Sarabi

While crawling through the tall grass along a ridge overlooking the target's encampment you nearly shit yourself when a Hind flew overhead. Luckily it didn't notice you.

Peering over the ridge you could see it descending into the camp as various hyenas, all female, scattered clear of the landing zone or stood guard. The target sat on a "throne" made of a lawn chair on top of various crates around ten feet back. The door of the Hind opened and a burly looking bear anthro in a Soviet uniform and peaked cap stepped out flanked by guards.

The two of them argued in a quite heated manner before suddenly Big Mama grabbed the bear by the collar and effortlessly lifted him up to the shock of his guards. The entire camp began to laugh loud enough you could hear from your vantage point before she tossed the general into the still-spinning blades of the Hind. The guards dropped their weapons and surrendered immediately as the hyenas lead them away at gunpoint. A group of militia engineers set upon the Hind before it could take off, stripping it for parts in seconds like a pack of pirahnas tearing up fresh meat.

Suddenly you realized you might be in over your head... Just before you felt a paw on the base of your back and the barrel of a gun tap the back of your head!

"Hande omhoog!"

It had been at least a day since you were captured. You couldn't tell for sure since they had tied a sack over your head, but judging by the sounds that you heard you were held overnight. "So pragtig..." Your guard idly commented on your appearance. She was a bit of an outcast judging by how the others treated her, her name was Efi. She stopped idly walking around and approached you nervously, lifting the sack up just enough to expose your mouth. You could barely see her from this, she was mangy-furred but still unfortunately had the thousand yard stare of a soldier... despite being no more than twelve. "Maak jou mond oop." She ordered. Before you could say anything she stuck a spoonfull of something tasty in your mouth, her face awash with bemused endearment.

You had been caught after trying to escape. Brought before Sarabi herself, she lounged and tapped her paw impatiently as the guards explained all the trouble you caused them. "Hmmm..." She leaned close and whispered something in the guard's ear, causing giggling to erupt from both of them. All you managed to make out was something about a princess. The guards took you by both arms and marched you away from the camp towards a field full of warning signs you couldn't read. Were they going to make you run across a minefield? ...No. You soon realized there was a destination for you as you saw the unmistakable shape of an aircraft hangar with some scaffolding built onto the outer wall. "Climb. Jump in." The guards ordered you in broken, accented English with the butt of their rifle knocked against your back providing encouragement.

You ascended the scaffolding and looked back at the guards, who remained stern but seemed eager to be out of there. Before you could say anything one let off a warning shot into the air which awoke whatever was in the hangar. It was big and loud, roaring like a caged beast.

You jumped into the open window which provided the only entrance and light source for the hangar besides the main door, which was locked shut. Inside you could just make out a pair of glowing eyes and the wet dribbling of saliva... "Humie... mine!" Princess was a massive Hyena who dwarfed even Sarabi, evidently so-named because of the plastic tiara delicately balanced atop her head. She wasn't even fully bipedal but instead moved on her knuckles like a gorilla and had a collar made of a whole tire stuck around her bulging neck as her only clothing. It was as she approached that your eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to see her previous "humies", or their skeletal remains, littering the inside of the hangar she was kept in. "You love Princess! LOVE!"

Mealtime. Whether you had accepted your place in her tribe or still resisted you still had to eat, which meant you ate with the family. Around you Hyenas fought over the spread of food on a big table making a huge mess. Sarabi of course shared a table with her officers and ate like a civilized person, a privilege to be earned and another form of control. Her eyes locked with your own and she wordlessly looked at the chaos unfolding mere feet away expectantly, before returning to your gaze. "Eat, kid. You don't wanna go hungry." The other officers noticed the situation and shared a cruel laugh at your plight before saying something in Afrikaans. Sarabi's face lit up at the idea and she gestured you over. "Beg like a dog and you'll get scraps. Do it. Beg." By this point even the grunts and whelps had stopped their wild feast to watch the display of authority and humiliation.

After weeks of conditioning to make you loyal and more than a few visits to the interrogation room you had them fooled into thinking they broke you, and as such they pressed you into service with the other conscripts. You were currently being marched naked through the camp as a drill exercise with other three recruits, some of whom looked more eager than others. All of them were refugee children. "Keep up, Whelp!" Your instructor gave you a kick to the ass when you lagged behind the other trainees. Her name was Sir, as in "Yes Sir". It didn't matter what rank you held in your previous life, what your job was before... Everyone in the Savanna Dogs started as a Whelp. You had to earn everything, be reborn as a warrior by your own merit. Those who made it were rarely ever the same. Those who didn't, well... Only the strong survive. Such was their way. "Form up at the range! Move it!" Sir barked quite literally, pointing towards the sandbags and painted lines opposite a few barrels that served as a firing range. Everyone found a spot and stood at attention as she went over to a shed, unlocking it and digging around. "One, two, three... well shit." She haphazardly tossed out AK-47s in varying states of functionality: Some had stocks, most had their serial numbers filed off. She arranged them into a pile and ordered you all to turn around, pointing to it. "I count four of you and three guns. Time to earn yourself a spot with us!" She took out her sidearm with a deranged smirk and pointed it in the air. You realized what was about to happen when the two kids next to you nodded to each other before looking at you and the remaining Whelp predatorially... It was about to be a big free-for-all over who got to be armed and who was the weakest link. "Go!" She fired into the air with finality and your goal was clear; Get a gun or die.