This is the prologue for a book I'm hoping to publish someday. It's the story of a post-apocalyptic Earth where the humans are long gone and the animals took over. There's a war going on between the United Animals of New Earth and an invading engineered species called the Cynids.

Prologue
Zooty the ferret could feel the cold sweat on his furry forehead, but it wasn’t hot, he was frozen with fear. He morbidly stared into the gas mask of his captor, feeling those artificial red eyes freeze him in place. The creature was a Hack, one of the engineered species of the Cynid Conclave bred for war and who had invaded a few hundred years ago to farm its inhabitants. He could hear the Hack’s electronically distorted voice yelling loudly into his ear about his fate, but he didn’t understand why they bothered to explain since everybody knew that once you were taken prisoner your days were numbered. Zooty knew what happened in those prison sectors nestled deep in the Cynid's enormous Nexus Cities. They would be euthanized and ground up in the sickly organic paste that the invaders used for food, or worse skinned and hung in meat lockers. The outside city sectors of Haven City IV hadn't stood a chance against the hundreds of Prowler tanks, flyers, and legions of Cynid troop castes. Hours upon hours of shelling, gunshots, and explosives had smashed the city to rubble. The city's defenders had put up a valiant defence but the Cynids never slept, all they cared about was their insatiable hunger for war and violence. Zooty had been told they wasted no time in the initial assault, pummeling Earth's surface with drop pods by the thousands from ships still burning with reentry heat. Being just kits, still in conditioning, Zooty and his friends were hidden away as best as they could, but no one could escape the Cynids for long. The Hacks said nothing as they dragged the kits from the hidden nursery sector into the snow. Zooty didn’t resist as they took him and his friends away, he just hung his head, knowing his life was over. Deep down he was terrified, although he didn’t show it. He felt like he was burning up beneath his fur and his chest thudded painfully, a sick feeling of anger and fear swirling wildly in his stomach. It was always snowing on New Earth, thanks to the fallout the previous caretakers had left behind when they destroyed themselves in a nuclear war. The insidious radiation had been a catalyst for his species’ impossibly rapid evolution from simple animals to brilliantly minded human-sized creatures that could stand on two legs. They built their society and technology from the mess the humans left behind, learning from their mistakes as they went.
Beside Zooty were his closest friends, all who he had met through the artificial conditioning program he was brought up with. Among them was Firro (a talented fox psychic), and his mutual partner Tek (a brilliantly minded long-haired skunk). Tek was trying her best to get Firro to stop whining uncontrollably. Zooty looked up as the Hack spoke. “As per the Cynid War Dictum section three hundred and fifty three. Kits and non military individuals are sentenced to immediate imprisonment,” the Hack concluded, affirming Zooty’s fears. Behind his captor he could see the Hacks readying their arc-rifles (automatic rifles with electrically charged bullets) with stun rounds in case anyone tried to escape. The ferret scoffed at the importance the Cynids placed on their ‘War Dictum’, they had set the ‘non-negotiable’ agreements themselves, believing it justified their brutality. In combat, they showed no mercy or expected it.

“Anytime you’re ready Reiko,” Zooty muttered, risking a look at the one of the wrecked towers behind him. He saw exactly what he wanted to see and smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” The Hack hissed.

“You’re screwed,” Zooty said with a grin. The Hack was about to give him a whack on the mouth before an inch thick radioactive bullet suddenly burst through his armored skull, knocking him senseless. The shot had come from Reiko’s Gauss Rifle, the raccoon leader of their little group.
No one hesitated, the hundreds of young ferrets, raccoons, squirrels, skunks, wolves, and foxes turned and bolted. “Get them!” The enraged Hack screamed as it regained consciousness. Zooty felt his senses heighten so much he could hear the Hacks in unison flick off the safeties of their rifles with an ominous click. He anticipated the moment the first shots rang out and dived into the snow. Electrically charged stun bullets screamed overhead, the two squirrels beside him yelped as they were hit in the back of the head and fell senseless. Zooty scrambled to his feet, leapt over their dazed bodies and ducked his head just in time to hear the shots whizz past his ears a second time. In seconds the snow was littered with the bodies of his friends and the Hacks Reiko managed to pick off. The Hacks began their pursuit, chasing the groups who fled into alleyways, houses, factories, shouting as they went. To the Hacks, this was just a lethal game of hide-and-seek. Zooty soon found an abandoned garage that had been disused for years. The war factory division hadn’t had time to demolish or reequip it, and now they never would. He squeezed under the wrecked door and tried as hard as he could to still his thudding heart. He tried telling himself everything was going to be all right, that he wasn’t going to be put into a prison city and ground into paste or skinned, that he still had a long life ahead of himself, but deep down he knew it was hopeless. What could a mere kit do!? Then he thought about his friends and started to panic, oh God where were they!? With a stroke of luck he heard voices and the patter of paws outside. “I saw Zooty run past here!” he heard Reiko say, “Zooty where are you!? Then, "Look out!” Zooty peered through a hole in the garage door. He saw his friends scamper into an alley pursued by a Therian {a Hack extensively upgraded with special equipment after proving itself in battle}. It was carrying an Ion-Shot (an enormous revolver chambered shotgun that fired electrically charged pellets) packed with Riot-Shells. Dammit, now Zooty would have to try to save them! “Come on out!” The Therian hissed as it knocked aside the waste dispersion units, “we can talk this out, there’s no one else here, I can get you animals out.” “Really?” A squirrel who had followed their group asked, poking her head out of hiding. “No,” the Therian said flatly, and without any hesitation whatsoever he pulled the trigger. The squirrel squealed as a riot shell bounced off her exposed head, knocking her senseless. “Stupid animal,” it hissed as it pumped the slide of the Ion Shot and loaded another Riot Shell. It didn’t notice Zooty slink down the alley, carefully stepping over the electric shell casing as he went. “Give it up, you animals are doomed,” the Therian said, their fear wafting through its scent receptors. “You’re doomed,” Zooty hissed with a bitter smile, the Therian had no idea the ferret had snuck up behind him and pulled the Arc-Rifle out of its side-arm pack. Zooty pumped the rifle’s Rail-Gun secondary fire slide. The Cynid didn’t even get to turn around before the magnetically accelerated slug burst through its skull. No one moved or spoke as the Cynid collapsed headless into the snow, only seasoned soldiers could take on a Therian by themselves, Zooty was just a kit. Wordlessly, the ferret searched the body. Clipping the grenades and passing Tek the Ion Shot.
“Come on guys, we’re getting outta here.” He said. It was his first kill, and he’d never forget it.