Bestiarii (Echoes of Pangaea Book 1) by James Tarr
“What was that?” Andy blurted out, still staring at the screen. He couldn’t look away.
O’Malley looked at the screen again. “You mean what species? Who knows if anyone has a complete list of what’s out there.” He squinted. “Hmm. Could be Syntax just from the pack size. I don’t think we have the resolution in this satellite to det—”
“No,” Andy said firmly, “what was that? What attacked those men? Was it a pack of dogs or wolves or something?” He couldn’t imagine what else it could be, from the size of the dots on the screen. They’d been travelling in a pack, but this was too far south for wolves, wasn’t it? And what kind of feral dogs would attack a group of armed men? Twenty-one seemed a huge pack.
The soldier operating the computer looked at O’Malley, and O’Malley in turn looked at Andy. “Don’t they tell you blokes anything before they send you out here?” O’Malley asked in shock. He looked at the other soldier in disbelief. “Unbelievable.”