood affinity to overpower people, but that ability to do so had helped their group several times in the past.

“Good, let’s get this done and then we can dine on the demi-human fucker’s blood money,” said Edwin with a smirk on his face.

******************************

It was maybe half an hour to sunset by the time Edwin’s ragtag group of scoundrels reached their destination, and their faces lit up when they saw the group of children still playing at being soldiers by the hillside. Much like his fellows had reported, most of the kids looked like they were ten, maybe twelve at most, with nearly half the group being younger kids that included a couple toddlers from the looks of things. This would be an easy enough grab for his group.

The seven of them pretended to discuss things amongst themselves, before they walked towards the hill openly. Vincenzo and Jacob had noticed passing merchants and other travelers chatting up the kids out of curiosity three times in their week of surveillance, so they knew it wouldn’t be seen as odd by anyone for their group to do so as well.

In the distance they could see the tent city where the dependents of the mercenaries lived, and the city walls of Dvergarder further beyond that. Why the mercenaries had not simply lived in the city, he had no idea, but then again, when he counted the number of tents, he thought they probably just wanted to save money, since accommodations for hundreds of people would have cost a pretty penny indeed.

Edwin, Jacob, and Vincenzo had walked ahead of the rest, who to outside eyes might look like a group of travelers who were caring for their odd-looking twitchy member, and put on their best friendly smile while they approached the group of children, many amongst which were swinging sticks and playing pretend at being soldiers, or maybe it was mercenaries, in their case.

When he heard how Jacob put on his best “friendly uncle” look and started chatting up the children nearby - one of them was a young, blonde girl maybe five or six years of age, a probable that might be their secondary target - Edwin couldn’t help but smirk under his hood. Jacob was their best when it came to dealing with children, and he could easily trick them to walk into his hands most of the time.

It was when Jacob moved closer and made his grab for the little girl, that things changed and their plans literally went to the shit hole.

The beast-like girl with white, spotted fur, their primary target, had been somewhat close to where Jacob and the little blonde girl were, and when Jacob moved, so had she. What none of them expected was how fast the girl moved, almost as if she was a white blur in their eyes, and before they realized what happened, the girl had grabbed the young blonde one and took her away from Jacob’s hands.

Then she put a couple bloody, clawed fingers to her lips and whistled loudly.

“Fuck! That little bitch cut me!” cursed Jacob vehemently as he grabbed his right arm with his left. Even as he moved forward - all of them were moving to grab their targets and run by then - Edwin noticed why. There were four parallel cuts on the back of Jacob’s right arm, which bled profusely. It looked almost as if a wild beast had clawed him, but one look at the white-furred girl and the blood that still dripped from the claws at the tip of her fingers spoke of a much different picture.

So their target was capable and willing to resist, in the end. It mattered not, though, as the younger children were already beginning to scream in surprise and some panic, while a couple of the older ones had ran over to the white-furred one’s side. Despite all that, they were just children, so the resistance they could put up wouldn’t matter too much for his group. Nebula already cracked her fists as she charged ahead of the rest, in eagerness to bully those weaker than her, as usual.

It was around then that Edwin caught sight of several bigger figures who ran over from behind the hill, three of them on all fours, and his face paled instantly.

“Oh… shit!”