"Deep inside a top-secret U.S. Air Force research facility, a revolution in cybernetics is taking shape. Using ordinary domestic animals for their test subjects, the scientists of Project AWE have created a new class of cyborgs--flesh-and-metal creatures designed to rule the battlefields of tomorrow. The project's crowning achievement is a trio of prototypes code-named WE3: each one custom-built and trained to work as specialists within a team. With their nervous systems enhanced and supplemented by cutting-edge military hardware, WE3 are the ultimate smart weapons--programmable yet autonomous, loyal yet utterly ruthless. But successful as they are, WE3 are still only prototypes, to be dismantled when their testing is complete. Inside their fearsome mechanical shells, however, are three lost pets whose amplified traits include the will to survive"--