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

Chapter 1: Discovery

Night Raid hideout, Unknown Location

Najenda leans back on her chair and smokes her cigarette. After looking around the assembly hall to confirm all her subordinates are present, she exhales a cloud of smoke and begins to speak. "The subject today is the growing religion that is spreading across the land, The Path of Peace."

All the members of Night Raid look at Najenda and then to each other with curious expressions. "I know that religion." said Tatsumi "They came to my village a while back. The chief even gave me a wooden statue of their god".

"They are a very influential group on the east side of the Empire." continued Najenda "Over the years, their numbers have been growing at a tremendous rate. Thanks to that, they have been planning an armed uprising to take down the Empire. When they do, the Revolutionary Army and our allies, the Western Tribe will launch an attack as well. The Empire will then have all out war on the eastern, southern, and western fronts".

"So it's a three pronged attack" Tatsumi realized "Even the Empire can't easily beat such an overwhelming force!" Najenda holds up her normal hand to quiet him down. "Unfortunately, the Prime Minister knows this also and has already planted a spy within their ranks. This spy, Borick has already infiltrated the Path of Peace and is now considered the Lord's right hand. As long as Borick remains in play, the Path of Peace will never begin its insurrection."

"So the only way the plan works, is for us to eliminate this Borick guy. Right boss?" asked Tatsumi.

Smiling, Najenda nods her head and then suddenly makes a frown "But first, we have a more pressing matter to deal with. Which brings us to our next order of business. The Jaegers have stepped up their efforts in finding us. So we're going to take the fight to them this time!"

All the members of Night Raid felt their bodies tense with anticipation upon hearing this announcement. Tatsumi idly grasps his Imperial Arm, the sword form of the demon armor Incursio. "Finally" he thought "With all that Esdeath has done, the countless lives ruined and the people she's killed, now's our chance to make her pay! And Seryu too, that psychopath is just like Esdeath, she enjoys killing in the name of Justice. One a sadistic murderer and the other a hypocrite who killed Sheele. They're worse than all the Danger Beasts that roam the land. I can't think of any creature on this planet that is more monstrous than those two rabid bitches. They need to be put down for everyone's sake."

Tatsumi then grips Incursio tightly "But there's Wave and the other Jaegers. Wave isn't a bad person, neither is Run. And there's Kurome, Akame's younger sister." Tatsumi looks over at Akame. From her squared shoulders and furrowed brow, she seems resolved to give her all in this fight. No matter who it may be.

Najenda clears her throat to gain the attention of her subordinates once more. Once all eyes are upon her again, she resumes talking "Along with the intel, headquarters has sent us standing orders to eliminate the Jaegers' Kurome and Bols as a top priority."

Tatsumi's sighed inwardly. Not only are they not immediately going after Esdeath or Seryu, but now we have to kill Akame's sister. His gaze shifts back over to Akame. Her stance and posture did not change. Not even a hint of sadness or doubt showed in those crimson eyes of hers. "I must do the same." Tatsumi said to himself with resolve "I'll give it my all too! Even if it means facing Wave and his Imperial Arm, Grand Chariot."

Najenda turns to face her humanoid Imperial Arm, Susanoo who hands her a map of the Empire. As she lays out the map on a nearby table, she begins explaining her plan to the rest of the group "We'll set up two different decoys by spreading rumors and forge eyewitness reports of Akame and Mine being spotted in the town of Romary…" Najenda places her finger near one corner of the map "And we'll do the same for Tatsumi at the opposite direction, towards the other side of the Empire." she traces her finger across the map to the opposite corner "Once the Jaegers learn both pieces of information, they'll likely split their numbers. With Esdeath following Tatsumi's decoy and Kurome following Akame's."

Mine looks up from studying the map "How's it certain this plan will work and they take the bait?"

"She'll definitely take the bait" Akame and Tatsumi answered together in apprehension. It's become common knowledge, about Esdeath's obsession with capturing Tatsumi and making him her lover. The same goes for Kurome wanting to find Akame, so that she may kill her older sister herself.

Convinced of the plan's likely success Mine turns to Najenda, who resumes explaining "We'll set up an ambush at the outskirts of Romary. After we lure Kurome and the Jaegers into this gorge, Mine will-"

Suddenly, Najenda stops talking and looks up along with everyone else. Flying above them in a circle, was a messenger eagle that flew in from a nearby window. The eagle lands on the table in front of Najenda, who reaches out with her normal hand and removes the rolled up paper tied to the eagle's leg. As the eagle flies off the table and out the window it came in from, Najenda unrolls the paper and reads its contents.

Face full of concern she stops reading and addresses everyone "Change of plans. The Jaegers will have to wait. Everyone, gather your supply gear and your Imperial Arms. We're leaving immediately."

All the members of Night Raid stood in confusion, unsure of what their leader just said until she yelled at them "Get Going, Dammit! I'll explain on the way, but I want us heading out ten minutes ago! Now move it people, assholes and elbows!"

That jolted her subordinates into moving again. Susanoo and Akame ran into the kitchen and began filling a sack with meat and cooking utensils.

Lubbock and Tatsumi were in the infirmary stuffing another sack with medicine, bandages, surgery kits and antivenins.

Three of Night Raid's members ran towards their living quarters. In her room, Leone was gulping down alcohol straight out of a bottle she stashed under her bed, mentally kicking herself for choosing not to wear less revealing clothes that might have been able to conceal any bottle of booze she'd want to bring along.

Chelsea was in front of her mirror trying on different headphones. Satisfied with her choice she grabbed her Imperial Arm, Gaea Foundation off the top of her dresser and quickly stuffed extra lollipops into its compartment.

And finally Mine was delicately placing rifle scopes, barrel extensions and a multi sensory image visor into the metal case belonging to her gun Imperial Arm, Pumpkin. After she finished packing the case and slinging it over her shoulder, Mine began walking towards the hallway before stopping to look at a pair of broken glasses sitting on top of her dresser. Picking up the glasses, Mine stood still for a minute to reminisce about the person who owned them. "I'll avenge you Sheele, I swear it." she whispered, hoping her dead friend can hear her make that vow.

"Hey Mine! You're the last one remaining! Move your pink little ass!" yelled Lubbock from down the hallway.

Mine's face blushed deep red as she bellowed "I'm Coming, You Pervert!" That caused Lubbock to retort mockingly "You should be so lucky."

With a growl, Mine pocketed the glasses and adjusted the shoulder strap to Pumpkin's case before storming out of her room to catch up with her teammates.

Meanwhile in the stables, Najenda was untying the tethers to the Air Manta, one of Night Raid's tame Danger Beasts used for aerial transport and covert insertion. The creature emits a low humming tune as it eagerly awaits the moment it can take to the skies.

With the tethers off, Najenda places her bulky prosthetic arm atop the danger beast to keep it from flying off on its own as she impatiently awaits her subordinates to make ready to depart.

Tatsumi and Lubbock were the first ones to arrive, hoisting the medical supplies securely in place aboard the Air Manta.

Then came Susanoo and Akame, dragging a bloated sack of food and cookware between them. Susanoo then used his strength to lift the sack and stow it onboard.

Before Najenda can tell them off for bringing excess rations, a drunken Leone came staggering through the doorway with an arm draped around the shoulders of an extremely annoyed Chelsea and speaking nonsense to her face.

"Hic. All I'm trying to say, Chelsea is that with the natural beauty you already possess, why bother with wasting all this time trying on different accessories, wearing make up and fitting into such conservative clothing? Hic. If you really want to get people to do what you want, you should try showing a little skin once in a while. That'll really get them wrapped around your finger. Hic"

With a blush on her cheeks, Chelsea looks up and sees Tatsumi, who is busy going over the inventory near the two of them. "You know what Leone?" she answer "You're absolutely right!" And with all her strength, shoves Leone into an unsuspecting Tatsumi "Why don't you give a demonstration? Show us how it's done."

Leone wraps her arms around Tatsumi to keep from stumbling, causing him to fall over with Leone on top. Startled, Tatsumi tries to stand up but ends up burying his head into Leone's bosom, her breasts completely smothering both sides of his face.

"Tatsumi. Hic. We don't have time for this. Hic. The boss wants us to gather in the stables so that we can leave for no reason. Hic." Leone says while giggling.

Wanting to scold her and knowing there's no time to do it, Night Raid's leader instead raised her prosthetic arm and aimed it at the drunken fool of an assassin. With a bang she fires the detachable hand component and it reaches to grab the back of Leone's black tube top. Najenda then retracted the hand's grapple line and tugged Leone off of Tatsumi and towards where she stood.

"Why's it always you Tatsumi?" Lubbock complained enviously "I'm so jealous when you get yourself in situations like these." He then helped Tatsumi to his feet. "Tell me, how soft were they?" Lubbock asked with a grin.

"Ahem" behind him, someone began clearing her throat. Lubbock turns to see who it is, just in time to see Mine throwing her leg forward and kicking him hard in the groin.

"You Are The Worst!" Mine growled, as Lubbock keels over in pain.

"That's enough down there!" Najenda called out after tying up a semi conscious Leone to keep her from falling off the Danger Beast "Climb aboard, or we leave you behind!"

One after the other, all the members of Night Raid boarded with an Incursio armored Tatsumi carrying a groaning Lubbock, bringing up the rear. With a tug of the reigns Najenda guides the Air Manta into soaring gracefully upwards, past the opening of the stables' ceiling and towards the evening sky.

Above the Clouds, South of the Empire

As the Air Manta levels off at a high altitude above ground, Najenda hands the reigns to Susanoo before stepping towards the rear where the rest of Night Raid had gathered.

"Sorry for the sudden departure everyone." Night Raid's leader spoke "But something strange has happened near the Empire's southern border and the Revolutionary Army's top brass has asked us to look into it."

Her subordinates each began voicing their concern.

"I hope you have more than Something Strange to share with us boss" began Lubbock while donning his Imperial Arms, Cross Tails "Simply ignoring the Jaegers going on the warpath with us, isn't what I would call a smart move."

Smirking, Najenda reaches into her pocket and pulls out the rolled up paper message from earlier "It is, if even half of this information is true" She then explains "Headquarters has recently learned of a series of strange phenomena occurring in a valley near the Empire's southernmost outpost." She unrolls the paper again and begins to read "Our scouts whom we had surveying the area for Imperial patrols, first encountered a flash of bright light."

"How bright?" Leone asked, her eyes blinking into focus as sobriety began to set in.

"Blinding. Most of the scouts temporarily lost their ability to see and the ones that could, saw night turn into day around them." Despite their leader's answer, most of Night Raid still held some doubt.

"That's not all" continued Najenda "As the light began to fade, a large explosion set off from where the light originated from." That got everyone worried

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how large an explosion are we talking about?" asked Chelsea.

Najenda's face became grim "It's at a cataclysmic scale. It shook the nearby mountain range and shattered two of its peaks. The surrounding forest had its trees laid flat or completely ripped out of the ground, roots and all. All the rivers and lakes in the area had the water completely blown dry."

Chelsea's eyes widened and all her comrades gasped in bewilderment. Najenda reached into to her pocket for a cigarette to light, then remembered where she was and left it alone. She sighs and kept reading "There's been some injuries and even some casualties. Mostly from debris and a stampede of local Danger Beasts, fleeing the area."

This time it was Akame who spoke up while sheathing her katana Imperial Arm, Murasame after sharpening it "So the place is barren now? A blast like that should have at least left a gapping hole in the ground."

"Far from it" Najenda answered "The survivors of the scouting party continued towards the source of the explosion and found some weird structures at the site of the blast's origin."

"Structures?" inquired a curious Tatsumi.

"Buildings." his commander replied "Large, metal buildings. About a handful of them. Enough to make up a small town."

Mine raised her hand, to get the group's attention "Could it be another Imperial outpost? Maybe they setup a base for researching and developing weapons, to fight the Revolutionary Army?"

Then Lubbock spoke up as well "If they did, something must have gone wrong and they wound up shooting themselves in the foot. That explosion could've been a weapon they were testing. Maybe even an Imperial Arm!"

Then Najenda mused out loud "It makes sense. All of the buildings that were seen, showed significant amounts of damage. The largest one was the worst. It looks like a giant cone with half its upper section blown off. But it's likely that the Empire has nothing to do with it."

She looks at the paper she was holding, and places it back into her pocket "According to the last piece of information from this document, as the scouting party made ready to retreat to headquarters, they came across a fallen sign at the site's outskirts. It contained these words on it. HADLEYS HOPE, POP. 158."

Akame's eyes narrowed as she processed this information "It's definitely not an Imperial base. The Empire wouldn't bother giving a name to an outpost at such a remote location, nor would they advertise the amount of people they have on the premises. That place is something else entirely."

Najenda nods her head in agreement "Which is why we're being called in to investigate. Headquarters wants answers to this mystery and Night Raid is best equipped to handle any situation that might arise. We're to secure the area, search the buildings and bring back anything that look like weapons, survivors, and intel. We have three days to get this done."

"Why three days?" Tatsumi asked.

"Because the Empire will have definitely heard about this incident." Najenda answered "When it does, the Prime Minister will want his best men out there to investigate. It would normally take five days for the Imperial Army to march its way past the mountains surrounding the site's location." She looks down at her prosthetic arm and touches her eyepatch with her normal hand "But if the Jaegers get involved, you can count on Esdeath to use her abilities and shave two days off that time."

Tatsumi's face began to look worried. But before he can ask more questions about the Jaegers' Commander, Susanoo calls out from the front of the Air Manta "Heads up everybody! We've just cleared the last mountain. Our destination is coming into view."

All the members of Night Raid instantly shifted their gaze over the side of the Danger Beast. What they saw next made them gasp in wonder and awe. Far below them, in a valley surrounded by high mountains lies the ruined terraforming colony of LV-426 formerly named Hadley's Hope. And its neighbor, the devastated remains of Weyland-Yutani's atmosphere processor.

Hadley's Hope, South of the Empire

Susanoo guided the Air Manta to set down near the colony outskirts, a still forested area where the scouting party found the fallen sign. Once the landing is completed, Night Raid disembarked and began setting up camp.

"Lubbock. Use Cross Tails and setup a perimeter around all those buildings" ordered their commander while tethering up the Danger Beast. She turns to Susanoo "Su. Go with him, help him get it done as fast as you can. I want nothing coming in or out without us knowing. Come back and defend the camp, afterwards."

Lubbock readies his Imperial Arm, and places an arm around Susanoo's shoulder. Taking a massive leap, Susanoo effortlessly catapults the both of them around the colony's outlying perimeter.

Najenda then calls out to the rest of her subordinates "The rest of you assemble at the central tent when you're done."

After base camp was complete, the remaining members of Night Raid gathered inside a large tent at the center to hear their leader's mission briefing.

"We'll begin our search as soon as Lubbock and Susanoo return. I want this to go fast and thorough, starting with largest building." Najenda opens the side of the tent and points towards the distant atmosphere processor "It's the most damaged and it's likely where the explosion originated from. So, it may be Our best chance at finding some answers pertaining to who or what did this."

Tatsumi looks out the tent's opening and gazes at the towering processing station. "It looks massive! Almost as big as the Imperial Palace." he said finally, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

Mine takes out her visor from Pumpkin's case and scans the station's outer structure "Its got the highest heat signature compared to the other buildings."

Najenda looks at her "How hot is it?"

Mine presses a set of buttons on the side of her visor "Too hot for people to just walk in and look around without their skin melting off."

Night Raid's leader takes out a cigarette and lights it. After exhaling a cloud of smoke, she speaks "Leone. You and Tatsumi are the only ones whose Imperial Arms allow you to survive such extreme temperatures. So, it'll be you two, who will check the building's interior."

"Hear that Tatsumi? It'll be just the two of us, all alone inside that sauna." Leone says in a mock seductive tone. She hugs him from the side and pressing her chest against his cheek.

Mine shakes her head in annoyance, before looking back at her visor "I see two entryways. One's at ground level and the other is above it, close to the top."

Najenda pauses her smoking to think. She looks at Tatsumi, just as he manages to shove a giggling Leone off of him. "Okay then!" she calls out to get everyone's attention "Here's how we'll proceed. Tatsumi, you take the top entrance. Search the upper levels and make your way towards the bottom"

"Yes ma'am" responded Tatsumi, as he ties Incursio's sword across his back.

"Leone, you take the ground entrance. Look for a basement level. If there is one, check and see how deep it goes."

"You got it, Boss!" Leone cracks her knuckles with enthusiasm.

Najenda turns to face the other members of Night Raid "The rest of you are with me. We're going to search the grounds surrounding the building. Akame, you take the West side. Mine, you get the North. Chelsea will be at the South, facing camp. And I'll search the East, where the entrance is."

All around her, the group began preparing for the task. Akame adjusts Murasame's sheath, tied to her waist. Mine took Pumpkin from its case and fitted it with a short barrel. Chelsea opened Gaea Foundation's compartment and took out a lollipop, unwrapped it and placed in her mouth.

Najenda finished her cigarette and threw it on the ground before stamping it underfoot. She looks up to see Lubbock and Susanoo come in through the tent's entrance.

"It's done Boss." reported Lubbock "The wires are in place." He shows the tightly wound threads, harnessed to his gloved hands "Nothing's going anywhere without tripping on something."

Najenda smirked with satisfaction "Stay here and wait for my signal." she instructed "I'll light a fire, in case there's trouble. Then you and Su come and provide backup. If you detect a breach, light a fire on your end. Then me and the others will come back to you." She then calls out to the others "Let's go people! We haven't a second to waste!"

Atmosphere Processing Station, Hadley's Hope, South of the Empire

They hiked along the barren landscape on which the colony stood, taking notice of the ground's odd texture and the colony's metallic construction.

"How can they build this place, using so much steel?" Tatsumi wondered out loud. He then remembered his time as Esdeath's "captive" at the Imperial Palace "Not even the Empire has facilities built like this. As far as I seen, they've mostly been using stone."

"And look at the soil." Mine added "It's not charred or blackened by the blast." She scoops up a handful of dirt in one hand. Using her other hand to adjust the controls on her visor, she scans the dirt sample "It's different from the forest soil back at camp, too greyish and too many different minerals in its composition."

The pink haired gunner dropped the sample, and wiped her hand against her pink dress "It's like this place is from a whole different world-"

"Cut the chatter and pick up the pace!" Najenda yells back at them "We're almost there. Then you guys can go crazy looking for clues about this place."

Tatsumi and Mine became silent, and ran to catch up with the rest of their group as they hastily marched towards the atmosphere processor.

They finally arrive near the front entrance, unable to continue due to the intense heat radiating from the station's interior.

"Gosh!" exclaimed Chelsea, as she held her hand out to test the high temperature "Would you feel that heat? It's like a furnace in there!"

Najenda walks up next to her redheaded subordinate, and does the same. Frowning, she lowers her hand, then turned around to address her subordinates "This is about as far as the rest of us can go. Leone and Tatsumi, you're up…"

Leone steps forward, and activates her Imperial Arm, Lionelle, causing her to grow a lion's ears, claws and tail. Her short hair grows to near waist length, and all her natural senses and abilities are greatly enhanced. But what matters to her now is Lionelle's trump card, Regeneration. As she makes her way through the processing station's entrance, Regeneration activates and replaces her overheated cells with new ones, thus cooling her body.

Leone looks back, and waves at her comrades to show that she's fine and dashes into the depths of the station.

Tatsumi stabs Incursio's sword into the ground, and summons its armor to envelope his body. Clad in the Imperial Arm's silver and white armor plating, Tatsumi crouches and leaps upwards onto the station's metal surface. Using the momentum from his initial jump, he ran along the side of the structure and enters through the opening near the top.

After those two disappear from sight, Najenda looks at Akame, Chelsea and Mine "They're on their own now and so are we. Each of you, go to your assigned area and begin searching. Leave no stone unturned."

Akame nearly vanishes, as she makes a full sprint around towards the west end of the complex. Mine slowly follows her in a steady jog, stopping once she reaches the north end.

Chelsea turns to make towards the south end, when something scraped against her boot. Surprised and nearly tripping, she looks down and sees the half buried frame of another sign post.

"Ma'am!" Chelsea calls out to Najenda "I think I found something!" Her Commander approaches to see what was the holdup.

"Let's see, what we got here." says Night Raid's leader, as she and her subordinate began hauling the sign from out of the ground.

When they finished, Chelsea stepped back and began wiping her hands against her checkered skirt.

Najenda held the sign in front of them and started reading "ATMOSPHERE PROCESSING PLANT. LV-426 TERRAFORMING PROJECT, WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP." at the bottom of the sign Najenda read the words "Building Better Worlds."

"What do you think it means?" asked Chelsea.

Najenda gently puts the sign aside and frowns "I don't exactly know. But, I think Atmosphere Processing Plant refers to this building." She points towards the station "It seems to be a vital component to whatever this LV-426 Terraforming Project is." She then started to mull over the many questions brewing in the back of her mind "But what the hell does LV-426 and terraforming mean? And how can you process the atmosphere?"

Chelsea looks at the sign "Weyland-Yutani Corp. Are they like a merchant guild?" her eyes scrolled over the last words "Building Better Worlds? Could they be referring to Empire?" she asks excitedly "Are they planning to overthrow it, like us and the Revolutionary Army?"

Najenda holds her chin in thought. It's likely they're the ones who built this place. But for what reason, and who exactly are they? A tribal nation? Military? Or, was Chelsea right, and they're just some sort of business conglomerate? Night Raid had just started this investigation, and they're coming up with more questions than answers.

"Well done, Chelsea. I think you found us our first clue about this mystery, but I feel we've only begun to scratch the surface. Now get to the south side and search the area. We need to gather more information." Najenda tells her subordinate, who nods and starts running towards the south of the atmosphere processor. She resumes her own search efforts, hoping the other members of Night Raid are having better luck at finding something that can help shed some light on what exactly is this place.

Leone stands at the head of a stairwell leading down into the processing station's sub levels. "Well! Looks like there's a basement here after all!" she declares excitedly.

Her trek through the station's corridors was uneventful, having been unable to find anything that may look like a clue to this building's purpose or it's apparent destruction. Whatever could have been useful here was already burnt beyond recognition, whether by the explosion or the radiant heat that lingered.

She felt her luck had changed when she spotted the stairs off to the side, after her path through the corridor came at a dead end. The path itself looked like it was making its way below ground. But, too much debris of fallen pipes and cable lines blocked her way, and it would've taken hours for her to clear it.

"Nowhere to go, but down!" she surmised, and with a grin, used Lionelle's beast strength to descend the stairs one level a time.

Upon landing at the bottom, Leone placed her hands against an ash covered wall to steady herself. When she pulled them back, some ash came away to reveal white letters. "What do we have here?" she wondered, using the scarf she was wearing to wipe away the remaining ash.

When she finished, Leone stepped back to read the now visible lettering. "SUB-LEVEL. 03." She fidgeted "Three levels below ground, huh? I'll start here and make my way up through the other two above, to save time." She nods her head in confirmation. Suddenly she spun around to her left, using her enhanced vision to peer into the gloom of Sub Level 3's darkness. What she saw next made her drop her grin and wear a face of surprise.

"What the hell is this!?" she exclaims. The walls in front of her were covered in a thick resinous substance. Most of it was in puddles along the floor, oozing off the walls like it was melting. And it was spread out far throughout the bowels of Sub Level 3.

But what got Leone's attention earlier, wasn't the mysterious substance. It was a scent. An all too familiar and just as repulsive scent, emanating from beyond the slime covered walkways. Burnt Flesh.

"Burnt Human Flesh." Leone corrected herself. As an assassin from Night Raid and a member of the Revolutionary Army, Leone has smelled her fair share of charred human corpses. Most often from the remains of destroyed villages that were unfortunate enough to incur the Empire's wrath, on suspicion of harboring its enemies.

"I have to check it out. Could be important." Leone told herself. Determined to follow the sickening odor, she cautiously steps forward into seemingly organic and still unknown material.

The further Leone walked, the more dense and concentrated the material became. So did the heinous odor of burning corpses. She saw that the path she was traversing lead to a large opening at its end. Eagerly pushing forward to a less confining space, Night Raid's veteran assassin finally entered a large chamber. Her relief was short lived after she looked up to observe her surroundings and discovered the source of the smell.

"Holy Shit! What the Fuck happened here!" Leone cried out, as she tried to make sense of the hellish scene displayed before her golden eyes. All around her, plastered to the walls in grotesquely random order, were the incinerated remains of the colonists from Hadley's Hope.

Overwhelmed with disgust and nausea, Leone vomits the contents of her last drink. After expelling the bile and alcohol from her system, she raises her head to try to attempt another view of the colonists' remains. After a while of fighting her gagging reflex, she was able to overcome her initial shock.

"These must be the people who built this place." Leone wondered in horrified perplexity "But how many are there? A dozen? Two dozen? It's too many, maybe a hundred at least. And why the hell are they stuck on the walls covered in that shit?"

She approaches a handful of skeletal bodies clustered together on a nearby wall. "Different sizes and body shapes. Must be men, women and children. Didn't spare anyone, did they? Sick Fucks!" she gazed at their skulls, "Most of their mouths are wide open…they've been screaming. Was it out of terror? From being stuck down here, unable to escape the explosion?" she asked herself. Unsure of her question Leone takes one more look at the bodies around her.

Then she stops suddenly when she saw the answer was in front of her. All of the skeletons had absolutely one thing in common. "The chest portion on their ribcage are broken open, right along the sternum." Leone realized.. She then takes a close look at the bones of what seems to be a large adult male and checks the wound.

"Ribs are bent outwards. They weren't stabbed or gutted, something inside them came bursting out!" her eyes strayed back to the skull portion "They were screaming in agony! This happened to them while they we're still alive!" And with another sickening wave of nausea, Leone vomited once more.

"Okay, I've had it! Time to go!" with a sudden dash, Leone ran for the corridor she came in through and out of the nightmare filled chamber. "I have to tell Najenda! And the others, too! They need to know what went on in here. Someone or something got loose in this place, Hadley's Hope and captured everyone. Then, they covered them in all that snot and implanted something in their bodies to make their chest explode." It would've sounded farfetched to her if she hadn't seen the evidence herself.

A chill went up her spine when another thought crossed her mind. What if the ones that took those people are still around somewhere, looking for more victims? "Not possible" Leone assured herself "The reported explosion should have wipe out anything in its vicinity." Then she remembered. Nothing was wiped out. A small town appeared, instead. "And anything could've came with it." she realized.

With the aid of Lionelle's powers Leone breaks into a full on sprint towards the staircase "Gotta warn them! We don't know what we might be up against!" She then began to urgently climb the stairs towards the surface.

Akame surveyed the area around her, eyeing the many pieces of debris that lay scattered across the ground "Don't see anything useful here. Mostly just scrap metal." She looks down and clutches her stomach, as it make a low growling noise.

"Haven't eaten anything since we left the hideout." Akame muttered to herself "Now I'm more hungrier than ever!" She looks up to face the direction towards base camp "Maybe I can sneak away from here, go back to camp, and come back with dinner before anyone notices?" She mulled over that idea for a moment. As the greatest skilled assassin the Empire and Night Raid ever had, slipping into camp without Susanoo and Lubbock noticing should be child's play. "But I need time to cook, and Su would most likely be standing near the food stores getting ready to fix our meals when we return."

Akame decided to give up on her schemes and bear with the hunger. "Better to eat food later, than none at all as punishment for disobeying the boss's orders." She concluded, and with a sigh, resumed with picking her way through the debris field.

After turning over a large piece of metal that seems to resemble floor grating, Akame's crimson eyes spotted the prize hidden underneath.

"Looks like I finally found something." Akame thought while reaching to pick it up. Holding the object in both of her arms, she recognized some of its features "It's some sort of firearm." she commented "And a weird one at that." She studied the gun over in various angles to examine its dimensions "I count three barrels, three triggers, there's two grips in the back and a shoulder harness. Who could've made a weapon like this?"

During her time as an assassin for the Empire and later Night Raid's, Akame became well acquainted with the concept of firearms. From the large bulky rifles used by the Imperial soldiers, to the small handheld pistols used by both common adventurers and noble folk alike. She's even learned of a few odd ones. Like the medium sized rifle wielded by one of Aria's guards the night when Night Raid first met and recruited Tatsumi. There's also the guns Seryu used, the night she ambushed Mine and Sheele and killed the latter. Mine said the Jaeger member had two guns that resembled tonfas, two guns that were fused inside her arms, and finally that last one hidden inside her mouth, which she used on Sheele to stun long enough for her wretched monster Imperial Arm to catch and devour. And lastly, there's Mine's Imperial Arm, Pumpkin. A gun capable of firing potent shots depending on Mine's danger situation and emotional state.

An idea formed in Akame's head "I should show this to Mine. She's more well versed with firearms than I am, she might have a better idea of what kind of gun this is." Looking over towards the north side of the Atmosphere Processor, she squinted to see if she can spot her pink clad comrade in the evening's fading light. "Can't see her. She must be away from my line of sight, somewhere behind the buil-" Akame froze as her eyes rested on the processing station, recalling its damaged state and the similar state of the other buildings. She then glanced down at the weapon she's holding, then back to the station "No way! Could this have been the cause of that explosion?"

The theory sounded doubtful, but Akame went over the facts that supported it. Whoever built this place, likely built this gun as well. Their buildings' architecture also demonstrates that they might possess technology far more advanced than that of the Empire's. And there's the Imperial Arms, some of them can cause devastation similar to the one that overtook this place. Like Pumpkin for example, all it takes is for Mine to really get herself into a critical situation and the gun's destructive potential multiplies exponentially.

"If they really did make this firearm to be on par with that of an Imperial Arm. Mine should be able to determine it's capabilities." Akame reasoned. After gently slinging the weapon over her shoulder, she then carefully walked towards the north side of the station in search of Mine.

Chelsea stood up and wiped the sweat off her brow. After spending some time sifting through the random pieces of scrap collected from across her domain, she only found three boxes containing some strange items. The first two had weird tools and instruments she's never seen before and the third one had what seemed to be ammunition to some sort of firearm. Other than that, no weapons and no info. "Dammit! What a waste of time!" she groaned with disappointment and fatigue. She glared down at her dirt covered skirt and her shirt's long sleeves.

"I just had these cleaned." Chelsea muttered "Thanks, Najenda! For dragging us all the way out here and having me do grunt work." She began to sigh and look up towards the setting sun "Not much longer till dark. Then Najenda would have to call off the search. It'd be too dangerous to keep poking around here at night."

Eagerly awaiting the sun to go down, Chelsea examines her surroundings to review what she's found so far. The crates she found are stacked neatly to one side. On her left, she sees the hulking wreckage she came across earlier "Nothing in there for sure. Just some seats and more weird instruments. Also some empty boxes and crates." She looks over the exterior, wanting to pass the time "Some sort of vehicle for sure. It looks like a flattened armored carriage of some sort. But, I don't see any hitch for the horses." Her hands traced along the composite armor shell "Sure looks tough, but I guess it wasn't enough to withstand the blast huh." She taunts, while eyeing the nearby processing plant "Wait? I see something."

Walking over to the processor's heated perimeter, Chelsea narrowed her eyes for a better look. Off in the distance, laying against the base of the station, was another vehicle wreckage. "It's twice as big as the one I found." Chelsea looked back at the first wreckage "Big enough to crush that one. But is it big enough to cause that explosion? And where the hell are the bodies? If both wrecks had survivors, where could they have gone?" She remembered the armored carriage had its side door left open, and she's sure the interior had been picked clean by someone. The other vehicle was too far and too mangled to see if anyone could have survived its crash.

"Better go and tell Najenda about my findings, then she can get Leone or Tatsumi to come and retrieve these boxes." After brushing off some of the dust and dirt off her clothes, Chelsea hurriedly ran back towards the eastern side of the atmosphere processor.

"Careful now. Easy does it." murmured Tatsumi as he tried walking along the remains of a high platform, where he landed upon entering the station. Earlier, he got careless and assumed the platform was going to support his weight, until the loose floor grating gave way beneath his feet. He quickly grabbed a nearby railing to prevent his fall and pulled himself back up. He began inching his way across like this afterwards.

"So far so good. Now if I could just reach the other side. I think I see a way down." Tatsumi crossed the last few meters of the platform, and reached the other side. He then turned to survey the area around him.

"Walls are lined with all kinds of piping and ductwork. Most of it looks blown apart by that explosion from the report." Tatsumi traced his view up along the ceiling, and spied an opening towards the darkening sky which brought in light from the setting sun "There's where the top portion got blown off. Seems like it's facing west. I guess Akame got her work cut out for her, sorting through all that debris."

Tatsumi shifted his attention back to what still lies ahead of him "And so do I. Now, how do I get down from here?" He peered into a nearby shaft that leads down, and counted the floors set between him and the bottom "There's a good number of levels. I should start with the one below me, and make my way down."

After some time, Tatsumi reached the platform at the bottom of the elevator shaft. Unable to hide his frustration and disappointment, he slam an armored fist against a wall. "Dammit! I swept the whole place, and nothing to show for it!" he groaned out "Mine will never let me live this down." He can already imagine a conceited Mine standing atop mountain of treasure laughing down at him for his incompetence. He turns around as if to tell her to shut up, then he realized no one was around. "Dam you Mine! I hope you come up empty handed, then we'll see who's laughing now!"

Out the corner of his eye Tatsumi noticed something on the floor.

"What's this?" Tatsumi asked himself, while picking it up. He recognizes it as a jacket when he held it up in front of him. "Who could this belong to?" he searched the pockets, and pulled out a strange card with words stamped on it. "Lieutenant First Class. Ellen Ripley." And next to the words was a photo of a middle aged woman with brown, medium length hair, and dark eyes.

"Quite a serious looking person" Tatsumi commented. Turning the card over, he found there was more lettering to read. "Weyland-Yutani Corp. Mission Consultant in service of the United States Colonial Marines Corps" the whole line of words baffled him. Mission Consultant were the only words that made sense. "It probably means this person, Ellen Ripley may know a thing or two as to what happened here." Tatsumi surmised and looks at the photo again "At least we got a face to go on. I should get back and show it to the boss. She'll know what to do next." He places the card back inside the jacket and ties it around his waist for carrying.

Making his way to the station's ground entrance, Tatsumi stepped into the main corridor, only to have Leone run into him after coming out from behind a nearby corner. Both Night Raid members stumbled back and looked at each other in panic before relaxing.

"Hey Big Sis." Night Raid's younger member greeted "You scared me there a little. Be careful next time, okay?" Leone ignores Tatsumi's request and began running, while calling back to him "Sorry, Tatsumi! No time to explain, but we have to get out of here right now!" Tatsumi ran after her to catch up "What's wrong Sis? Why are we leaving already?"

She doesn't respond this time and keeps running for the exit. With no other choice, he follows her, still wondering why Leone is acting so strangely. And why for the first time since he met her, did she look so afraid?

HHHRRSSS! A loud threatening hiss reached Mine's ears, prompting her to react by raising Pumpkin to her shoulder and placing her finger on the trigger. She aims the sights towards the outskirts' forest area, were the hissing sound emanated from. "Come on." Mine whispered "Show yourself. Pumpkin here is waiting to blow you into the next world" She waited to shoot at whatever might come out from the distant trees.

A few minutes later, nothing happened. Mine lowers her weapon, puts on her visor, and looks back towards the perimeter "If you're not coming out, I'll scan you out." She raises Pumpkin again.

Armed and ready, Mine slowly approaches the trees sweeping her visor back and forth. "I thought all the Danger Beasts were cleared out of here by the explosion? Maybe it's a straggler that wandered back?" she reached the edge of the landscape and stopped in front of the forest.

Hhrrsss… Another hiss can be heard from within, growing faint.

"It's moving away." Mine realized, as an image shows up on her visor "I see Cross Tails' barrier, that Lubbock made. Why can't I see what's making that sound?" She checks her visor. It was set to home in on molecular discrepancies. Anything that didn't naturally grow there should show up on screen. "Must be capable to blending in with its surroundings on an environmental scale. Quite a tricky Danger Beast. Let's see if you can hide from infrared." Mine pressed a switch and her visor began to show thermal imaging "Okay. Show me where you are, so I can blast you."

Mine surveyed the forest and began moving forward, making sure she didn't come close to the barrier. The last thing Mine wanted, was to become entangled in Cross Tails' Wire Threads. Then she'll be caught and stuck here while waiting for that pervert, Lubbock to come and cut her loose. And those jerks, Chelsea and Tatsumi will be there laughing at her mishap and calling her helpless. "Like Hell a genius sniper like me is gonna let that happen!" she fumed in anger "And where the hell is that Danger Beast…there!" Her visor detected a heat source, off to her right in a nearby thicket. It wasn't big. It seems to be lying down and not moving.

"Looks like it plans to ambush me." Mine steadies Pumpkin and takes aim "Unfortunately for you, I don't need to attack up close!" Her finger rests on the trigger and she stops "Wait. It might not go down in one shot and I already outfitted Pumpkin for less powerful rapid fire. I need to scan and find a head, to set up a kill shot." Without looking away from the target, she takes her finger off the trigger and uses it to switch her visor back to scan mode "You may not stand out, but if I see a pair of eyes I'll just shoot between them." To her surprise, an image began to appear on screen and she immediately pointed Pumpkin's barrel away from her target.

The image shows the back of a human woman, lying on her side.

"A Survivor! I finally found one!" Mine slings her Imperial Arm over her shoulder and ran to the side of the person. She kneels down to examine her, and grins in revelation "Looks like I've scored double prizes!" She looks down at two people lying in front of her, an unconscious Ripley holding an unconscious Newt in her arms.

Chapter 1: 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, enter the Jeagers. Heroes and Villains have a fateful encounter.