The eastern wing of Factory Alpha was a cold, damp gallery of iron cages suspended six feet above a concrete drainage pit. The air here was foul with the sharp ammonia stench of animal urine, unwashed fur, and the metal tang of dried blood. Water dripped steadily from rusted iron steam pipes overhead. That created a miserable, hollow rhythm that echoed against the damp walls.
Inside forty-two single narrow cages lay the Siege Mastiffs.
They were huge animals, each weighing nearly three hundred pounds, bred from ancient Tibetan Mountain Hounds crossed with Iron-Clad Dire Wolves. Their naturally thick, shaggy gray coats were matted with mud and engine grease. Bolted around the chest of each animal was a heavy harness of overlapping steel scales that dug cruelly into their shoulder blades, causing deep ulcerations along the chest muscle muscles. Even worse were the collars around their throats. Three-inch-wide brass bands fitted with external battery charge banks and four sharp silver probes driven directly through the skin into the neck spine.
Whenever one of the dogs tried to whine, bark, or shift position, the collar discharged a rhythmic pulse of two hundred volts. It sent violent muscular tremors coursing through their limbs.
