Survivors, Monsters and Murderers

by jetangel02

Night Raid and the Jaegers are prepared to battle each other to the death. But are either of them ready to stand against one of the galaxy's deadliest species? Their best hope lies with a group of survivors from beyond the stars. War is inevitable and death is certain. Courage and trust are their best weapons against the Xenomorph plague. Rated M for language, violence and gore.

4. Chapter 3

To All Readers: I wanted this chapter done by Halloween, but the contents are just too long. So, I've decided to spilt it into two chapters. Tell me what you all think. Again all feedback will be appreciated, so don't be shy just speak your thoughts. This is the Internet, so take advantage and give your opinions.

Disclaimer : I do not own any of the Aliens and Akame ga Kill! Franchises. Those belong to their respective owners.

Chapter 3 : Hostile

Headquarters of the Revolutionary Army, South of the Empire

Mine was having a nightmare.

("She sees Sheele, standing there with a bullet in her back and helplessly stunned. In the distance was Seryu, her face horrifyingly warped and murderously demented with the smoking barrel of a hidden gun protruding from her mouth. Sheele looks beside her, just in time to see the massive tail blade of the Alien Queen impale into her and bring her towards its gaping mouth. Sheele calls out to Mine and tells her to run away, just before the Queen's secondary mouth shoots out and tears her in half…")

Mine opens her eyes and gasps in rapid unsteady breaths. In front of her, was Tatsumi holding her by the shoulders and trying to shake her awake "Mine! Wake up! We've arrived at HQ." the pink haired sharpshooter looked at Tatsumi and shoved him away, she looked down and sees herself covered in his white jacket. She picks it up and threw it at the green eyed fighter. Everyone aboard the Air Manta, stares at her with concern. All except Leone, who was still asleep and was being shaken and kicked awake by Akame and Lubbock.

"Are you alright, Mine? You were mumbling and tossing in your sleep. Was it bad dreams?" asked Tatsumi

Mine frowns and gets up "It's none of your business." she answers and Tatsumi makes a hurt expression.

Ripley had her arms crossed, as she observes the genius sniper's prickly nature. The former Warrant Officer places a compassionate hand on Tatsumi's shoulder "Don't let it get to you, kid. Not everyone stays bitter all the time." The new member of Night Raid starts to feel better and gives Ripley an appreciative grin.

The Air Manta, descends towards a wide open space within the center of the Revolutionary Army's Main Base. Ripley looks around her and sees a multitude of rebel personnel wearing suit jackets, ties and round helmets, going about the base with purpose and diligence. Some were marching in formation, others were running back and forth delivering paperwork and messages. Most were too busy and focused on their work, to look up at the arrival of Night Raid.

From among them, a woman with long hair and large bangs held up by a headband and a giant pair of scissors strapped across her back, walked up towards the Air Manta and addresses Najenda with a salute "Commander Najenda. It's good to see you and Night Raid back from your mission."

Najenda returns the salute and speaks "Get a hold of High Command. Tell them, Night Raid completed the assignment and have brought back guests and urgent news."

The female soldier dons a look of concern, and eyes Ripley and Newt suspiciously. Then, she nods dutifully and says "We've set a barracks aside for you all to rest and refresh yourselves" she points to a small building with a banner of an owl in front of a full moon insignia, hanging next to the front door "we'll send for you, once High Command has assembled for the briefing." The female soldier makes another salute, and ran towards a large building with a banner of a black cross hanging over the entrance. Back at the Air Manta, Newt noticed Mine was staring longingly at the female soldier's giant scissor weapon.

Najenda turns to her subordinates "All right everyone, disembark. Get settled in at the barracks and stand by for our next assignment." She looks at Ripley "You and Newt, come with me. There's someone I'd like for you to see before the meeting." Ripley and Newt follow Night Raid's leader, while the other members began unloading their supplies, the Marine equipment boxes, and a still sleeping Leone towards their quarters.

"Incredible! You two may be extraterrestrials, but from what I can tell, you both are very much the same as us." Said the Doctor with a pair of thick gloves, as he pressed his stethoscope against Newt's back and measures her breathing and heart rate. Next to them was Ripley putting her jacket back on after her examination, and Najenda with her arms crossed patiently waiting for the Doctor to finish examining Newt.

Najenda sighs "Doctor, could you please hurry up? There'll be more time to study our visitors. All I ask for you to do, is quickly determine whether Ripley or Newt carry any harmful diseases. Be it viral, bacterial, or parasitic…" she eyes Ripley cautiously, who looks at the Doctor with a worried expression.

The Doctor removes his stethoscope from Newt's back, sits back in his chair, and lights a cigarette "Thanks to my Imperial Arm, Perfector, I was able to perform fast and accurate checkups on these two." He picks up a sheet of paper containing notes and reads it "To the best of my knowledge, they don't seem to carry any diseases, pathogens, or parasites."

Ripley breaths a sigh of relief, as the Doctor continues "Although, you should be aware that the girl here is slightly malnourished" he points to Newt "And the woman is sleep deprived" he points at Ripley "I recommend a steady diet of simple soups and stew for the girl, until her stomach grows strong enough to process normal food. And for you Ripley, a strict schedule of at least 8 hours of sleep. Also, this isn't that serious but you both should know that your molecular density is slightly lower than that of the average person in this world. It means your bodies are "softer" than compared to myself or Commander Najenda here. So you both should take care when applying yourselves to any rigorous activities."

Ripley shrugs "That comes as no surprise. I was born on a moon that orbits my original world, very similar to the red one that's up above your night's sky. And Newt was born on another moon in a star system, thousands of light years away. Both moons have a slightly weaker gravity than that of Earth and this planet."

Before the Doctor can voice his astonishment, Najenda cuts in and grabs Ripley and Newt by the hand "Thanks for the help, Doctor. But, we really need to go get ready for the meeting. You'll receive a full briefing report of their story, when the meeting finishes." She rushes her charges out of the infirmary.

"Welcome back. How'd it go?" asked Tatsumi when Najenda, Ripley and Newt entered the barrack. His leader looks at him and answers "Well, these two aren't carrying a risk of contagion at the very least. Still, I need you and Mine to visit the infirmary and have the Doctor examine you both for the same reason. Just to be safe."

Mine began to protest "Ma'am, I feel fine. You should just have Tatsumi go. He's the one who got injured." Her hands were behind her back. She was hiding something. Ripley noticed one of the supply boxes was opened, so she walked up to the pink haired gunner and held out her hand expectantly.

Mine goes quiet and gives back Ripley's Pulse Rifle/Flamethrower. "This isn't a toy. So don't touch it without asking" warned Ripley. Mine ignored her and asked "What does the other gun do? I've only seen you use the one that shoots fully automatic and its lower barrel firing explosive rounds."

Ripley smirked "That's the Pulse Rifle. It fires 99 rounds of armor piercing bullets and the lower barrel is the Grenade Launcher, capable of firing high explosive shells. The other gun is the Flamethrower, able to let out a stream of fire at 50 meters max. It's really useful, the Aliens hate fire."

The genius sniper frowned "Then why didn't you use it when that Alien Horde attacked us, back at the Colony?" Ripley points at the Flamethrower's fuel canister "It's empty and I don't have the means to refuel it." Mine eyes the Flamethrower thoughtfully "What kind of fuel does it take?"

"Slow burning, pressurized napalm" Ripley answered and Mine narrowed her eyes in deep thought "Not sure what that stuff is, but what if I can provide a substitute? We've got plenty of flammable chemicals, here on this base."

Ripley shrugs and offers the weapon back "Whatever. Just don't burn yourself." The pink clad assassin smiles brightly and accepts "You got it! If I successfully refuel it, you let me try it out on a practice range. Deal?" the former Warrant Officer concedes and nods. Mine grins smugly "When I go visit the Doctor, I'll have him assist me right away!"

"Ha! We really should have Ms. Sticky Fingers here examined. See what's made her become such a kleptomaniac." Argued Tatsumi.

"But Tatsumi. You were the only one to get cut by an Alien" countered Akame. Her eyes grew dull as she steps towards him with arms out reaching for his clothes.

Tatsumi backs away while blushing "I'm alright, Akame. Really." In a desperate bid to escape her strip search, he runs to one of the bunk beds and climbs to the top. As he settles at the top bunk, the green eyed fighter suddenly notices his left hand was resting on something soft and round. He looks down and realizes the bed is currently occupied by an equally blushing Chelsea. She was laying there beneath him, wearing her long-sleeved shirt with the top three buttons undone exposing a slender neck and upper chest portion which rose and fell between her steady breathing. Her black vest was hanging off one of the bed posts. The sheets covered her left leg while her right leg stayed uncovered, showing its slender shape, bare foot, and smooth thigh, leading up into her checkered skirt that covered everything between her hips and up to her slim waist. The last bit of exposed skin was her flat stomach and cute bellybutton that her untucked shirt failed to cover for being ruffled up. Her long voluminous reddish-brown hair spilled over her shoulders and spread out, covering most of the upper parts of the bed. Tatsumi sat there on top of her, paralyzed by a sudden realization about his fellow assassin. "She Is Beautiful, Absolutely Gorgeous" was all that came to mind.

"Um…" Tatsumi began, still dumbstruck at his comrade's exuberant beauty. Then he quickly came to realize what he was doing. His legs were wrapped around Chelsea, with his knees resting beside both sides of her hips, and his groin hovered dangerously close above her pelvic region. He noticed his left hand that supported his weight was resting atop both of Chelsea's arms, pinning them down by the wrists above her head. And his right hand was loosely grasping one of her soft and shapely medium sized breasts. Tatsumi was beyond embarrassed by the awkward position he found himself in, and too shocked to try to move. All he could do now was stare into Chelsea's eyes as they start to flare up in anger, before relaxing and begin to appear sultry.

"I guess I can't leave you alone then, can't I?" Chelsea murmurs softly. Then, she angrily plants a foot on Tatsumi's chest and kicks him off the bunk bed "Next time you come on to me like that while I'm taking a nap, I'm cutting it off!"

Tatsumi lands on the floor with a loud thud, then he looks up and asks terrified "You'll be cutting what off!?"

Leone calls out from the bottom bunk, while holding her head in pain "Keep it down, will ya? My head's killing me."

Najenda sighs and whistles to get everyone's attention "Alright! That's enough screwing around! Tatsumi, take Leone to the infirmary with you. Maybe the Doctor can help treat her hangover. Mine, go with them…"

Ripley raises her hand to interrupt "Actually, Najenda. Is it alright if she attends the meeting with us, first? She's seen the Aliens up close and should know full well of their battle capabilities. She's also seen Tatsumi get hurt, even when wearing his armor. I like her to be material witness and help corroborate the major threat, the Aliens represent." The leader of Night Raid shrugs her indifference "Fine, she comes with us. As for the rest of you. Akame is in charge while I'm gone, and nobody touches what's in those crates without my say so or Ripley's." she gives Mine a stern look.

Newt walks up to the opened supply box and takes out Spectator's headpiece. She gives Ripley a thumbs up to show her readiness in helping tell their story to High Command.

The barrack's front door swung open, and the female soldier from earlier stepped inside and saluted "Commander Najenda, High Command is assembled and waiting for you." Najenda nods and along with Ripley, Newt and Mine, followed the female soldier out the door.

Above the Empire's Atmosphere, Outer Space

Hicks was removing the bandage off his face and felt his cheek afterwards "Ugh, there's scarring. If only we were back at Earth, then maybe I could get a skin graft." He sighs and checks his other acid wounds. They would all have scars, thanks to the acid's deep burns. But, the pain has finally gone away. Behind him, Bishop walks up and taps his shoulder "Corporal. Regarding Earth, I may have a possible theory as to how and why we're sent to this place. Do you have a minute?" the Marine looks at his assembled weapons cache. Fully loaded Pulse Rifles, Flamethrowers, and Smartguns are lined up and stowed on racks. He also looks at the glowing screen of the Ship's computer and sees that its download is about half finished.

"Alright, go ahead." Hicks replied. The Synthetic began to explain "You should understand, that without any data or hard evidence, my theory can only be nothing more than mere conjecture at this point…" the Corporal interrupts "Just tell me anyways. By now, I'd be happy with a random guess." Bishop nods and resumes "First off. I'm "guessing" as to how we came to this planet, was through the process of faster than light travel via hyperspace"

Hicks frowned in confusion "That can't be. In order to undergo faster than light travel, we need a vessel with hyperspace capabilities and hypersleep chambers to survive the event of time-space rupture."

Bishop nods in confirmation and continues "But what if both conditions can be provided by remote?" Hicks shakes his head "Again, that's impossible. That kind of technology would lie beyond anything Colonial Administration or even Weyland-Yutani can produce. That kind of feat isn't humanly possible." The Marine's eyes light up in realization at hearing his own words "You're talking about the Derelict! The one Ripley and the Nostromo crew found!".

The Android grinned at seeing the Corporal figuring out the riddle "Yes. In her report, Ripley described the ship as ancient yet far more advanced than our modern vessels. And according to the logs, back at the Colony, the colonist went on to explain the eggs discovered there were covered by an unknown mist. With a ship as ancient as it was and the eggs still viable to infect all who ventured within, I'm willing to bet my programming that this mist is a form of climate control that keeps the eggs preserved indefinitely. Just like how our hypersleep chambers preserves an individual."

Hicks took a moment to ponder the Synthetic's logic "Okay, you got me sold on the Derelict's capacity for remote hypersleep. But, what about hyperspace? What makes you think that's what brought us here, and that the Derelict was responsible?" Bishop shakes his head "Honestly, I can't say for sure. I'm only going along the lines of established facts. That ship has been considered a wreck, but continues functioning for at least one purpose." The Marine raises an eyebrow "What purpose is that?" The Android makes a grim face and answers "The continued existence of the Xenomorph species."

The Corporal paced between the cockpit and the weapons cache in the back, processing Bishop's assessment so far. He stops and turns to the Science Officer "So you're saying, you don't know how we came to be transported here. But, you figured out the why." Bishop nods his head "Yes. I may not know how it was done, but it stands to reason the Derelict acted in its interest of saving the Aliens from the explosion of the Atmosphere Processor. It may have projected a preservation field to envelope the entire colony and everything in it before initiating hyperspace."

Hicks nods in understanding "I get it now. We were also transported along with the colony, because the field itself is an all-encompassing expansion. It can't narrow in on an individual, so it takes everything and leaves the compromised environment behind. In this case, a barren planet being devastated by thermonuclear explosion."

Bishop looks surprised "That's quite sharp of you to figure out my theory, before I explained it in whole. And you're only a Corporal? You could've easily outranked Sergeant Apone or even Lieutenant Gorman, if you applied for an officer's commission." The Corporal shrugs nonchalantly "I Didn't feel like it"

Hicks looks out the cockpit window and down to the planet's surface. The globe bears a striking resemblance to Earth. The only difference is its primary color is green, instead of blue. Much of the continent he saw is heavily forested and there's at least one ocean towards the east. The local Moon is about the same size as Luna, back at Earth, but this one here is red and not white. Probably made from different minerals to get that color.

"Bishop. Is there any reason to think the Derelict is down there somewhere? Could it have transported itself here as well? And what about the Sulaco? Might it have been brought here also? Assuming your mass teleportation theory holds true." Hicks asked the Android.

Bishop answers "It's likely the case. If the Derelict functions to safeguard and transport the Xenomorphs, it wouldn't have allowed itself to stay behind. And as for the Sulaco, whether it came here with us or not, doesn't matter. As long as we can find the Derelict, there's a chance we can reverse its actions and take us back."

The Corporal smiled upon hearing this, as he continued to stare down towards the planet. Somewhere down there, lies their one hope of getting home. Hicks has no doubts about it now. It made every bit of sense. "Finally." He thought "A real plan to follow". The Marine takes another look at the Ship's computer "Not much longer now. Just a few more hours."

"Another night, down on the surface. We'll have Ripley's position by morning." Bishop corrected. Hicks turns to the Science Officer "Let's hope Ripley and Newt can last that long. She said they're among friends? I wonder what kind of people they are."

Bishop smiles reassuringly "They've managed to escape the Aliens and contact us. I'm certain her friends are extremely reliable."

Revolutionary Army Main Base, South of the Empire

"We regret to inform you Lieutenant Ripley, but we've decided not to divert our efforts into the extermination of these ALIENS you described." The Revolutionary Army's Supreme Commander gave Ripley their final decision, and she felt her stomach plunge in disappointment "Please reconsider! You heard from your subordinates themselves, and Newt here even used Spectator to show in full detail the events that transpired all the way up to this moment. The Aliens pose a true threat to your world and everything in it!" She insisted.

The Commander in Chief gave her a stern look. He was a middle-aged man, possibly late 40s-early 50s, well-built and clad in armor, he also wore a standard round helmet, and has a hardened face with a large scar over his closed right eye. His expression soften and he began to explain "Please understand Lieutenant. We are all well aware that this Xenomorph species are a danger to us all. But, you must also know this army is made up of malcontents and idealists who want to make a change and build a better world than the one they live in."

Ripley was about to say "I know. I saw the commercials", but remembered that these people aren't Weyland-Yutani. The Commander continued "Najenda here once told you of our founding cause. The corruption of the Empire has destroyed countless lives, long before the Aliens came to plague us. Every single member in this Army has already lost something or someone precious to them. It would be impossible to convince them to abandon or postpone our goals. Too much has been sacrificed for us to make it this far."

Ripley took a close look at every member of this Assembly. Their eyes shown with determination, accompanied by sadness, pain and despair. She recognized the look in their eyes, because she had those same eyes when she looked in the mirror. Back when she lived in her small apartment with Jones the Cat, after the Company's inquiry left her jobless and alone. Just before Burke and Lieutenant Gorman came to her, to offer a chance at redemption by joining their ill-fated expedition to LV-426 and relive the nightmare.

These people of the Revolutionary Army are just as committed to destroying the Empire, as Ripley is committed to destroying the Aliens. "There must be a way for us to come to an agreement and work together" she thought. Earlier, she pondered the idea of contacting the Empire to negotiate a truce and request help in fighting the Xenomorphs. But from what everyone here claims, the Empire is just as bad as Weyland-Yutani and the Aliens for that matter. A whole nation run by people with the bodies of humans and with the hearts of monsters, far worse than the ones she's been fighting. "Evil comes in many forms, both in man and nature." She concluded.

"If the Empire is finally overthrown, what then?" Ripley asked. The Commander in Chief calmly answers "Then, rest assured. We will focus all our efforts towards eradicating the Aliens. We're already on the brink of making our last move against the Empire. Which, brings us to Night Raid's next assignment" he turns towards Najenda "Your team is hereby ordered to once again resume efforts in the elimination of the Prime Minister's spy, Borick. And allow the religious sect, The Path of Peace to begin their uprising. We'll stick with the plan, and launch an offensive of our own. Along with our allies the Western Tribes, we'll besiege the Empire on three fronts." Night Raid's leader salutes and nods in response.

"We've recently learned from our own spies, that the Jaegers have been delayed in their search for Night Raid and have been diverted to join up with the Empire's Expeditionary Force. Who are currently marching their way through the southern wilderness, towards the valley containing the Hadley Colony." The Supreme Commander takes a map from a nearby subordinate and lays it out on a table in front of the Assembly "Our scouts predict the Expeditionary Force will have reached and established camp at the base of this mountain on the North side of the Valley, by this evening."

Ripley walks up to the table and looks at the map "My God! They're going straight towards where the Aliens were last seen!" the Commander makes a grim smile "Yes. We're hoping that both our enemies would collide and annihilate each other. That's the best case scenario. In the worst case, one foe would remain for us to deal with."

Ripley's stomach filled with dread. Those Imperial Soldiers have no idea of the horror, they're getting themselves into. "Any idea, what the number of their forces are?" she asked. A teenage girl, accompanied by a large muscular man approached her "It's about 100. They're a reconnaissance group, broken off from a main force of 1,500 that is currently stationed at the Empire's southernmost outpost. It seems they plan to scout the area ahead, while they wait for the Jaegers to rendezvous with them. Then they'll all proceed forward in full force towards the Colony."

Ripley sighed inwardly and commented "That's quite a number. It'll be hard to tell who comes out on top. The Aliens, or the Empire." Everyone in the Assembly nods in agreement

"And the Jaegers will be caught up in the fray. That gives us a golden opportunity to infiltrate the main church of the Path of Peace in the city of Kyoroch, and assassinate Borick." explained Najenda. The teenage girl turns to her "Please, be careful! We've also learned that the Four Rakshasa Demons have been sent there to act as bodyguards for Borick."

"It seems that the Prime Minister is still determined to protect his little spy. Even with his forces spread thin." The Commander in Chief turns to Najenda again "The Four Rakshasa Demons are no trifle. Think your team can handle them?" Najenda grins and nods "Most, definitely! My group is still at full fighting strength, even after our recent assignment."

"If it's all the same, I'd like to accompany Night Raid for their next objective." Ripley declared. Everyone at the Assembly stared at the former Warrant Officer with concern. "This isn't some family picnic, Lieutenant. Najenda and her team of assassins are the most elite fighters of the Revolutionary Army. Tasked with the most dangerous assignments. And a survival ratio of 1 in 3 chances a member would perish in the line of duty." warned the Supreme Commander.

Ripley was undeterred "I know the risks. Which is why I want to go with them. I'm certain Night Raid will be the ones to save us all, from this crisis. I'll bring all my weapons and technology to bear, in aiding the cause." The Commander in Chief crossed his arms and everyone else in the Assembly all murmured amongst themselves. "Have you ever killed anyone? If you or a member of the team get into a life and death situation, will you be willing to take a life to ensure victory? And what of those who wield Imperial Arms, like the Jaegers? Can you say for sure that you or the little girl with you, would be willing to lay down your lives and stand against such overwhelming odds? Knowing that either one of you might not survive the encounter?"

Ripley took a moment to think before answering "I have killed before." Her thoughts drifted to Dallas and Brett, whom she had incinerated back on the Nostromo. To spare them their fate at the hands of the Alien. "And I have seen men and women die around me, during the struggle to survive against the Aliens." She thought back on Parker and Lambert, after they were mercilessly slaughtered by the creature. The same for the Hadley colonists and most of the Marines, shortly afterwards. And of Vasquez, Gorman and Hudson, who gave their lives to ensure that Newt, Hicks and herself could make it to safety. "We've been close to death before, on more than one occasion. But, we've beaten those odds. Newt here, has done it twice over with no weapons or Imperial Arms." She looks down at Newt and touches the Spectator headpiece. She then looks over at Najenda and Mine "It's thanks to Night Raid, that me and Newt are still alive. So I'll fight, no matter who it may be, to pay them back and protect the people I care about."

Newt spoke up with conviction in her voice "I'm not afraid. I won't let the Monsters take any more of my friends away. So I'll fight too. Even against the Aliens and the Bad People." Mine looks at her, surprised like everyone else by the little girl's courageous declaration.

Najenda stepped forward and spoke "Sir, you should know that these two were instrumental to our survival of the Alien onslaught at the Hadley Colony. From the moment we met, Ripley has done everything to look out for our safety. If it wasn't for her, Night Raid would've suffered heavy losses or even wiped out." She places a hand on Ripley's shoulder "They've come from a world far beyond our own, but they possess a strength few of us can match to make it this far. In our line of work, I'd take any form of help from anybody who offers. The weapons and technology she and her friends possess, far outstrips anything the Empire has. With them on our side, Night Raid might have a straight up chance in taking down the Jaegers, as well as any other pawns the Empire might throw at us." Beside her, Ripley nods her head in assurance.

The Commander in Chief shrugs and relents "Very well. It's you all's decision. Ripley and Newt, consider the men and women of the Revolutionary Army as your friends. You're welcome among us, and the same goes for your comrades Hicks and Bishop. Let's all work together to bring about an era of Freedom and Justice to this world." He offers Ripley a hand, and she shook it "And also, the survival of the Human Race." The former Warrant Officer adds.

Throughout the Assembly, everyone applauded and cheered at this newfound alliance and lined up to shake hands with Ripley and Newt. Afterwards, a few people at a time began to leave the building to resume their duties within the base. The only ones left were Najenda, Ripley, Mine, Newt, the teenage spy and her muscled companion, and a few Revolutionary Army Officers including the Supreme Commander.

"And you're certain, the Aliens have an aversion to fire?" the Commander asks, and Ripley nods "Yes. None of the creatures have ever tried to go through open flames. You can stall a whole pack of them without risk. Burning them is the best option for combating the Xenomorphs. Stabbing or bludgeoning them with swords, spears or axes are out of the question. Their acid-blood can melt all forms of metal and armor. Shooting at them has to be done from a safe distance, to avoid the acid from spraying all over you."

The Commander in Chief turns his fellow Officers "Get the word out to our Sentries. Tell them to dig Fire Trenches, along our outer perimeter. From now on, when the Sun goes down, they're to light the trenches with fire and keep them burning until Sunrise. Also, have them equipped with whatever firearms we can spare. Use bow and arrows and crossbows, if you have to. Make sure they use fire arrows, as well."

Mine raises her hand "And can you send over a barrel of the fuel, you'll be using for the Fire Trenches? I have need of some of it." The Officers salute and departed on their task of giving instructions to the Guardsmen.

Najenda gives the Supreme Commander a salute as well "We'll depart for Kyoroch, as soon as we are able." The Commander in Chief returns the salute "Good luck out there, and try to hurry. The Aliens can serve as a distraction for the Empire, and will give the Revolutionary Army the element of surprise. We'll have our scouts try to gather information on the turnout of the impending confrontation. And we'll also have our spies aid you in infiltrating the Path of Peace" he turns and nods to the teenage girl, who salutes and leaves the Assembly along with her companion. Najenda and Ripley also left the Assembly, with Mine and Newt following close behind.

"So, how soon will we be leaving?" asked Ripley. Najenda counts off the number of hours in her head "We need to restock on our supplies, and the Air Manta needs rest. Give it about, till tomorrow morning. We'll leave at first light and head for Kyoroch's outer city limits. The spy team will have set up a hideout for us, by the time we get there. Then, we'll all work together in tandem and come up with a plan to assassinate Borick."

Newt calls out from behind "What are the Four Rakshasa Demons?" Night Raid's leader explains "They're a deadly group of warriors under the direct employment of the Prime Minister. They fight, using various forms of Martial Arts and a unique skill called Body Manipulation. They can twist and reform their own bodies to adapt and overcome enemy attacks, even against Imperial Arms."

Mine shrugs and boasts "Big deal! Bring them on, I say! Me and Pumpkin can blast them all away in one shot." Najenda bumps her fist against the side of Mine's head and Ripley slaps her upside the back. "Don't ever assume, you know your opponents in a fight! You underestimate them, and it's over for you and your comrades." Warned Night Raid's leader. "Yeah! Don't go inviting a fight, so recklessly like that! You should only battle when absolutely necessary, and you do it when you have all the advantages." Added the former Warrant Officer. Mine held her head while being scolded. Tears began to form in the genius sniper's eyes. Curious, Newt activated Spectator's Insight ability and looked at Mine.

("A tall woman with long purple hair, wearing eyeglasses and a purple dress brandishes a large pair of scissors. She cuts off an enormous arm belonging to a giant dog-like beast, that had Mine caught in its severed fist. The woman stands up straight and murmurs "just in time". Suddenly someone shoots a bullet into her back, paralyzing her. Off to the side, with the smoking barrel of a gun protruding from her mouth, was a young woman with auburn hair tied into a long ponytail and missing the front of her arms. Her face was horribly twisted and warped. She looked like one of the Aliens, so hideously savage and murderous. "Justice is Served" the psychotic young woman exclaims, and the tall purple haired woman looked to her side to see an impossibly large gaping mouth line with rows upon rows of sharp teeth. The giant Dog-Monster lunged forward and tears the tall woman in half.")

Newt quickly deactivates Spectator's Insight ability and looks at Mine again "You lost a close friend, didn't you? She died, trying to fight the Bad People." The pink haired assassin's tears began to flow freely "Shut up! You have no idea, what I've been through, or who I've lost!" Mine yells, her voice breaking in a low sob.

Newt ignores Mine's outburst and hugs her tight "Don't think, you're the only one who feels like that. I've also lost people I loved." The little girl activates Spectator's Illusion Sight ability and shows the genius sniper a vision of Newt's memories.

("Inside an examination room, a middle-aged man resembling Newt, was screaming out in pain as his chest explodes in a spray of blood. And a small Alien creature erupts from the chest wound, with a high pitch squeal.") The vision changes ("A crowd of frightened people are huddled together in a tight spaced room. Outside the only door leading out of the room, they hear other people screaming and Aliens screeching. It suddenly goes quiet, except for the voice of someone outside the door pleading to be let in. One of the people in the room panics and opens the door. The voice belonged to the bloody upper remains of a man, who was barely left alive and trying to open the door on his own. Behind him, stood a countless horde of Aliens. They swarmed into the room, and began attacking everybody. At the back of the room, a woman resembling Newt was shooting at the Aliens, using a small pistol sidearm to defend herself, Newt and a boy who was about a year older. Seeing no chance of repelling the Aliens, the woman turns the gun on her children. Hoping to end their lives, instead of letting the Aliens take them. Too late. An Alien impales the woman's back with its bladed tail. As the woman falls dead, the boy picks up the gun and shoots the Alien. Only to have its acidic blood spray out all over his face. Newt stumbles back into a ventilation duct. In desperation, she crawls into the small shaft and escapes to the safety of the maze-like ventilation network. Leaving behind the colonists and the Aliens, who are too big to fit inside the air duct.")

Newt deactivates Illusion Sight, and Mine went silent after witnessing Newt's nightmarish past. "You see?" Newt explains "You're not the only one, who's in pain." Mine hugs Newt back, and they both stand there in a quiet embrace for a moment.

Ripley and Najenda stand beside them, and waited for Mine to finish composing herself. After she calms down, Ripley spoke "Mine. You mustn't forget, we are all fighting together from here on out. Know your strengths and limitations. Also, learn of our skills and shortcomings as well. When we combine our abilities and work together, nothing can stand against us. Not the Empire, the Jaegers, or the Aliens." Najenda nods and adds "You're our cherished comrade and a strong fighter, Mine. When we win this war, I want all of us to be there, alive and happily celebrating our victory."

Mine wipes away her tears with the sleeve of her pink dress and quietly nods. Newt, who was still hugging her, looks up at her "And also. Can you please, be a little nicer to Tatsumi? He's a very nice guy and he cares a lot about everyone around him, including you." The pink haired sharpshooter quietly nods again, after hearing the little girl's request.

Najenda looks up at the sky and noticed the sun is starting to set. "It's getting late. We should all be getting some rest, back at the barracks. Mine, don't forget to see the Doctor first. Check on Tatsumi and Leone. Be sure to send them back when they're finished."

Ripley adds "And be careful when you're handling my weapon. I'm trusting in you and that Doctor, to know what you're doing." Mine grins and gently mounts the pulse-rifle/flamethrower over her shoulder, after letting go of Newt. She then leaves them, and walks straight towards the Infirmary.

"Thanks, you two." Najenda voices her appreciation to Ripley and Newt "Mine's always been stubborn and hot-blooded, so it's always tough to get her to keep her attitude in check and work well with others." Ripley turns to her "Has she always been like this?" the leader of Night Raid shakes her head "No. She had a friend named Sheele, who was her partner for the longest time. Until, during their last mission together. They were ambushed by an Imperial Soldier, who was using a monstrous biological Imperial Arm. Mine was able to get away, but Sheele lost her life during the skirmish. I think she blames herself, for what happened back then." The former Warrant Officer looks over at the infirmary, then at Newt, who nods her head and confirms the story is true.

"Any idea, who the Soldier was? And, what exactly is this biological Imperial Arm?" asked Ripley. Najenda pulls a cigarette from out of her pocket and lights it. Beside her, the former Warrant Officer eyes the cigarette longingly and Night Raid's leader offers one. "Her name is Seryu Ubiquitous. She was a member of the Imperial Police, until she was later promoted and assigned into joining the Jaegers. Now, she's actively hunting us members of Night Raid, alongside her Imperial Arm, Koro, a small dog-like creature capable of instantly growing into a monster sized beast, and has enormous strength and ferocity to match." Najenda continues, as they smoked their cigarettes.

Ripley exhales and speaks "Seryu. One of the people, Tatsumi mentioned. How was he able to learn so much about her and the Jaegers?" Najenda also exhales smoke, and answers "A short time before you and Newt came to this world, Tatsumi was abducted and held against his will by General Esdeath, the leader of the Jaegers. Esdeath became infatuated with him, and tried to make him her lover and a new member of the Jaegers. But opportunity presented itself and Tatsumi was able to escape, right after learning the identities of the other Jaeger members."

Ripley narrowed her eyes, as she processed this information "So, who are the other members of the Jaegers?" she asked. Najenda began saying a list of names "There's Esdeath, the Jaegers' leader. She's a General of the Imperial Army and a high ranking military official. And I'm not exaggerating when I say, she's the Empire's most strongest. She's also cruel and sadistic, in ways you can never imagine."

The former Warrant Officer nods her head, fully believing the other woman's explanation. Najenda continues "Then there's her subordinates, the other Jaegers. One of them is named Run. He's a strategist and acts as a personal aide to Esdeath. There's Bols, a former member of the Incineration Squad, who's job was to burn down whole villages that where thought to hold contagious plagues or were accused of harboring and aiding rebels. According to Tatsumi, Bols is a family man with a wife and daughter, and an avid chef who usually cooks and serve the Jaegers their meals." Ripley felt sick to her stomach "How can that man get to raise a family, when he's murdered countless others." She asked. The leader on Night Raid shrugs and explains "That's the kind of place, the Empire is. The wicked and unjust flourish and prosper, while the kind and innocent suffer and die."

Ripley exhales some more smoke "I'm beginning to understand, why everyone here is so adamant in taking down the Empire as soon as possible. Monsters like those, don't deserve happiness."

Najenda exhales smoke again "Yes, but not everyone who works for the Empire are evil. Some are just simply misguided, or just plain ignorant. Like Wave, for example. He's one of the Jaegers, a kind and noble hearted young man. Very much like Tatsumi. Wave use to serve in the Imperial Navy, before being reassigned to the Jaegers." Ripley was skeptical "That's surprising. And here, I thought only the malevolent and immoral serve the Empire."

Najenda shakes her head "The Empire isn't above telling lies, and manipulating decent people into doing indecent things. Such, was the case for Seryu. Her father was an Officer of the Imperial Police, before his mysterious death. According to his partner, a man named Ogre, Mr. Ubiquitous was murdered in a random mugging and the perpetrator was caught. They executed the man, who professed his innocence, until his last breath. Word had it, that Ogre might have been involved. But, with no evidence and no one willing to investigate further, the case was closed indefinitely. Ogre was later promoted to Captain, and took to raising Seryu. Needless to say, the man was as evil and corrupt as they come. Taking bribes and framing more innocent people for his crimes. All while corrupting Seryu and twisting her mentality into believing wholeheartedly, that the Empire is righteous and just, whereas everyone and everything opposing it, is evil and wrong."

Ripley shuddered "That's fucked up. It's like the bastard's capable of spreading evil into others. Like an infectious disease." Najenda holds up a hand to interrupt "Relax. He won't bring harm to any more innocents. Tatsumi killed him, as per Night Raid's orders." The former Warrant Officer calms down "Did the truth ever get out? About, how much of a scumbag, Ogre really was?" Night Raid's leader shakes her head "No. He died, being remembered as a righteous hero. Especially, in the eyes of Seryu. Hence, her grudge and rabid obsession towards hunting and killing Us."

"Isn't there anybody left in the Empire, with a strong moral compass? Where is all this evil and corruption stemming from? How high, does this go?" Ripley asked. Najenda finished her cigarette and throws it on the ground. She crushes it beneath her foot and says "There is a main source. It's in the form of a man known as, Prime Minister Honest. He's there, at the top of all this darkness. Running the Nation from behind the back of the current Emperor, who's only a small child younger than Newt here. Anyone who opposes him are dealt with harshly. If they're common folks or lesser nobles, they're either executed publicly under false pretenses, like treason. Or, they're taken to the Torture Chamber beneath the Royal Palace, where they are tortured and slowly mutilated alive in brutal agony."

Ripley wanted to vomit, but instead she finishes her cigarette and got rid of it also. Najenda resumes talking "Higher-ranking Government Officials and Influential Nobles are dealt with differently. They are often killed in secret, by the Empire's Assassination Squad." Ripley wore a questioning look "Assassination Squad?". Night Raid's leader nods "They're exactly, what the name implies. A squad of assassins, trained since childhood, brainwashed and savagely conditioned to do one thing. Kill anyone, who poses a threat to the Empire." The former Warrant Officer narrowed her eyes "So, they're in the same line of work as Night Raid." Najenda nods and explains "You can say that. The difference is though, we've chosen to fight and kill for our goals. The Assassination Squad members are usually never given a choice. Most start off as impoverished children, sold as slaves and purchased by the Empire. Then, the Empire would weed out the weak ones by forcing them through a survival course full of Danger Beasts. Barely a handful, out of a hundred, survive the course."

Ripley gazed at Newt for a moment "Newt was in a similar circumstance, on LV-426. By the time the Colonial Marines came to the rescue, the little girl was reduced to a feral scavenger. Any sooner, and she might have forgotten how to be a human being" Najenda concurs "That's how it works. Strip down the children to their base instincts. Then, reshape them into merciless killers."

Ripley glared at Night Raid's leader accusingly "You seem to know a lot, about how it's done." Najenda raises her normal and mechanical hands in defense "It was done in secret. Me and Lubbock were part of a separate military division, before we defected and joined the Revolutionary Army. I later learned of it, through my subordinate Akame." The former Warrant Officer's Eyes widen "Akame was part of the Assassination Squad?" Najenda nods "Yes. Along with her younger sister, Kurome."

"Akame, has a sister?" Ripley asks, and Najenda nods again "Kurome is the last Jaeger, I haven't mentioned yet. Both Akame and Kurome, were members of the Assassination Squad. Until, Akame defected and joined Night Raid, while Kurome stayed with the Empire and was assigned to the Jaegers." Ripley was surprised "How can that have happened?" Najenda shrugs "I don't usually talk about someone else's past. If you really want to know, you must ask Akame. But, make no mistake. Kurome is our enemy. We must be ready to fight and kill her, because she would undoubtedly do the same. Even, against Akame, both of them won't hesitate to kill each other."

Ripley's shoulders slump in disbelief "That's fucking crazy!". Najenda agrees "That is the world we live in. That is why most of us fight to change it, so tragedies like that will never happen again." The former Warrant Officer was fed up with all the misery and suffering. She's starting to believe that perhaps, the Empire was the larger threat than the Aliens. All this insanity has to stop.

"I'm with you, until the end." Ripley declared, placing a hand on Najenda's shoulder "I know, I'm not an assassin. And I'm not a soldier either. I'm just some anal-retentive Flight Officer, without a job and who's in, WAY over her head. But, I promise you and the rest of Night Raid. That I will not rest, until the Empire and the Aliens are wiped off the face of this planet! For good!

Najenda hugs Ripley in a sisterly embrace "Thank you, Ripley. Let's work together and save this world!" Not to be left out, Newt squeezes in between the two women and wraps her arms around their waists. She then reaches for their hands, and clasps them tightly "Where you go, I go." She says decisively, and both women nod in understanding.

Ripley, Najenda and Newt continued walking towards the barracks. Behind them, Tatsumi and Leone stepped out of the Infirmary and jogged to catch up. Mine stood outside the Infirmary, talking with the Doctor. Beside them, a pair of soldiers carefully placed a large barrel with a red flame painting on its side. The Doctor gently removes the lid, to reveal the barrel is full of a dark viscous liquid. He looks over at Mine, who gives him a serious nod and calmly says "Let's get to work".

Inside the barracks, everyone made ready to go to bed and followed the sleeping arrangements. Akame was sleeping next to Leone, while Lubbock and Tatsumi slept above in the top bunk. Newt curled up next to Ripley and after a while, Mine walked in and climbed up the top bunk to lay beside Chelsea. Only Najenda had a bed to herself, and Susanoo stood watch by the door.

Ripley laid in bed with a sleeping Newt in her arms, thinking about the upcoming struggles they would soon face. It was dark inside the barracks, and Ripley couldn't even see Susanoo standing guard. But, for the first time since the Alien horrors turned her life into a living hell, she no longer felt frightened, lying in the dark. Instead, she felt rather safe surrounded by friends as they slept peacefully. Despite the tragedies and pain they endured at the hands of the Empire. And soon, they will all put their own lives at risk and wage terrible battles to bring about Freedom, Justice and the very survival of their own Species. Ripley closed her eyes, after whispering an apology "I'm sorry, Hicks. And you too, Newt. It looks like I got us involved in yet, another dangerous situation. Please, understand that this is the right thing to do." Ripley falls asleep and this time, no nightmares came to scare her awake.

Expeditionary Force Reconnaissance Group's Camp, North of Hadley's Hope

The sky faded to twilight, as 1,300 Imperial Soldiers marched in formation through the forest wilderness and arrived at the Reconnaissance Group's camp. At their front, stood their leader General Nouken, a man brimming with muscles, covered in leather straps and a large cape hanging off his armored shoulders. With over a dozen men armed with lances at his side, the General looked around the camp with the same confused expression shared by his subordinates. The entire camp was empty. Not a single Reconnaissance Group member was here, to greet the main Expeditionary Force.

"Where in the Hell, is everybody? Why, is this camp abandoned?" Nouken asked, expecting one of his subordinates to provide an answer. One of them walks up behind the General and answers "Sir. Maybe, they were attacked by the Rebels."

Nouken frowns and looks around the campsite once more, and sees that there were signs of an attack. Broken weapons and bloody pieces of armor, lay scattered. Table and chairs, are overturned and knocked aside. Several tents lay strewn about. A few of them were half-pitched and most of the standing ones were torn apart and shredded, by something hideously sharp. Small puddles of blood, dotted the grounds throughout camp. But, there are no bodies around that owns them. Along the edges of the campsite, large thick trees and bushes encircled the camp grounds. Its borders are marked by the smoking pits of campfires, their flames having recently died out.

"What the Hell, happened here? It's as if everyone just...vanished." one of the subordinates spoke nervously. "Maybe, we should go back? And, wait for General Esdeath and the Jaegers to join us, like originally planned." He continued.

General Nouken was unfazed "Nonsense! Whoever did this, they are just men who got the drop on a group of 100. They can't do the same, against 1,300. So get your head on straight, and act like an Imperial Soldier." Most of the subordinates nearby began to calm down and relax, upon hearing the General's logic. Nouken began to shout orders "Tell the men to search the camp. Turn it inside and out. Look for any survivors or clues, as to what took place here."

The General walks towards a campfire pit, at the edge of camp near the forest. He looks up and sees the darkening sky's light, fading fast "And, get someone to light the fires back up. Before it gets too dark, to see anything. We will spend the night here, and wait for the Jaegers to catch up." Then Nouken murmured to himself in a low voice "I'll show that arrogant woman, how a real man takes charge." He turns to the first subordinate "I'm in the mood. Call Number 5 over for me."

The subordinate fidgets and explains "Number 5…umm. General. You literally split Number 5 in two, last time-" before the subordinate can finish his explanation, a pair of black and powerful exoskeletal arms shot out from behind some large bushes, grabbed him, and pulled him in with one swift and quiet motion. General Nouken had his back turned, and didn't notice. Instead, he continued to walk along the forest's edge. He felt his boot step on something strange, so he looked down and saw some sort of resinous slime stuck to the sole. Nouken tried to get it off with his hand and the slime only smeared him with strands of mucous. Behind him, he heard a twig snapped. The General turns around "Help me get some of this weird snot off my-" he stops talking and stares at the creature standing in front of him.

It was big, towering over the tall General by at least a foot, and hunched over in a predatory stance. The dark of night has taken over the skies, leaving only a silhouette outline of the creature to see. Until, in a low hiss, the creature flares open a part of its elongated head where its face and mouth should be, revealing sharp and silvery teeth that glistened in the dark. The creature's teeth part as it opens its mouth, and reveals a second set of jaws with more teeth inside.

Acting on reflex, General Nouken makes a grab for his sword and tries to draw it from its sheath. Too late. The Alien shoots out the secondary jaws from its mouth, and into Nouken's forehead. The last thing the General hears before dying, are the inhuman screeches of multiple attacking Aliens and the louder, more numerous screams of frightened men.

Above the Empire's Atmosphere, Outer Space

"Corporal. Please, wake up." Hicks woke up to the sound of Bishop's voice. He then, leaned forward and stood up off the passenger's seat he's been sleeping on. "What's the situation, Bishop?" the Corporal asks groggily. "It's better, if I show you." The Synthetic replied.

Bishop led a drowsy Hicks towards the dropship's cockpit. The Corporal looked down at the Ship's computer, and the progress bar on its screen shows that it's downloaded about 98 percent of the Probe's global map data. "It's almost done. About a few more minutes. An hour, tops." He turns to the Android "Bishop. Prep the ship for atmospheric re-entry. The instant we get Ripley's position with the homing coordinates, take us in and bring us right on top of her. And, not literally."

"I didn't wake you to show you that, Corporal." Bishop points at the cockpit's viewport. The Marine looks out, at the planet below. On the surface, the light of the Sun began to spread across the continent they once flew over. The morning dawn of a new day started to shine on their side of the planet.

"It's very pretty, Bishop. But, what am I looking for." Suddenly a beeping noise can be heard, coming from the flight HUD in front of the pilot seat. Hicks looks at the glowing screen, and instantly recognized the message scrolled across "Alert. Proximity Warning. IFF Registration, Confirmed." the next set of letters stunned the Corporal and jolted him fully awake "U.S.S. SULACO"

Bishop walks up from behind Hicks, and points at the viewport window "Hicks. Straight ahead, 45 degrees, starboard." The Corporal follows the Android's directions and looks out at open space. An excited grin forms across the Marine's face, as he lays eyes on the source of his excitement.

There it was. Slowly powering its way through the blackness of space. Looking every bit as intimidating and battle ready as when it left Gateway Station, was the Conestoga-Class Starship of the Colonial Marines. The U.S.S. Sulaco.

Unable to contain his excitement any longer, Hicks began to whoop and cheer "Hell, Yeah!". Beside him, Bishop waited patiently for the Corporal to finish his celebration. Once the Marine had calmed down, the Android began to speak "I shall begin docking procedures, immediately." But Hicks spoke to the Synthetic in a serious tone "No way, Bishop. We are not boarding the Sulaco, just yet. I want you to do as I ordered before, and bring the dropship back down onto the planet's surface. We are not leaving Ripley and Newt down there with the Aliens and the Jaegers, for even a split second longer."

Bishop quietly nods and buckles himself into the pilot's seat. Behind him, Hicks does the same in the copilot's. A long while passes by, and both of the dropship's occupants hear an electronic chime ring out. "Global Mapping Data download, complete. We now have Global Positioning capabilities." The Android announced. "Track Ripley's homing signal. Bring us straight to her." Ordered the Corporal. The Synthetic nods again, and began pressing a few buttons and switches on his pilot controls.

"Confirmed. We're locked on the signal. Triangulating coordinates, now." A digital map appears on Bishop's flight HUD, and began showing a detailed image of the land surrounding a dot representing the Probe's position. Shortly afterwards, another dot appears on the map, a considerable amount of miles south of the probes position "She's far down south of where we set the Probe and encountered the Jaegers."

Hicks breathed a sigh of relief. From what Bishop was saying, it seems Ripley and Newt are nowhere near Esdeath and the Jaegers. "And you're certain, you heard Ripley say she spotted the Aliens heading north?" the Corporal asked. Bishop answers "Positive. According to the map's geography, there's a vast mountain range separating Ripley's position from the majority of the continent." The Marine smiled with grim satisfaction "Perfect. The Aliens are the Jaegers' problem, now."

The dropship's engines spun to life, as it makes ready for atmospheric re-entry. Bishop throttles the engines and the Ship's thrusters propelled it forward, into the planet's gravity well. As the dropship falls through the Empire's upper atmosphere Bishop began making course adjustments to lead the Ship towards Ripley's position. Behind him, Hicks calmly sits back in the copilot seat and closed his eyes to catch up on sleep. "Hang on, Ripley and Newt. We're coming for you, both" He whispered "And, I'm sorry. We won't be going home, yet. We still have a fight to finish."

The Empire's Southernmost Outpost, North of Hadley's Hope

The Jaegers gathered behind their commander, who was busy "debriefing" one of the Imperial Soldiers who greeted them upon their arrival to the Southern Outpost. General Esdeath was not pleased with what the Imperial Soldier was telling her, so she asks to confirm "And you're certain, it was Nouken who gave the order to march on south towards the Valley?"

The Imperial Soldier was on his knees in a prostrate position, with Esdeath's heel digging into the back of his head and grinding his face into the dirt on the ground. In front of her, about a hundred Imperial Soldiers stood at attention solemnly ignoring the blue haired woman's apparent abuse of their comrade. The prostrate Soldier spoke "Yes, Ma'am! The Reconnaissance Group set up camp at the base of the toppled mountain. They were tasked with finding a suitable passage for our armies to march through, and determine if there were any hostiles present. We lost contact with them yesterday, so General Nouken made the call and led the Expeditionary Force towards the Reconnaissance Group's last known position. They were going to investigate the whereabouts of the Reconnaissance Group, then continue marching into the Valley where the Mysterious Explosion took place. He left a skeleton crew of a hundred of us here, to man the Outpost and await your arrival."

Esdeath frowned "What do you mean by, hostiles?" The soldier looks up in response, and nearly sees up the skirt of the Jaeger leader's uniform. But the high heel of Esdeath's boot presses down into one of the soldier's eyes, forcing him to shut it "Ow, Ouch! Okay! After the Explosion happened, a stampede of wild Danger Beasts swarmed out of the Valley and wreaked havoc across the land. Our forces put down most of them, but at least three Danger Beasts eluded us and are believed to still prowl the area." He reaches into his uniform and produced several sheets of paper containing the Danger Beasts' written information "We've gathered some reward posters matching the Danger Beasts' descriptions."

With a painful kick Esdeath stepped her foot off the Soldier's head, who gets up and quickly falls in with the rank and file lineup of his fellow comrades. The Jaegers' leader looked up at the morning Sun in thought. "If Nouken reached the Reconnaissance Group's camp at sundown, he would have to halt the marching progress of the Expeditionary Force and hunker down to wait out the night." She surmised, hoping the other General wasn't foolish enough to attempt to march ahead into the dark of night. Run stepped forward from behind her and picked up the reward posters from off the ground. He began reading them, with a look of concern "Blitz Hound, Grey Ape, and Raging Bull. These are Super-Class Danger Beasts, every single own of them."

Esdeath turned to look at her Aide "Danger Beasts like those, aren't the kind to just turn tail and run. They tend to stand their ground and fight viciously, to defend their territory." A smirk forms across her face "And a single one can take on a whole army effortlessly." Run nods in agreement. He turns to the soldier from before "Are you're sure, none of them have been spotted leaving the area?" the soldier nods his head "The last known sighting was reported two days ago, by the Reconnaissance Group. Right before they disappeared. We've had trackers scouring the outer perimeter, ever since. No one has found neither sign nor trail of any one of those Danger Beasts."

Wave joins the conversation, and speaks "So that means, they're still in the area. Or maybe they went the opposite direction? Heading south, towards the Valley?" Run shrugs and says "Perhaps."

Bols raises his hand "What do they look like?" Run holds out the papers, for the masked Jaeger to see. He skims over them and nods. The General's Aide then offers the papers to Wave, who accepts them gratefully. The young man looks over each sheet of paper, thoroughly memorizing every detail of each Danger Beasts' description. The Blitz Hound was large, about as big as a horse, and has jet black fur. The Grey Ape was large as well, measuring about 9 feet in height, has massive arms and its fur is colored a silvery grey. The Raging Bull resembled a regular bull, but was three times as large, had short red hair over rippling muscles and sharp bull horns.

Wave offers the papers to Kurome, who was idly munching on sweets from her bag. The teenage assassin looked at Wave and yanked her bag tightly closer to her chest. "You can't have any" she muttered. The young man makes a hurt expression. Beside him, Seryu reached out and plucked the papers from his hand. The auburn haired murderess scrolls through each sheet, with a malicious grin "Look, Koro! Evil comes in many shapes and sizes. We'll show them how Justice deals with such vicious demons!". The biological Imperial Arm climbs up Seryu's shoulder and looks at the Danger Beasts' descriptions. It makes a similar malicious grin.

Esdeath calls out to get the Jaegers' attention "Alright, mount up! We're leaving, to catch up with the Expeditionary Force!" her subordinates began to walk back to their horses. Suddenly, the soldier form before called out "Just a moment, General!"

Esdeath turns to the soldier with a questioning glare. The soldier explains "While we were hunting for the remaining Danger Beasts, we came upon one that was injured. We've decided to capture it and nurse it back to health, instead. It appears quite tame, and would certainly be of use on your journey." The Imperial Soldier whistles out loud, and his comrades beside him began to part. From behind the soldiers, the Outpost's Stable Master stepped forward with a very large Danger Beast following him by the reigns.

The Jaegers stepped back and looked at the Danger Beast. It was big, roughly the size of a small house. It stood on two legs supported by strong bird talons, before sitting back on its haunches. In place of its arms, it has broad leathery wings folded along its body. Its head is crested by two back swept horns and a bird beak for a mouth. The Danger Beast looked down at the Jaegers, and blinks it eyes at them. It then snorts with indifference, and begins to busy itself with grooming its wings. Its lizard tail idly whipping side to side

"That's a Bird Wyvern! You don't see too much of them flying around the Empire, at this time of the year. They're a migratory species." Explains Run with admiration. Wave eyes the Bird Wyvern with interest "Must have been flying south when that Explosion happened. Knocked it right out of the air and grounded it."

"It's about a day's walk to the Reconnaissance Group's camp. Half a day on horseback. But, a flying Danger Beast can get you there in a matter of minutes." Explains the Stable Master, and he promptly hands the reigns to Esdeath. The General tugs on the reigns, and the Bird Wyvern obediently lowers its body to allow passengers to board.

"Everyone, climb aboard! We've wasted enough time!" ordered Esdeath. Bols was the first to clamber up atop the Bird Wyvern. He reaches down, and Wave and Run began handing travel packs up to him. While the masked Jaeger was busy stowing the packs, the other Jaegers began to board. Seryu was next to climb on top of the flying Danger Beast, with Koro barely clinging to her back. Run climbs on, after seeing Bols secure the last pack. Wave climbs up and turns around to offer Kurome his hand. Akame's younger sister throws him an annoyed look and climbs up, ignoring the seaman's helpful gesture. Esdeath was the last person to board, climbing up the Danger Beast's shoulder and tugging the reigns again to make it take flight.

The Bird Wyvern makes a graceful leap into the air and flaps its powerful wings to climb up into the sky, leveling off as it soars high over the Outpost. And with Esdeath's guidance, turns and flies south.

Expeditionary Force Reconnaissance Group's Camp, North of Hadley's Hope

15 minutes after departing the Southern Outpost, the Bird Wyvern carrying the Jaegers reaches the Reconnaissance Group's camp and begins descending towards the center of the campsite. It touches down and the Jaegers disembarked.

Esdeath tethered the flying Danger Beast to a single standing pole, and surveyed her surroundings with a recognized expression. The base camp of the Reconnaissance Group, has been utterly destroyed. Everywhere she looked, there were signs of battle. Broken swords and spears littered the ground. Empty rifles lay cast aside, their spent cartridge casings scattered everywhere. "It seems the Rifle Battalion who use these guns, have used up every single bullet they carried." The Jaegers' leader thought "And it didn't look like it made any difference." Puddles of blood pooled over every inch of the grounds, dyeing the campsite with crimson.

"What in the name of Justice, happened here!?" exclaimed Seryu, eyeing the devastation around her in shock.

"Looks like there was a battle here." Bols commented. Wave argued "You call this, a battle!? Looks more like a massacre to me! I've never seen so much blood!" he tries to compose himself, after seeing the carnage laid out before him.

Esdeath turns to her subordinates "Who can tell me, what's wrong with this scenery?" Everyone fidgeted, but Wave speaks first "You mean, besides the telltale slaughter?"

"You need bodies, for it to be a slaughter." Corrected Kurome. She scans the whole area twice over "And, I don't see any bodies." Run looks around onece more, and agrees "She's right. All the bodies are missing. If a battle has happened here, there should be dead and wounded from both the Expeditionary Force and whoever attacked them."

"Or, whatever attacked them." Added Esdeath. She walks in a circle, taking in the visual of the campsite in more detail. Only a handful of tents remain standing, and all of them had their side canvas torn to shreds by something hideously sharp. The General picks up a piece of canvas and analyze its damage "A wide slash mark. Made by a sword or spear? No. There are four cuts, running parallel to each other in perfect symmetry. A claw or a weapon resembling one, did this." She looks at the ground and notices a set of tracks that are barely visible, underneath the puddles of blood. "The tracks don't resemble any form of boot print or any other type of footprint, for that matter. Not a human one, anyway." The Jaegers' leader makes a closer observation "The prints are wide, with several indentations at the front. Indicating, either talons or a clawed foot." She spots several claw marks that resemble the one left on the tent canvas, accompanying the tracks at every few feet lengths.

Esdeath comes to a conclusion "Some type of animal did all this. One with considerable size and strength, maybe even a Danger Beast." Run makes a similar observation with the available evidence "Seems to be the case. I see no other sets of footprints, except for those of the creature and those belonging to Imperial Soldiers."

"Could it have been one of the Danger Beasts that we were informed about from the Southern Outpost?" asks Wave.

"Not likely." Run answers "None of the tracks I'm finding here, fit the profile. And their actions don't add up. Not one of the Danger Beasts can be a threat to the Expeditionary Force numbering 1,300 men, by itself. It would require all three Danger Beasts working together, to be able to wipe out such a large army."

Esdeath nods "This creature certainly wasn't working alone. I count multiple sets of tracks. Too much to count, anyway." She looks down at her thigh length boots, and notices a mysterious substance has stuck to the bottom. The slime seemed translucent, but would produce a greenish hue when light strikes it at an angle. The General frowns in disgust and conjures ice along the soles of her boots. The slime freezes instantly and breaks off, leaving the boots clean. She looks again at the creatures tracks and realized more of the unknown slime is trailed behind the track prints "Run. What do you make of this substance?" her Aide walks over and looks down at the slime "Some type of secretion, most likely." He lowers himself closer and picks at it, with a stick he found "Whatever it is, it makes for quite an adhesive. Doesn't seem to come off, by merely scrapping or rubbing at it. Might have to burn it off. Or freeze it off."

Kurome was standing some distance away from the group and called out "You guys! Come see this!" The Jaegers all gathered around a smoking hole that the teenage assassin discovered. The hole was only a few inches wide, but a plume of smoke rose from it as if it was burning. Beside it, lay a broken longsword with its blade melted down to a mere stub above the hilt guard.

"Never seen a sword, melted like that. And it couldn't be done by flame, otherwise we'd be seeing black scorch marks" surmised Bols. Beside him, Seryu bends over and picks up the damaged sword. She holds it above her head in an attempt to use the light of the sun to better examine it. A small drop of yellowish fluid began to form at the tip of the melted blade. "What is that?" she wondered, as the fluid threatened to drip off the sword and onto her face.

Suddenly, Seryu was yanked backwards by the collar of her uniform and she drops the sword back onto the ground. The drop of yellow fluid spattered on the ground and burns a new hole in the dirt, with a violent sizzling noise. The auburn haired murderess looks behind her, to see Esdeath was the one who pulled her back. She turns back around and sees the broken sword atop a newly formed hole, made by the yellow fluid.

"It's that liquid! The yellow liquid is what made those holes, and destroyed that sword. It's as if, it can dissolve any solid material. Even metal!" exclaimed Wave.

"What kind of liquid can do that?" asked Seryu, who stood back up and backed away from the melted sword. Behind her, Koro growled threateningly at the burning holes.

"Acid." Answered Kurome "Only acid can accomplish that. But I've never seen acid as potent at low quantities as that. Could be something to do with that creature, you mentioned." She turns to Esdeath, who concurs "This Danger Beast, certainly seems very lethal. I can't wait to see what it looks like."

The General looks at all her subordinates "Alright, spread out! Look for any more clues or leads, telling us what happened here or where everybody went." All of the Jaegers began to comb through the camp in different directions. Bols went south, Wave went north, Kurome went west, and Seryu went east. Run activates Mastema and flies up get a bird's eye view of the camp. Only Esdeath remained where she was, at the center of the campsite going over their recent findings.

Seryu walk towards the trees, on the outskirts of the campsite. She looks down and notices a set of footprints in the dirt. Human footprints, in the shape of boots. "Koro! Number 9!" she calls to her Imperial Arm. Koro enlarges his head and clamps his jaws onto the Jaeger's right arm. He spits, and an arm with a radar scope attached came out.

Seryu looks down at the Justice City Detector and sees a single dot reading blip steadily, a few yards from her location "Koro! Stay close! I got something here." The auburn haired murderess began following the radar scope signal with her Imperial Arm trotting behind, as they stepped into the thick forest beyond the camp grounds' boundary. After a few yards of walking, they both come upon a large tree with a hollow at the base of its roots. Seryu studies her radar and confirmed, this is the signal's point of origin. She kneels down close to the tree's hollow, and can hear the faint painful groaning of something inside.

"Koro! Arms! Remove this tree." Seryu ordered, and her Imperial Arm expanded his body and grew out enormous arms. Koro then grabbed the tree by its trunk and effortlessly tore it from the ground, roots and all. He hurls the tree into the distance, and reverts to small size to join Seryu in finding what was hidden underneath the tree. It was an unconscious Imperial Soldier in a tattered captain's uniform. The Soldier was lying on his side, and his breathing was shallow. He seemed barely alive.

Seryu stood up and gazed over towards the campsite "Koro. Stand guard here, and watch him. I'll go get the others." Koro makes an apprehensive whine, but obediently stood near the unconscious soldier. Seryu makes a dash towards the camp grounds to gather the other Jaegers to come see what she found.

Several minutes later, the Jaegers gathered around the Imperial Soldier that Seryu found. "I found his foot prints at the edge of camp, and used Justice City Detector to pinpoint his whereabouts. Me and Koro found him soon after, inside the hollow of a large tree." She explained. Beside her, Run surveys the dense forest surrounding them "He must have ran off into the forest, and crawled inside the tree hollow to escape the battle at the campsite." Esdeath scowled with disappointment "Such cowardice. To think a ranking officer and a Captain no less, has abandoned his men in the heat of battle. Only to curl up inside a hole, like a frightened little animal."

Bols knelt down and turned the soldier over on his back. He stood up and joined his fellow Jaegers in surprise. The Imperial Captain was covered in blood and serious wounds. His left shoulder was missing a standard armor piece. Instead, the shoulder was bare and the exposed skin is warped with fresh scars. As if the skin was chemically burned by some corrosive liquid. The same was for his left hand, only three fingers in the middle remained. The rest of the hand was dissolved away. On his right hand, he still holds a sword similar to the one found back at camp with its blade similarly melted to half length. The worst of the soldier's wounds was a large bloody cut, across his midsection. It's as if something tried to rend the soldier in half, but failed to cut deep enough. Blood was steadily oozing out of the wound. The soldier will eventually bleed to death, if he doesn't get medical treatment soon.

"What the Hell, happened to him!? What kind of animal could be capable of leaving such grisly wounds on a man!?" exclaimed Wave in morbid astonishment. Suddenly, the Imperial Captain opened his eyes and jerked awake. He jumps to his feet, and began screaming and slashing wildly with his damaged sword "Get back! Stay away! I'll never let you monsters take me alive!"

Everyone jumped back to avoid the soldier's frantic attack, and drew their weapons. But, they let up when they saw that the Imperial Captain stood in place, his sword swings getting weaker and unwieldy. Bad idea. His sudden erratic movements tore open his wounds, and now blood was spilling profusely. He was going to bleed out in a matter of seconds.

Without wasting a second, Esdeath rushed at the soldier and delivered a hard slap across his face. The Imperial Captain fell back on the ground disoriented. He first noticed the large bleeding cut on his abdomen was encased in ice, stopping his blood from flowing out. The soldier makes ready to scream again, but Esdeath stopped him by kneeling and covering his mouth with her hand.

"Get a hold of yourself, Captain! What has happened here? Where is your platoon?" Esdeath demanded, but the soldier started babbling nonsense in response "I'm sorry. I knew it was wrong. But I did it anyway. No one complained, because no one cared. It should've been me, and not you. It should've been Me and not You!"

Esdeath conjured a dagger made of ice, and stabbed the Imperial Captain on his wounded shoulder. The soldier cried out in pain, but Esdeath held the dagger in place twisting it slowly deeper into the wound "I want answers, Captain! And if I don't get them, I'll add more wounds to that impressive collection you got all over your body."

Whimpering, the soldier began to gather his senses. He looks at the person in front of him, then to the others encircled around "General Esdeath? Is that you?" Esdeath quietly nods "The Jaegers are here to assist in investigating the Valley of the Mysterious Explosion." She grips her ice dagger threateningly "Where is General Nouken? What happened to the Expeditionary Force?"

The Imperial Captain began to shudder "They were taken. The shadow of the forest, it just came alive and took them." Esdeath twisted the dagger again, and the soldier howled in pain. "Not good enough! Start making sense! Who took them!?" the Jaegers' leader roared. The soldier kept babbling "The Dark. The Darkness that dwells inside us all. We've let it rise from our hearts and consume this land, and now it wants Us. Nouken and his men were the first to be taken. Then the shadows crawled out of the forest, screeching and hissing like…like Serpents. We got into formation, and made a defensive circle. But night had fallen already and we couldn't see. What little torches we had, offered barely enough light to see each other being attacked." He started to sob "They're our Sins. The Light of this world has forsaken us. Now our Sins have come in the night to steal us away. And drag us to the Abyss for our eternal damnation." He glimpses at his partially dissolved hand "You can't fight your Sins. Anyone who strikes at them, and the hand that hits them is reduced to burnt char. They killed anyone who fought too hard. Those who were injured or were careless, got pulled into the shadows. Any man who held a rifle, fired to the last bullet. About half of us remained, when the last rifle clicked empty. And then the Crawling Darkness charged into our ranks, killing and abducting our men by the hundreds. Only when a handful of us were left standing, did we try to escape. We ran into the forest trees, while the Serpents were busy with the rest of our comrades. One of them came after me, it swiped at me with its tail, then I fell down and stumbled into the hollow of a tree. I was trapped and the Serpent tried to get at me, but couldn't fit. I stabbed at it with my sword and my body started to burn. I blacked out and can't remember anything afterwards."

Esdeath heard enough. She pulls the ice dagger out of the Imperial Captain's shoulder and stood up. The soldier slumped back on the ground, his raspy breathing reduced to small wheezes. All of the Jaegers stood there, trying to process the soldier's recapping of last night's hellish battle. Wave spoke up first "Serpents? The Crawling Darkness? Any idea what the hell any of that means, anyone?" Seryu looks at him "Well, isn't it obvious? Evil has overtaken this land, and only Justice can eradicate it!"

Chuckling can be heard, and everyone turned to look down at the wounded soldier. He was laughing hysterically "You think you can stop the coming Darkness!? It's inside each and every one of us! You can't stop it! No one can stop them!" Seryu was not convinced "I'm an Ally of Justice! There is no Darkness inside Me!" the Imperial Captain ignored her and rambled on "You still don't get it, don't you!? We are already dead! We're just waiting for them to come back and take us in the night!"

The Soldier sat up and looks down at his partially frozen wound "I won't let them take me. I'm leaving this world, on my own terms!" with all his might, he brings down his damaged sword and slams the hilt of the blade onto the ice. The sword bounces off the thick ice and the soldier had the wind knocked out off him. He looks at his weapon and sees the half melted blade still laced with droplets of yellow liquid. He turns the sword around and brings the damaged blade down on the ice. In a low sizzle, the ice breaks apart and blood gushes out of the wound once again. At this point, nobody can help him. The blood loss is too much. As he lays back on the ground with his consciousness fading, he slowly repeats what he said earlier "The Darkness inside us has risen from our hearts to stalk this land...and now It wants us…It can't be stopped." With a low sigh, the Imperial Soldier exhaled his last breath and passed away.

A minute went by and none of the Jaegers said anything. Most of them were too shocked by the soldier's death. Kurome stood the closest to the body, and heard the soldier's last words most clearly. She dismissed his words as a frightened coward's ravings, and started eating from her bag of sweets. Bols fidgeted, unsure of what to do. Wave only stared at the body, wondering what kind of traumatic experience pushed the soldier past his breaking point. Seryu checked her Justice City Detector, and saw no other life signs on her radar scope. Beside her, Koro began sniffing the body, looks up and whines. The auburn haired Jaeger shakes her head and indicates the body be left alone. Run was calmly assessing the soldier's story "Whatever this Danger Beast is, it's clearly powerful. And there's obviously more than one of them." He looks at General Esdeath "It's a safe assumption, that the Expeditionary Force has been wiped out."

Esdeath calls out "Anybody else, find anything?" Kurome puts away her bag of sweets and raises her hand "I found a trail of blood, plus more tracks belonging to the creature. They both lead towards West, deep into the forest." Bols also raises his hand "There's a clear path through the mountain, that leads towards the Valley. It seems to have been cleared by the Reconnaissance Group, before they disappeared." Wave looks up at Esdeath "So, what's the call Commander? If the Soldiers of the Expeditionary Force have been taken by the creatures, we should follow them and rescue any survivors."

Esdeath frowns and shakes her head "Those men were weak. They deserve to perish at the hands of the creatures who defeated them." She then grins menacingly "But I sure wouldn't mind, meeting these Danger Beasts. Their strength might prove entertaining." She mused, excited about meeting some worthy foes. The General gathers her subordinates' attention "The Valley can wait. We're following the Danger Beast's trail, so be ready for battle. Kurome, lead the way." The teenage assassin nods and begins walking towards West "Seryu. Stay close behind her and keep that radar scope handy" The auburn haired murderess salutes "Yes ma'am! Onwards, Kurome! We'll soon dispense Justice on those foolish Danger Beast, and avenge our fallen comrades of the Expeditionary Force!"

Run walks up to Esdeath "Are you sure about this, Commander? We'll be facing these creatures on their own turf. And for all we know, they might be waiting to ambush us." The General shakes her head "Not likely. According to that soldier's testimony, these creatures attacked when it got dark." She gazes up at the morning sun "I'd say, we have the advantage since we're moving in daylight. And it seems, they mostly come at night. Mostly." For some reason she doubted her last sentence in the back of her head, but shrugged it off. "Any animal that's nocturnal, should only be active at night. Right?" She reasoned.

They return to the campsite and Kurome continued leading the Jaegers to her western search zone. They stopped at the forest boundary and Esdeath steps to the front to examine the trail. The trail comprised of blood, creature tracks, and globs of slime heading in the same direction. The General turns to Seryu, who looks down at her Justice City Detector and shakes her head. There's no sign of anything ahead of them in the forest.

The Jaegers walk into the Forest, with Esdeath at the front. Seryu walked behind her and frequently looked down at her radar scope. Koro clung to and rode on Seryu's shoulder. Next was Kurome, walking along and idly slipping sweets from her bag and into her mouth. Run and Wave followed, constantly watching their surroundings and noticing the path was getting broader but the trees were getting denser. So was the mysterious slime, it was getting thicker and more widespread. Bols brought up the rear of the group, slowly sweeping Rubicante side by side ready to burn anything that moved.

Esdeath suddenly came to a stop and her subordinates did the same. Everyone tightly spread out to see what's ahead and began to stare. In front of them, the trees were no longer visible and the mysterious slime covered everything. Further down the path, the slime was concentrated and solid. Transforming the open forest trail into a dark tunnel. Along the sides, the resinous mucous enveloped the trees to form nearly translucent walls in which daylight can barely penetrate. Any light that managed to reach through, gave the interior a greenish glow.

"Hey. Since when did this place stopped being a forest and became some sort of complex structure?" demanded Wave, taking notice of the absence of the forest's trees. The trees are replaced by the hardened contours of dried mucous, forming a pattern along the walls resembling some sort of organ or bone. "This place looks like some sort of biological construction." Explained Run "More like a Hive, instead." He realized.

"What is all that stuff? And why is the forest covered in it?" asked Wave. Run walks up to the material and lightly brushes his finger against it "It looks like more of that secreted resin, from before." He raps his knuckles against it "It's denser now. And, it's incredibly hard."

"Yeah." Agreed Wave "But, secreted from what?" he reaches out to touch the material, but Bols gently grabbed his wrist and pulls him back "Nobody touch nothing." Esdeath turns to them and says "Bols is right. This is undoubtedly the creature's lair, and we don't know that stuff is or what it can do"

Beside Esdeath, Seryu looks again at her Justice City Detector and notices a small signal blip appeared on the scope. "Ma'am! I think I got something here!" The General turns to her subordinate and responds "Where is it?" the auburn haired Jaeger looks back at her scope "It's down the tunnel. A few yards ahead of us." Suddenly the signal disappears. "It's gone!" she exclaims.

Kurome turns to her with an annoyed look "What do you mean it's gone? Is that thing, even working right?" Seryu was insulted "How dare you! The Justice City Detector is the ultimate device for locating Evil. It uses thermal sensors and motion detection to zero in on a target. Nothing in this World can elude it!"

Esdeath drew her rapier and stepped towards the tunnel "We'll find out what it is, soon enough. Ready your Imperial Arms! We're going forward." Seryu holds out her left arm "Koro! Number 3!" Koro enlarges his head and clamps his large mouth on the arm. He then spits it back out and a large blade comes out. With her left arm equipped with the Sung Dynasty Blade, Seryu holds up the Justice City Detector attached to her right arm at the ready. Kurome draws Yatsufusa from its sheath and stands by. Run activates Mastema and sprouts wings. He folds the wings to save space in the group. Beside him, Wave stabs Grand Chariot into the ground and summons its black armor onto himself. At the rear, Bols resumes his ready stance and once again brandishes Rubicante. Together with weapons drawn, the Jaegers proceed into the Hive.

They slowly walked down the path of the tunnel of slime. The corridor was narrow, and visibility was dim. At several intervals, pockets of sunlight would pierce the green gloom of the corridor and properly illuminate the area. The Jaegers came upon one such light source, and it gave enough light for them to notice something new. Off to the side, hanging several feet above the ground and completely encased in the resinous slime, was the body of an Imperial Soldier. On his chest was a large gaping hole.

"Holy Shit! What the Hell, did they do to him!?" Wave cried out from inside his armor's helmet. Him and his fellow Jaegers observed the soldier's body, and concluded he was dead. "That wound on his chest, seems to be the cause of death." explained Run. Esdeath steps close to the body and jabs at the wound with her rapier "His sternum has been broken through. Ribs on the side are bent outwards, indicating an exit wound. The heart and lungs remain intact. No entry wound from the back, either." She lowers her rapier "Something came out of this soldier's chest. Ripped its way, right out of his ribcage." The Jaegers' leader concluded.

"Look at his face!" exclaimed Seryu. Everyone looked up at the dead soldier's face. It was twisted and contorted with an expression of boundless agony. Wave and Seryu turned away in disgust. Kurome stood idly by, still slipping sweets into her mouth. Run and Bols stared up silently. Only Esdeath eyed the soldier's face with astonishment "Amazing!" she whispered, wondering what these creature did to make a man don such a painful look.

Esdeath slowly looks around, as her eyes begin to adjust to the corridor's dim lighting. Her subordinates did the same and they all looked in shock at the walls around them. Covered in slime and almost completely lining the walls as far as the eye can see, were the bodies of the Soldiers of the Expeditionary Force. And every single one of them bore the same gaping wound on their chests, and the same tormented face of supreme agony. The General smiled inwardly. She wanted to see this Danger Beast, now more than ever. "Let's keep moving." She ordered

The Jaegers were jolted out of their stupor and began following their leader deeper into the tunnel. As they made their way forward, the bodies of Imperial Soldiers became more numerous. "Did this happen to every Soldier of the Expeditionary Force? Didn't these Monsters leave anyone alive?" asked Seryu, no one bothered to give her an answer. "This tunnel is quite long. I wonder how big this Hive is. And it's quiet too." She continued, and Wave realized something and responded "Where the Hell are these creatures? We should've seen one by now." Esdeath paused and focused her senses around her. If these creatures are near enough, she should be able to sense their Killing Intent. So far nothing caught her notice. The General turns to her auburn haired subordinate, who looks down at the Justice City Detector and shakes her head. Whatever is in here, it's not moving or readying an attack.

They entered a vast chamber, more spacious than the tunnel they were walking from and it is strangely dome-like and cavernous. All traces of the forest outside is gone, and the xenomorphic walls seem even more organic and bone-like. Daylight filtered through in small glimmers from small alcoves high up along the chamber's ceiling, providing visibility within. At the other end of the chamber, were three separate tunnels leading right, left, and center.

The Jaegers came up to the three tunnels, and all gazes fell on Esdeath. She observes each tunnel. The one on the right was dimly lit, and it was also the only tunnel lined with more bodies of dead Imperial Soldiers. The left tunnel was the brightest, probably leads to another opening where daylight poured in. The center tunnel was darkest, its interior was barely visible. "We're splitting up. We'll cover more ground that way. Run, you got the right tunnel. If there are survivors, they'll most likely be down that way. Look for anyone still alive, and lead them back here. Bols, go with him and cover his back. Kurome, you and Wave take the left tunnel. Check and see if there is another way out through there. Seryu, you're with me. We're going down the center, where we'll most likely encounter the creatures. So keep your voice down, and we might get the drop on them."

Seryu quietly nods, buts makes an insidious grin "Soon, Koro. We'll find you plenty of snacks to feast on." Koro also makes a grin full of razor sharp teeth.

Run starts walking down the right tunnel, his wings folded over his front to form a shield. Bols trailed behind, carefully aiming Rubicante so as not to burn Run. Kurome quietly trots down the left tunnel, with Wave following close behind and eyeing the walls suspiciously. The black armor clad Jaeger couldn't understand why, but somehow for some reason the walls seem to be hiding more than just forest shrubbery and dead bodies. And he began to feel they were surrounded by danger. He takes one more glimpse at Esdeath. His commander just stood there, facing the center tunnel with relative calm. Now he felt somewhat reassured, he's with the best fighters in all the Empire, and none of them can be easily defeated. "We've Got This" he declared, as he steadily marched to catch up with his teenage teammate.

Esdeath waited at the front of the center tunnel for a minute, just to make sure her subordinates didn't encounter any trouble within their respective tunnels. She beckons for Seryu and Koro to follow close behind her as they make their way forward.

Run and Bols were the first to reach their tunnel's outlet, and they stepped into another large cavernous chamber. The first thing they notice, were the rows upon rows of bodies of Imperial Soldiers of the Expeditionary Force lining every square inch of the chamber walls. Their bodies were twisted and broken by the creatures, to conserve spacing.

"This must be their central storage, of the victims they've captured" surmised Run, eyeing his surroundings In morbid fascination. He tried making a head count, and estimated almost all 1,400 missing soldiers are probably in here. He shifted his attention to the floor and notice several hundreds of leathery pods sat in rows throughout the chamber. Most were opened at the top, resembling oval four-petal plants in bloom. While the other few remained closed up, their outer membranes slowly pulsating.

"What are those?" wondered Bols. Beside him, Run steps forward and approach one of the open pods. He peers inside and all he sees are a few fleshy components of an unknown purpose. Nothing was moving inside the mysterious pod, it seemed empty. Run steps back, and his foot brushes against something on the floor. He looks down and sees a strange object. It looked like a severed hand with too many fingers attached, and a long tail trailing out its back end. The hand-like thing laid upturned with its fingers partially curled shut. In its center was a slick tubular shaft, protruding from a flabby sheath. "What have we here?" the General's Aide wondered as he bent down to examine the creature. He nudges it with his foot and the creature's fingers twitched

Bols steadily aims Rubicante "Careful, Run!" but his teammate raises his arms to calm him down. "It's okay Bols. I think that was a reflex." Run looks back down and the hand resembling organism refused to move anymore. It was dead. Both Jaegers look around and notice several more dead hand-like creatures lay scattered about the chamber.

Bols walks up to Run and asks "What exactly are these things?" The General's Aide shrugs "Not sure. We'll find out later. Right now, help me look for survivors." He spreads his wings and flies up to the top of the chamber "I'll start at the top. You check the bottom. Sound off if you find something." The masked Jaeger nods his head and begins looking over the mucous covered soldiers, in search of anyone still alive or at least any who didn't have a bloody hole in their chest.

"Kurome, wait up!" Wave called out to the teenage assassin, as he picked up the pace to catch up to her. He sees her standing near the tunnel's outlet, looking at something out of his line of sight. Daylight shone brightly across Kurome's petite figure, illuminating her face as well. She looked both shocked and amazed at something.

Wave finally catches up with her "What's wrong? Did you find a way out?" the black armor clad Jaeger turned to look out the tunnel's outlet and instantly threw himself in front of Kurome, and assumed a battle stance. At the end of the tunnel, was another path that lead outside the Hive and back into the forest. And facing the tunnel's outlet was the snarling face of the Danger Beast, Blitz Hound.

Wave made ready to punch at the Blitz Hound's face, but Kurome jumped in front of him with her arms outstretched. "Wait! Don't waste your energy." She turns around and lightly jabs Yatsufusa's blade at the Danger Beast's right eye. It made no attempt to shut its poked eye. In fact, it didn't move at all. It didn't even growl or breathe either.

"It's dead." Concluded Kurome, and Wave calmly stood at ease. They both stared at the Blitz Hound, and walked around to observe the Danger Beast. Its face was frozen in a snarled expression, seemingly in pain. Its large body was partially covered in more of that mysterious slime. And finally on the side of where its ribcage is, was a large gaping hole, similar to the holes found back inside the Hive on the chests of the dead Expeditionary Force Imperial Soldiers.

"Something burst its way out of this Danger Beast's ribcage. Something Big." Wave realized, and Kurome agrees "Just like the soldiers, we found back inside the Hive." The teenage assassin looks at her surroundings and points "Wave, look over there!".

Wave turned and looked to where his teammate pointed, and saw the body of another Danger Beast, Grey Ape. It was also encased in mucous and had its own recognizable gaping hole sticking out of its chest. Before the Jaeger can react, he spots another Danger Beast, Raging Bull, off to the side. It was the covered by the same material, and has the same type of wound. All three Super-Class Danger Beasts have suffered the same fate as the Expeditionary Force Soldiers.

"Impossible. What kind of Monster, can do this to all three Danger Beasts?" asked an astonished Wave. Kurome looks at him, and shrugs. She was just as confounded as her partner was.

Esdeath, Seryu , and Koro walked down the center tunnel quietly. The tunnel was particularly long and still dark, but thanks to Seryu's Justice City Detector they had no trouble in making out their position. "It shouldn't be any further, Ma'am. I tracking an opening, a few yards ahead of us." The amber eyed Jaeger tells the General.

Esdeath stops walking and raises her left arm to signal her subordinate to stop as well. The two of them stood there in the long winding corridor of the Hive. Koro trots up to Seryu's legs and whines, but the Jaeger puts a metal finger to her lips and shushes him. "Wave was right. We should have seen one of these creatures by now." Admitted the Jaegers' leader.

"I assure you Ma'am, the Justice City Detector is working fine. Dr. Stylish was very confident in his innovations for Justice." Seryu insisted. But Esdeath shakes her head "I have no doubts in Dr. Stylish technical prowess. Nor do I doubt your ability to utilize his equipment, Seryu. But I think the problem lies in what we face, in here. So far, neither of our usual tracking methods have been effective." The auburn haired Jaeger frowns, but concedes to her commander's opinion "So, what do you propose we do?"

Esdeath gazes down the path ahead of them. She can see a blue shade of ambient light in the distance, in contrast to the ambient green of the corridor she and her subordinate are currently standing in. Although she senses no Killing Intent right now, she can't help but get the feeling that she's been walking into the clutches of something terrible. "We're taking the slow approach, this time. Let's wait it out, right here. At least, until there's a change of some kind. We've made the first move, by coming here. Now, it's their turn to take action. And when they do, we'll be watching and waiting.

Seryu nods and stands by the wall next to her, calmly gazing at her Justice City Detector. Koro climbs up her back and perches on top of her right shoulder to look at the radar scope also. In front of them, Esdeath takes another look in the direction of the unknown destination of the tunnel's pathway. There's something there, she can feel it. She eagerly wanted to see this mysterious entity, but her instincts are telling her she's being set up. The General was already becoming bored of traps and ambushes. "Not like any of them, can work on me" she thought. But lately, she's been itching for a stand up fight ever since she encountered that strange Corporal Hicks and his flying ship. And using some underhanded trick, the Corporal distracted her and escaped into the sky "That's something, Najenda would do" the Jaegers' leader muttered, reminiscing about her former comrade.

"What was that Ma'am?" Seryu inquired curiously. Esdeath shakes her head again "Nothing. Just thinking about that weird man Corporal Hicks whom we met, the other day" Her subordinate makes a loathsome expression "You mean, that criminal and his pathetic lackey, Bishop? They'll pay for distracting us from our mission! As if, anyone would believe their ridiculous story. Xenomorphs? Planet LV-426? The scumbag didn't even try to lie convincingly. And, who the Hell are these Colonial Marines? Sounds to me, like a insidious group of thugs and evildoers."

Esdeath quietly stood there contemplating the rest of Hicks' story "Investigate…eradicate…Xenomorph infestation." She shrugs indifferently. There wasn't enough information to understand what it all means. It's the same with their current situation. There's too many unknown factors, so she can't make out what's happening. Hence, the General's decision to temporarily relent on her search for the creatures. She wanted to understand more about them, instead of blindly confronting them. Only an amateur would act otherwise. But still, she'd rather be fighting something right now than play cat and mouse in a dark slime covered hole. The General stood with her back turned against the wall and crossed her arms impatiently. "Perhaps, these Danger Beasts just need a little motivation." She wondered, and with a sinister smirk on her face, she projects her feelings of Killing Intent in every direction.

Seryu began to shiver at the sudden drop in temperature and the sudden feeling of dread. She turns to her Commander, who was still standing with her back facing the wall, wearing her menacing grin. Both of them were unaware that behind Esdeath's back, the wall began to twitch.

Bols was unsure if they were ever going to find survivors. Not by the looks of where he's been searching. So far, all of the soldiers he looked at had the same gaping wound on their chests. He began to push deeper into the large chamber, as he continued his search. Above him, Run hovered and constantly checked the bodies of soldiers that were placed high above the floor.

"How's it look down there, Bols? Talk to me." Run called down to his teammate. The masked Jaeger looks up at him and shakes his head "Nothing, yet." The winged Jaeger nods his head "Well, keep looking. We have to make absolutely sure, no one gets left behind." Bols nods his head in agreement and resumes his search. He noticed he was getting closer to more of the mysterious pods, and this particular bunch were still closed shut.

"I have to be careful. We don't know what these pods can do." Bols said to himself. He looks back at the wall of slime encased soldiers and saw that one of them was intact. The Imperial Soldier had no wound on his chest, and doesn't seem to have his body twisted or broken. The masked Jaeger approached the soldier and leaned close to examine him. Suddenly the soldier's eyes shot open and he began to move his head to look at his surroundings.

"Run! Go get the others! I got a live one here!" Bols calls out, and the General's Aide flew down to the tunnel and back to where they came from. The masked Jaeger turns back to the soldier "You're gonna be alright. The Jaegers are here to rescue you." The Imperial Soldier either didn't hear him or didn't care. Because when the soldier spoke, the first thing he said was "Please…kill…me"

Bols stood there, wondering why the soldier was making such a request. Suddenly the Imperial Soldier seized up and screamed in agony. Somewhere close by, a wet meaty crunch can be heard. Bols instantly backed up and hoisted Rubicante at the ready. Another crunch can be heard along with a grisly tearing sound of flesh being ripped apart, and the masked Jeager realized it's coming from the Imperial Soldier. The soldier seized up again and this time, a solid bulge formed on his chest. Despite the feeling of traumatic pain, the soldier still had the strength to scream out at the top of his lungs.

"What the Hell is happening to him!?" Bols exclaimed. He held Rubicante steady, unsure of what to do. Finally, the soldier hangs his lifeless head, and his chest explodes in a spray of blood. From the fresh gaping hole, a small creature's head emerges and hisses viciously.

A shocked and thoroughly disgusted Bols aims Rubicante at the dead soldier with the Alien creature protruding from his chest, and doused them with fire. The creature squeals loudly, as the flames consumed it.

Bols stands there eyeing the area he just torched, completely lost for words. The entire spectacle of horror happened in less than a minute, but the masked Jaeger felt like an hour passed by. He turns to the other Imperial Soldiers, still cocooned along the chamber walls "That's what happened to them. They've been implanted with some sort of parasitic creature that gestated and grew inside their bodies. Then the parasite would erupt violently, after a period of time. But, how was it done? What could have done this to these men?"

Bols looks at the oval-shaped pods from earlier. They numbered in the hundreds. "One for each soldier." He realized "They're connected. Somehow, the pods were able to impregnate the immobilized victims. Impregnated. Infected." Then, it hit him. He suddenly recalled the words that man from the other day Corporal Hicks, has mentioned "Eradicate. Xenomorph infestation."

"Eradicate, Infestation." Repeated Bols, letting his instincts and training as a member of the Incineration Squad take over. He quickly aims Rubicante again, and proceed to torch the entire chamber. Flames shot forth from the Imperial Arm, scorching the bodies of Imperial Soldiers cocooned along the walls. When the fires consumed all of the soldiers, the masked Jaeger turned his flamethrower Imperial Arm onto the oval pods and began to burn them.

Only a handful of closed pods remained, when Rubicante suddenly stopped spouting out flames. Bols checks the Imperial Arm's nozzle and sees the problem. The fuel line has been cut. Before he can wonder how it happened, a great powerful force knocks him down from behind. The masked Jaeger tumbles forward and the cylindrical component to Rubicante falls off his back, clattering off to the side.

Bols recovers, stands up, and turns to see what assailed him. He froze. Standing in front of him with it's long ridged bladed tail whipping sideways, was the creature that the Jaegers have been searching for.

The fires that Bols ignited with Rubicante, burned brightly and illuminated the large chamber. This allowed the masked Jaeger to see the monster clearly. It crouched on all fours, then it stood up with a hunched posture using its bladed tail for balance. Its skin was an exoskeleton, black and insect-like, with slime dripping from all over. Four dorsal tubes protruded from its back, lined up in pairs and ran up alongside its spine towards the head. Its head was elongated, with a smooth cowl overlapping a long cranium and leading down to the front, where it face should be. But there was nothing to indicate the face. It had no nose and no eyes, but somehow it seemed to be looking straight at him. The creature's lips flared open, revealing jaws of sharp silvery teeth. And with a snarling hiss, the mouth opens to reveal a second set of jaws which flexes open and closed. With a shrill cry, it raises its clawed hands up and readies to attack.

The Alien surged forward, and pounced at Bols. The masked Jaeger barely had enough time to react and hold out Rubicante in front of him to block. It crashes into him and pins him to the floor. The Creature swipes its claws at the Jaeger and manages to knock the damaged Imperial Arm out of his hands.

Bols throws a punch onto the Monster's face, turning its head sideways. If the Alien felt any pain from being hit by the masked Jaeger, it didn't show. Instead, It turns to face the Jaeger again with its teeth bared and hissing viciously. It was pissed.

The Creature made ready to claw at him again, but Bols quickly seized the claws by the wrists to prevent the assault. The Jaeger used his impressive physique to push and shove the Monster away, but to no avail. Despite his best efforts, the Thing wouldn't budge. In fact, It was actually overpowering Bols' grip and slowly forcing its claws back towards him.

"Dammit! It's too strong!" growled Bols in surprise, as he was once again pinned against the floor. The Alien opened its mouth and its inner jaws made ready to strike. The masked Jaeger jerked his head aside, just as the secondary jaws shot out and missed him by an inch. The Alien tries adjusting its aim and shoots out its inner jaws again, but it misses once more. It brings its tail up and like a stinging scorpion, quickly brings the tail blade down and stabs into the Jaeger's right shoulder.

Bols grunts in pain as he lets go of the Creature with his right hand and tries to wrench the tail blade out of his shoulder, but it refused to come out. The Monster uses its free claw and grabs the side of Bols' face, now he couldn't move anymore. The Jaeger watches helplessly as the Creature parts its mouth again and readies another bite with its inner jaw. The secondary jaw winds back to strike, but it suddenly stops. The Alien closes its mouth and turns to "look" at something, off to the side. Bols tries doing the same, but the Creature's claw still held his head in place. It reaches for the Jaeger's mask and rips it off, exposing his face.

With his face free from the confines of the mask, Bols directs his blue eyes towards the direction the Alien is facing. Off to his right about a few feet away, one of the remaining pods opened up. The top four flaps parted like a blooming flower and from the opening, a set of appendages resembling fingers appeared. The Jaeger recognize in horror, the hand-like creature him and Run had discovered earlier. Except this one is alive and moving.

The Facehugger climbs down from its egg and began to crawl towards Bols' face. The Jeager struggles to get away, but the Alien still had him pinned. With its free clawed hand, It slips two of its fingers through Bols' lips and pries his mouth open. The Jaeger could do nothing but yell in panic and frustration, as the Facehugger reaches his neck and jumps onto his face. It wraps its long tail around Bols' neck, tightly coiling around the throat. It envelopes the Jaeger's face with its fingers and jams its slick ventral proboscis down his open mouth.

The Alien crawls away from Bols, as the Jaeger thrashes about and tries to pull the Facehugger off his face. The Facehugger tightens its coiled tail, and begins to choke him. Several seconds pass by, and the Jaeger falls back on the floor, lies still and his breathing begins to calm.

The Alien makes ready to cocoon its new victim, but suddenly a loud piercing shriek echoes throughout the Hive. It perks its head up in response to the sound. The Queen has called for her brood to rise and take action. The Xenomorph leaves Bols alone, and exits the chamber through the tunnel. The Queen's order is far more important, and her entire brood has awoken to the call which rang clear as it transmits through their bond and connection as a Hive. "Kill the Intruders".

Run exits the tunnel and stops in the first chamber the Jaegers found, and listens to the loud shriek that came from deep within the Hive. "That can't be good." He says apprehensively. The General's Aide looks around the dimly lit chamber and notices movement in the shadows "The Shadows, just came alive" he quoted, remembering the words of the Imperial Captain they found near the campsite.

Not waiting another second, Run spreads Mastema's wings and flies up to the highest point in the chamber's ceiling. Indescribable shapes began to crawl along the walls, in an attempt to reach the flying Jaeger. "Oh no, you don't." he flaps his wings and launches a volley of razor-sharp feathers at the Shadows, and they begin to screech in pain as some of them fall off the walls and back down to the floor. Many more Shadows remain, so Run launches more cutting feathers at them again and again and again…

Out in the forest, Wave and Kurome look at each other with concern. "What was that?" the black armor clad Jaeger asks, and the teenage assassin only shrugs "I don't know."

Wave walks back to the tunnel leading back into the Hive, and listens. The screeching sound wasn't repeated, and once again the tunnel was as silent as a tomb. He turns to his teammate "Let's go back. The others might be in trou-" Whip! Suddenly, something long, ridged and ending with a blade whipped out of the gloom of the tunnel and wrapped around the black armored Jaeger's neck. And with an effortless tug, Wave was jerked off his feet and dragged into the dark tunnel headfirst.

"Wave!" Kurome yelled out in surprise as she runs towards the tunnel, but stops just outside of it. "Wave!" she called her teammate again and listens for a response. She can hear Wave inside the tunnel, grunting and yelling "Ugh! Get Off Of Me! Shit! Argh!" he was being attacked.

Kurome raises Yatsufusa above her head, and points it straight up "Hang on, Wave!" Before she can summon her puppets, something big jumps out of the forest and lands behind her. Akame's younger sister turns around and forgets about Wave and his situation, to stare at the huge Monstrosity standing before her.

The Creature was massive. Standing 12 feet high, it's body was covered by a mottled grey exoskeletal carapace, and it stood in a ape-like posture with bulky arms propping up its broad torso. The Monster's large armor plated head had no eyes, but it "leered" at Kurome while growling angrily and violently lashing its thick ridged tail about. It started beating its broad chest with its massive arms while it opens its large mouth and utters a primal roar, before letting an inner set of jaws spring out of its mouth in a snapping motion.

The Gorilla Alien struck first. It raises up its massive forearms and smashes them down into the ground in a hammer motion, causing the ground to quake. Before the earthly tremors could reach her, Kurome leaps up into the air and backflips onto the large branch of a nearby tree.

"Sorry, but I'm busy right now. So, why don't you play with my dolls instead?" Kurome taunts, as she summons her puppets "March of the Dead, Yatsufusa!" A black orb appears at Yatsufusa's tip, and dark lightning strikes out from the orb and hits the ground. Wherever the ground was hit, bodies began to emerge and climb out to the surface. The first was a huge ape-like creature with brown fur and red eyes.

"Look! I even brought you a friend to play with!" Kurome said cheerfully. The second was a hooded man with a completely red face and stud-like horns above the brows of his pale white eyes, he carried a knife and held it skillfully poised. The third undead puppet was a middle-aged man with red hair, wore a robe vest and trousers, and brandished a whip.

Kurome gives her puppets instructions "Rokugou, Henter. Apeman will attack the Danger Beast head on. While it's occupied, go around the sides and flank it." The Apeman roared and beats his fists against his chest, Henter began sneering menacingly, and Rokugou calmly stared.

The Gorilla Alien snarled, as it studied its new quarry. Once again It raised its head and bellowed another roar, loudly conveying its challenge. The Apeman charged straight at the Simian Xenomorph, arms raised and ready to pummel the Creature despite the Undead Puppet being 4 feet shorter. The Gorilla Alien threw it arms up and caught the Apeman's by the wrists, before it can strike a blow. Apeman struggled to move his arms, but the Gorilla Alien's grip was overwhelmingly strong.

Henter and Rokugou edged around Its sides, readying to attack. Henter made to leap at the left side with his knife raised and ready to stab at the Gorilla Alien's ribcage, but the Monster's flexible tail lashed out, struck the Undead Puppet down his shoulder and slammed him into the ground. The sound of bones snapping escape from the shallow imprint, where the Puppet was floored. Much of Henter's skeleton has been shattered.

Rokugou stood back at a medium distance and without a free limb for the Gorilla Alien to protect itself, delivered a similar whip attack onto the Monster's defenseless back. The whip struck hard with a force that can shatter rocks, and tore away the armored carapace and exposing the Simian Xenomorph's back.

With the need to free up Its arms, the Gorilla Alien quickly shot out its inner jaw into the Apeman's chest where its heart should be, and hurled the Undead Puppet at Rokugou.

Rokugou tried to dodge, but Apeman's wide girth clipped him and made him fall over. As he tried to regain his footing, a massive clawed hand pressed down against his back and pinned him to the ground. He looks up just in time to see the Gorilla Alien use its other hand to effortlessly pull the Undead Puppet's head off and crush it between Its clawed fingers like a grape.

The Gorilla Alien began drumming its chest and roars triumphantly after seemingly killing its prey. It turns its armored head at Kurome, who only stares back down and grins mischievously. Behind the Simian Xenomorph, something moved. It turns around in time for Apeman to deliver a solid punch across its face.

The Gorilla Alien stood there. Thanks to the armor shell covering its head, it was unaffected by the blow. It backs away from Apeman as they both size each other up. Behind Apeman, a headless Rokugou stood up from where his body lay and Henter was crawling out of his imprint with no proper skeletal structure to support his attempt to stand.

"I forgot to mention. My dolls can never die off from even the most devastating of injuries. Nor will they feel pain or ever get tired. The only way to stop them is to totally destroy the body or eliminate their Master." Kurome teasingly explains. She sat down on her tree branch and playfully crossed her legs and rests her hands on the top knee, as if waiting for a show to start. Behind her, three more puppets stood at attention. One was a blonde haired man in a pale trench coat and held a weapon resembling a naginata. The others were a woman with long blonde hair holding dual revolver pistols, and a bald man in a white business suit holding a riot shield. Below them all, the first three Undead Puppets attack again.

Apeman pulls back his right arm and throws another punch, but the Simian Xenomorph catches it and holds the fist in place. The Gorilla Alien then uses its other hand to grab Apeman by his shoulder. As the Undead Puppet struggles to break free from its clutches, It steadily tears him in half by pulling both the shoulder and arm at opposite ends. Apeman was split in two, right down the middle.

The headless Rokugou raised his whip and twirls it around himself in rapid succession, creating a lashing force field around him and slowly steps toward his target. The Gorilla Alien calmly stands back and observes the approaching threat. It understands that whip's attack can destroy more of Its armored carapace. It chucks one of the halves of Apeman towards Rokugou's whip and watches the body piece get diced into more smaller pieces. The Simian Xenomorph slams it mighty fists into the ground and causes the area around him to quake. The Headless Puppet stumbles from the quake's tremor and topples down, stopping his whip's attack. Before he can stand back up, the Gorilla Alien quickly hops on his legs and crushes them. Afterwards, the Gorilla Alien pummels the Headless Puppet with Its titanic fists and reduces Rokugou to a bloody puddle of unrecognizable pulp.

Off to the side, Henter was still trying to stand up without an intact skeleton. The Gorilla Alien reaches for one of Henter's legs and holds him upside down like a rag doll. It then swings Henter overhead and slams him against the ground with so much force, the shock of impact caused his arms, legs and head to fly off his torso. Henter was reduced to a useless, headless and limbless body.

Kurome menacingly leers down at the Gorilla Alien "How tough. I might want to have you in my collec-" something pushes her off the tree branch, causing her to fall to the ground. She recovers and lands on her feet at the base of the tree. Two of her puppets come down with her, weapons trained upwards

"Natala. Doya. Where's Wall?" Kurome asks, as she looks up and sees Wall. The Undead Puppet was suspended in midair above the tree branch, by a long bladed tail protruding from Wall's chest. Another Creature that was hiding atop the branches of the same tree, lifted an impaled Wall while the Undead Puppet was trying to reach for the tail blade in its back with futility. It levels its head with the puppet's and with a low hiss, opened its mouth and ran its inner jaw into Wall's bald forehead.

"Doya! Shoot it down!" commanded Kurome, and Doya obediently opened fire on the new threat. It retreats back into the leaves of the tree's canopy, dragging a still struggling Wall with it. A grisly sound of flesh being torn apart can be heard, and body parts began to rain down the branches.

Kurome stood back to avoid the gore falling from above, unaware that something emerged from the shrubbery behind her. Natala jumps behind her and holds out his weapon to hold off another Creature. The Jaeger turns around and sees another Monster like the one in the tree, it had a black exoskeleton body with a blue overtone, a smooth elongated head with a bone ribbed formation on the sides, four dorsal tubes sticking out from Its back, a long ridged tail that ended with a spear tipped blade, and two arms with sharp claws on each hand. The very same claws were mere centimeters from reaching the back of Kurome's neck.

The Alien Warrior screeched in frustration after realizing Natala foiled its sneak attack, both of them stood deadlocked. The teenage assassin makes another mischievous grin "Natala is my childhood friend. He always has my ba-" the Xenomorph whipped its tail around the side and clubbed the Undead Puppet off his feet. It then grabs Natala by the ankle and drags him back with it, into the bushes.

Kurome brandishes Yatsufusa and makes ready to charge "Let go of my friend!" she yells. Next to her, Doya aimed her revolvers and fired into the dense underbrush till her bullets ran out. The Female Puppet begins to reload, till suddenly a large stone boulder lands on top of her and flattens her. A pool of blood oozing out from beneath the boulder was all that was left of Doya, aside from a hand sticking out and still holding a gun with the trigger finger twitching and firing empty.

Kurome stopped and looked to see who threw the boulder, and saw the culprit was the Gorilla Alien. It stood at a distance and drove its arms into the ground and pulled out another boulder. In a shot put motion the Simian Xenomorph hurls the second boulder towards Akame's younger sister, who nimbly jumps aside and dodged out of the way.

The Gorilla Alien roars in anger and charges at Kurome, who once again dodged out the way. It misses her and continues hurdling forward, unable to break its stride due to its momentum. The teenage assassin swings Yatsufusa down on its flank as is passes by, but the Imperial Arm's blade bounces harmlessly off the Simian Xenomorph's armored carapace in a reverberating clang and a flash of sparks. She can't cut it.

Kurome studies the Gorilla Alien's body as it fails to stop itself from plowing over several trees. She spots Its uncovered back, where Rokugou destroyed the carapace plating with his whip's attack. The exposed epidermis was only 10 inches wide, too narrow for Yatsufusa to slash it. "I'm going to have to stab it." the teenage assassin surmised "I'll need to stab it accurately, so that I may sever the spinal column and hopefully kill this beast. For that to work, I'll need It to stay still." She raises Yatsufusa and points it up again.

Just as Kurome was about to summon another doll, three Alien Warriors pounced from behind another set of foliage and bore down on the unwary Jaeger. Before the trio could reach her, a large pink tongue shoots out from a different bush, wraps around the three Xenomorphs, and pulls them into the gaping maw of a large frog with green skin and red spots.

Kurome carefully stands near the frog for safety "This one here is my newest Doll, Kaiser Frog. Its got a long flexible tongue and a stomach full of acid that can dissolve rocks in mere seconds." The three Aliens struggled to escape the Kaiser Frog's mouth, but were quickly gulped down whole. "Have fun, becoming toad shit. You can accompany all those people, Koro ate and eventually left on the Imperial Palace's front lawn." taunted the Jaeger.

The bushes where the Alien Warrior dragged Natala, began to rustle. Kurome looks behind her "Natala. Come help me kill the large Danger Bea-" she stops talking and makes a horrified expression. It wasn't Natala

The Alien Warrior stalks out of the bushes, its face, claws and tail blade were covered in blood. Natala's blood.

"What have you done to him!?" Kurome demanded, but the Xenomorph only hissed and bared its teeth also stained with blood. Next to her, a wet sound of flesh being torn apart can be heard coming from the Kaiser Frog. The Puppet Danger Beast's belly starts to bulge, and the flesh ripping sound grew louder.

One of the Alien Warrior's head erupts from out of Kaiser Frog and its belly explodes, dousing the immediate area with blood, guts, stomach acids, and three unharmed Xenomorphs. "Impossible! How were you all not dissolved by the acid!?" exclaimed an astonished Kurome. The trio of Aliens righted themselves up and screeched at her, stomach acid dripped off of them and burned the ground.

Kurome stared at the spectacle around her in disbelief. One by one, her Puppets have been brutally destroyed by these Creatures. One got Natala, another took Wall, three of them tore up the Kaiser Frog, and the big one crushed the other four. They surrounded her from all sides and closed in with more coming from out of the woodwork. "Enough of these Games!" The teenage assassin bellows as she points Yatsufusa up once more and conjures dark lightning "Desta Ghoul!"

The ground trembles and a gigantic skeletal claw shoots out from below. Kurome quickly steps onto the the claw's open palm. The Alien Warriors scurried away and assembled behind the Gorilla Alien, as the rest of the Final Puppet climbs out from the ground and stood up. Its body resembled the skeleton of a giant dinosaur. "You took away my dolls! Now I'll take all of your lives!" Akame's younger sister cries out in demented fury. The Desta Ghoul parts it jaws and a large devastating beam of energy blasted forth. The beam streaked across the forest landscape to where the Aliens congregated, leaving a trail of gouged earth in its wake.

After the beam receded, Kurome had the Desta Ghoul place her on the ground to observe the devastation. She walks to where the Aliens have stood and found no trace of the creatures. She makes a sadistic smile, believing to have vaporized her enemies.

Behind the teenage assassin, the Desta Ghoul falls on its back in a resounding thud. "What the Hell!?" she exclaims, as she spotted the Gorilla Alien standing atop the Desta Ghoul's face. It had taken a massive leap upwards to avoid the Puppet Danger Beast's beam attack, then dropped down forcefully onto the face in retaliation. The Desta Ghoul raises a claw to swipe the Simian Xenomorph off its face, but the latter simply swats the claw away. Its strength clearly outmatched the Undead Puppet's.

The Gorilla Alien then starts to pry open the Desta Ghoul's mouth. Noticing the target is in the line of fire, the Undead Danger Beast parts its jaws to make a beam blast. The Gorilla Alien was counting on it making this move. It wrenches the mouth wide open and quickly belched yellow fluid into the Desta Ghoul's gaping maw.

As the Desta Ghoul's head began to dissolve, the Gorilla Alien began hammering it fists against the puppet's skull to hasten its demolition. It was unaware of the black petite blur of a charging teenage assassin.

Kurome rushed to her target while it was busy demolishing her last doll, and steadied Yatsufusa. Before the Gorilla Alien could notice the strike, the Jaeger bounds away from the ground and plunges the Imperial Arm's blade straight into the Beast's vulnerable back as she lands.

The Simian Xenomorph roars in pain, as Kurome fought to drive Yatsufusa deeper. The Gorilla Alien frantically tried reaching behind to grab her, but Akame's younger sister's petite form and middle placement allowed her to avoid being grabbed. She grits her teeth and pushes with all her might, till she finally hears the satisfying sound of a snapping vertebrae. The Beast's movements began to slow, until eventually collapsing to the ground. It is Dead.

Kurome concentrates and activated Yatsufusa's ability. Dark lightning began to course through the blade and into the dead Gorilla Alien. "You cost me of my entire collection! Now, you'll serve me as a replacement and help gather new dolls for me." Declared the teen assassin triumphantly, then she starts giggling maniacally "You're incredibly powerful. With you by my side, I'll finally be able to get back my Big Sis…" the dark lightning disappears and a sizzling noise of something being dissolved can be heard. The wound where the Imperial Arm was embedded started to vent smoke.

Kurome draws Yatsufusa from the Gorilla Alien's body, and looks on in horror. All along the Imperial Arm's blade, a yellowish fluid was quickly eating away at the metal. "No!" she cried in disbelief, as the blade was completely melted away by the acid. All that was left was the hilt. Yatsufusa has been destroyed.

Kurome falls to her knees beside the dead Gorilla Alien and choked back her tears. She had lost her important weapon and with it, her dolls, her usefulness to the Empire and her only means of getting Akame back were gone. Disgusted with herself and her failure, she throws away Yatsufusa's hilt and checks her surroundings. Much of the forest has been razed by the recent battle between her puppets and the Creatures that were clearly the Serpents the soldier from the campsite had mentioned. She eyes the Beast's carcass beside her and sees more of the yellowish fluid which is obviously Its blood, flowing out of the wound and running along the body till it touches the ground. It slowly burned a familiar hole beneath.

"Acid for blood?" Kurome steps away to avoid the acid from reaching her, then she recalls the words the dying Imperial Captain had said "You can't fight your sins. Anyone who strikes at them, and the hand that hits them is reduced to burned char." She gazes at the acid blood in understanding "It's got an amazing defense mechanism. You wouldn't dare strike it with a melee weapon." She surmised as she started checking her destroyed dolls, hoping to salvage a replacement weapon to defend herself.

The remaining gun left by Doya is empty and the other gun is crushed beneath the boulder along with the blonde haired puppet. Kurome walks over to where the Gorilla Alien obliterated her first three dolls. Henter's knife was left intact, but the same couldn't be said about the owner who was in pieces all over. She picks up the knife and tests it weight. The teen assassin has had some prior experience with knives from her days of brutal training as an assassin for the Empire. She can see Rokugou's whip next to the puddle that was once Rokugou himself. Kurome was never familiar with using a whip and in her current situation, learning on the go wouldn't be a safe prospect. She leaves the whip alone and checks the bushes nearby to find her next option. She steps into a clearing to discover the fate of her doll Natala. The body of her friend has been completely eviscerated. The face was nearly unrecognizable with the majority of it being slashed, leaving a single eye gouged out while the other remained and left staring aimlessly at the sky. The rest of the body was a bloody mess. One arm was lopped off, and the other's hand was ripped off by the wrist. One of the legs was intact, but the other was partially melted with droplets of yellow fluid continuing to dissolve towards the bone before losing potency. The same was for the waist portion. "The Creature must have been hit by Doya's bullets and bled onto Natala." The Jaeger concluded, holding back some more tears as she examined the main torso. Countless cuts, stabs, and bite marks perforated the body. The puppet body of her childhood friend was gone, and she no longer has Yatsufusa to bring him back.

The surge of emotions pass, and Kurome bent down to pick up Natala's weapon Trisula, a pole arm with an ability to extend its haft for the blade to reach long distances. She's not much familiar with wielding spears or staff weapons, but this one's gimmick can give her an edge of fighting from medium and long range and she's seen Natala use it plenty of times to get a basic understanding of using the weapon. The teen tucks Henter's knife in the back of her skirt and holds Trisula with both hands. It's hefty, but not too difficult to wield. She takes one last look at her puppet and murmurs "Goodbye…" before jogging back towards the Hive tunnel. "Wave. Please be alright…" she says with concern for her teammate. Akame's little sister had already lost too much in a single day and for some reason, she couldn't bear the thought of losing Wave too. She was just about to reach the tunnel, but something moved out the corner of her vision and she held up Trisula just in time to block a large green blur from hurling straight into her.

Kurome was thrown off her feet by the sheer force of impact from the blocked attack, and was knocked towards a tree. The blow sat her down and leaning up against the tree trunk, her back ached and she is sure she's got whiplash. The teen assassin looked up to see who assailed her, and her dark eyes widened. It was another Serpent Creature. It looked similar to its brethren, but with subtle differences. It body exoskeleton was black also, but with a dark green overtone instead of blue. Its elongated head was slightly thinner and sleeker. No dorsal tubes on Its back. And finally, Its tail blade and claws were longer and sharper. It moved on all fours, resembling some sort of feline. Or canine.

"What the Hell kind of Danger Beasts, are you!?" asked Kurome darkly, in disbelief that another one was lying in wait. "Are you even Danger Beasts at all!?" she continues.

The Dog Alien parts its mouth and emits a loud screech, as it crept towards the injured Jaeger and rears up. Standing at 10 ft, It was taller than Its 8 ft human based brethren.

In a desperate attempt to kill it, Kurome extends Trisula to impale the Runner Xenomorph, but it merely dodged the incoming blade and grasped the haft with its tail. With an effortless tug, It yanks Trisula out of Kurome's hands and constricts the weapon so hard, it breaks the weapon in half.

Kurome sits there and once again stares in disbelief at the Creature's overwhelming power. She then looks away as the Dog Alien crept closer to her, and brings Its face right next to hers. It lets out a loud hiss, as its inner jaw slides lazily out of Its mouth and brushes against her cheek. Taking a chance, Kurome quickly reaches for Henter's knife and pulls it out of her skirt to stab the face. The Runner Xenomorph reacted by catching her hand that held the weapon. The Dog Alien squeezed hard on the teen's wrist until the bone snapped. Crying out in pain she drops the knife, after the hand goes numb and searing white hot. With Its other hand, the Dog Alien clasps Kurome's neck and the claws dig deep underneath the back nape.

Kurome's vision begins to fade and she whispers "Big Sis…" before the darkness claimed her. The Dog Alien drops the body to the ground and examines it, deliberating about what it should do. It still senses life inside of her, despite the extreme injury she had suffered. Its options were to finish her off, either by inner jaw through the head or tail blade impalement through her heart. Its first reaction was to cocoon her, but it can sense this one was different from the others. Her body had a different chemical composition and it was slowly degrading her body's health. She may not be a proper host for the little ones, an Alien larvae might not be able to properly grow inside her polluted body. Better to kill her, here and now than risk the little ones impregnating her and possibly grow an abomination by even Xenomorph standards.

The Dog Alien turns over Kurome's body and makes ready to impale her forehead. Her dark eyes flutter open and her body begins to radiate a black aura. "The body enhancement drugs the Empire injected me with, has an effect that makes my body more durable than normal. Even several fatal injuries can be withstood. The tradeoff is that I go through the most excruciating pain imaginable. I'm literally going out of my mind from how much it hurts. In order to properly kill me, you'll have to remove my head or destroy my heart!" she explains maniacally. The Runner Xenomorph takes the hint and holds Kurome steady to run Its inner jaw through her chest. It winds back the inner jaw for a bite, and abruptly stops. It turns its head to the side as if "looking" at something elsewhere. If then tosses the Jaeger aside and scurries off towards the Hive at a ridiculously high speed, leaving the teen assassin alone.

Kurome rights herself up and frantically tries to take out her bag of sweets. The pain in her body is unbearable, and threatened to make her pass out again. All she knows is that the sweets from her bag can make her feel better, unaware that the sweets are laced with drugs to prevent the chemicals inside her body from killing her sooner. "Tasty Sweets…" she commented idly, while consuming the contents of her bag. Behind her, a tall dark silhouette approaches and reaches for her.

"Kurome…" Wave calls out softly, as he places an armored hand upon the teen assassin's shoulder. Kurome turns around while gasping, but quickly recovers and throws her arms around her comrade and hugs him "Wave! You're okay!". That was an understatement. She releases her embrace and gasps again after examining the black armor clad Jaeger.

The Grand Chariot's black armor was badly damaged. Countless dents and claw marks covered every inch of its plating. The helmet had four deep cuts streaked across the translucent visor. Blood stained the left leg and right shoulder of the main body, where the armor plating is breached. The mantle film extension from the back was chipped in various places.

Wave's been fighting off a horde of the Creatures, and it seems like They put him through the wringer. But the meek smile he gave after deactivating Grand Chariot, shows Kurome that he seems alright despite the cut on his leg and a stab wound on his shoulder. "What happened to you? You look like you've been through a War." She asked.

Wave stops smiling and speaks "You're not that far off the mark. There must have been dozens of them. Maybe a hundred. After one of them reeled me into the shadows, they jumped me all at once. I started swinging at whatever moved toward me. They got plenty of good licks in, before they scurried off and disappeared down the tunnel all of the sudden. Something must have drawn them away elsewhere." He grins reassuringly "Well, it looks worse than it feels. Though, a couple of bandages and some aspirin wouldn't hurt either." Said Wave jokingly, as he gazes upon Kurome and notices the trail of blood seeping out from behind her neck as well as the bruises on her bent wrist. "What happened, Kurome!? You're injured!" he exclaimed with a concerned look on his face.

Kurome covers her neck wound with her good hand and ignores the pain and blood trickling out "Oh, this is nothing. A minor scratch. One of those Monsters got to me too." Wave didn't seem convinced, and the concern didn't recede from his dark blue eyes. Anger flashed in the teen assassin's own dark eyes, and she tried standing to demonstrate her boasted state of health. Only to fall back down on her knees, the look of excruciating pain and exhaustion shown evidently clear on her contorted face.

"Kurome, you're seriously hurt! Don't push yourself like that." Insisted Wave, but his fellow Jaeger scowled and barked back "I said, I'm fine! I can take care of myself!". But Wave only gripped both her shoulders to keep her steady "You're not! Even I can see the terrible state you're in."

Tears began to form in Kurome's dark eyes "The others, they must never find out about my weakened state. If anyone learns the extent of my injuries, I'll likely be killed!" she desperately explains "I've killed so many people for the Empire. People, who the Empire would rather not have others knowing about. If I could no longer be of any use to them and become a liability, I'll be eliminated and disposed of in order to protect their secrets."

Wave frowned as he hears these words "I won't let that happen. I'll protect you." Kurome started to laugh hysterically "Why would you go so far as to do that, for me? I'm expendable. Easily replaced by others like me" she stops laughing when something smothered her face, and she realized her teammate was hugging her in a tight embrace

"You're not expendable." Declared Wave, and then he murmured "And you're not replaceable, either. How can that be? No one is as cute and strong, as you are." Kurome started to blush from hearing his words. His embrace shocked and embarrassed her, but she kept still. It's been a long time since she was ever hugged by someone. Only Akame ever did that to her. She forgot how warm it felt.

Wave released the hug and spoke "I promise, I won't tell anyone about your condition. But you have to promise me something, in return. Promise me, you won't push yourself that hard, that you'll hang back from the major battles as much as you can." Kurome nods quietly and remembers something "I lost my Imperial Arm. Yatsufusa has been destroyed by the Creatures." The sailor Jaeger nods his head in understanding "That's okay. No one's gonna fault you for that. You fought the Enemy, you survived and you won. That makes you a hero, not a liability. We can always get you a replacement weapon." The teen assassin shakes her head "You still don't get it. In the Empire's point of view, I'm the Weapon. They'd sooner replace me as the wielder of an Imperial Arm, and get someone else who's better at fighting with one."

Wave sighs, and unzips his jacket. He brings out a roll of bandages and a small bottle of sterilizing alcohol from an inner pocket and zips it back up. He starts cleaning the blood off Kurome's neck, before dressing the wound. "You're just flesh and blood. If you were a living weapon like Koro, could I turn you against those Serpents? Would you grow to monster size and squash the Creatures like bugs?"

Kurome shakes her head and admits "No". Wave then explains "The Empire is the most powerful nation in the world. The First Emperor himself created the Imperial Arms. If the Empire can make weapons like those once, they can do it again. They just need some time, and the right resources and materials." He finished bandaging Kurome's neck and bent down to examine her wrist. He frowns and looks at the forest around them. He sees a good size stick, so be grabs it and breaks it in two. Using the sticks and a piece of leather taken from his jacket's other pocket, he binds up Kurome's wrist with a makeshift splint. After treating Kurome to first-aid, he reaches down, grasps her good hand and helps her up off the ground.

The teen assassin stands on shaking legs that threatened to give out from under her, but Wave steadies her again and wraps his arm around her waist. "As much as I want to carry you, I'm afraid I'm in no shape to do that. So here's what we'll do. We'll lean against each other and walk side by side. Place your good arm around my waist, the same way I'm doing it with yours. That way, our weight will combine and distribute between us. I'll hold us up with my good leg and carry us along as we walk." Kurome nods and does as her teammate says. Hanging on to each other's sides, Wave places the combined weight onto his unscathed right leg. After a few practice steps, the two of them maintained their balance and turn towards East where the Expeditionary Force campsite was.

Wave takes a look back at the Hive structure and the tunnel that led to it "Well, it's safe to say, we won't be doing much good if we continue to fight out here. Let's retreat back to camp and see about getting me some First-aid also."

Kurome began to protest "But, Wave! The others could be in danger! It wouldn't be right to just cut and run, and leave them behind."

"You and I can barely stand. We'll just be in the way." Wave counter argued "Besides. I have an idea, as to how we can help."

Kurome turns silent, as she and Wave began limping and hobbling through the forest, in the direction towards the Campsite.

Chapter 3 : End

Thank you for reading. Please leave a review, any feedback will be appreciated. If you have any questions let me know with PM. Next chapter, the battle continues for Villain supremacy. Heroes are joined by powerful friends.