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An excerpt from an article in a popular Federal Republic Military Science Journal regarding Battle Howls

War strategists have long planned the day Lupine and Leonian forces might clash in open conflict. One of the greater hurdles discovered early on was the lack of secure encryption methodology. The development of Lupine, Leonian and Ottarian tech stems from a common source, Precursor relics. Aside from variances in language and biological factors, the base coding methodologies is identical. Without a leap in encryption methods, any aggressive attempts to hack and decode messages would be met with flimsy resistance. Spacecraft can use laser-focused beaming methods to send messages directly between vessels and ground installations, however breaches in communication between individual ground units is still open to interception. Vital strike groups could have their positions and objectives compromised by using electronic communication, therefore the solution had to be neither electronic nor of Precursor origin.

The ancient battle calls of the Divine Imperium, Howls, were vocalizations of oscillating pitch that could relay complex messages over the span of several kilometers. The variances in pitch of a particular howl worked as a coded message. While the message was used in ancient times to give basic signals, to sound alarm, or in some instances to hold a brief conversation over extended distance; the basic idea has since been adapted to a military shorthand. A unit commander can order a unit under fire to flank the enemy, verbally, and be heard over the noise of a battle. Tracking Units can relay the position of a target being pursued to narrow their perimeter and corner the quarry.

The greatest advantage Howls have over normal speech is in the fact Leonians and Ottarians are incapable of understanding them. Due to whatever biological quirks of the original species the Precursors built the Lupis out of, Howling is an intuitive code. Attempts to use computer amplification to hear what Felid and Mustelid ears could not met consistent failure. Pitch variance cannot be translated without a baseline; the change in a measurement is useless since every individual Lupis produced different vocalizations. A voice identification is often more accurate than facial recognition. The requirement of knowing who the howler was, having a sufficient voice sample on file, the howlers location and all the environmental details to account for sound dispersal, applying this baseline to the pitch shift, translating to something that can be written intelligibly, THEN interpreting the coded words, foreign slang or parlance; ultimately to learn that the Howler said "whoever gets the fewest kills buy the drinks" or something else absurdly begin proved to Leonian officers to be a vast waste of military funding. If Leonians had this sort of information when engaging a Lupine ground unit, they might as well have an officer in Republic Military Ops helping write the battle strategy.

Meanwhile Lupis could intuitively translate any howl from any speaker. A mere five tones are used as markers, shifts in pitch up or down from specific tone markers translated to letters and then on to full cohesive sentences across the whole howl. A middle, high, very high, low, very low scale is again all relative to the individual howling and the nature of sound over distance itself. Modern Lupine scientist can only speculate that their own brains compensate for most of the info a computer would require, bypassing the need for it thanks to eons of evolution prior to being altered by the Precursors. Research into the genetic attributes of the known races prior to the Precursors alterations show Lupis and Ra'kal have common heritage, these Canid siblings however lack the biological intuition Lupis have. Ra'kal can hear the correct spectrum, but aren't able to translate without rigorous training, suggesting that Howls are unique to Lupis and their pre-ascension ancestors. Regardless of natural origin, Precursor intended biological advantages, or a combination of unpredictable factors (even to the mighty Precursors), Lupis can communicate in a way totally alien to potential enemies.