The beasts came out of the granary elevator in a rush of chitin, pale fur, and loose grain. They were shaped like long-backed hounds, but their mouths were built for sacks rather than flesh, wide enough to swallow a full armful of wheat with one bite.
The first one landed on a spilled pallet and tore through the treated grain. Blue marks spread along its throat as it ate, and a cloud of fine black dust lifted from the husks around its teeth.
"Do not kill them near the stores," Emilia said through the relay. "That dust is a spore release. If it settles in the grain, the whole granary goes bad."
Kendra pulled the nearest driver back from the open silo door. "Then we move the beasts away from the stores," she said. "Nobody shoots unless it reaches a person."
The convoy's stalled trucks had become cover around the public silos. Drivers stayed inside the cabs while Kendra's vanguard used the linked vehicles to create narrow lanes that led away from the granary doors.
