Chapter 13: Revolution to the Origin
Danielle had sat there for what felt like an hour, idly turning the Autogun over and over in her hand. She felt incredibly bored but was thankful that nothing had attacked her. She had recovered quite a bit now, able to move around without any problem. Despite all this, she also had a deep, unsettling feeling that something bad was going to happen. Just staring at that dark entrance made a shiver run up her spine and her blood run cold.
A beeping sound from her arm unit made her yelp in surprise, dropping her Autogun as she looked down quickly at it. There was a message in her unit's mailbox, much to her surprise. Pressing the screen, she pulled up the electronic inbox and read it.
"Danielle, it's Rico. The ruins have been oddly clear so far, so it's safe for you to come. I'll backtrack to meet you as close to the entrance as I can. Don't go too far in, and watch out if something does come at you. I'll see you soon."
Danielle just stared at the screen now, confused somewhat. Rico wanted her to go into the ruins now? She supposed that she had recovered enough to be able to hold her own when traveling with Rico, but still. It just seemed a bit suspicious that the ruins were clear of any possible threat, especially considering that powerful force that had attacked her when the door was first beginning to open.
Well, she knows what she's doing, so I just have to trust her.
Picking up her Autogun now, she took careful steps towards the entrance. Every part of her body screamed at her to not enter the ruins, that something evil was deep inside. But there was something that called to her, that beckoned her to enter.
Danielle blinked rapidly, dazed and uncertain now. She stood right before the entrance now, and a strange white mist had begun to pour forth from the door, reaching up to her ankles. Danielle stared down at it in confusion, realizing that she felt freezing cold. The temperature in the chamber had dropped considerably, each breath forming small white clouds. Stumbling back a step, a horrible smell washed over her from the darkness. It was old and musky, yet it smelled of rot and decay. Something slithered beyond that doorway, slowly pulling itself forward. She couldn't see what was in there, but she could feel it. It was evil, corruption, and malice. It was all of her childhood nightmares rolled into physical form. Worst of all, it was her in her anger towards her father, her jealousy of the other kids who got to have fun with their parents, her sorrow while she was constantly alone.
She raised the Autogun to aim into the darkness without even thinking, unleashing a hail of blue Photon bullets upon the unseen and ancient creature within. The expression on her face was one of pure anger: anger at herself, at the darkness, at her uncaring father and her mother who abandoned her, never contacting her for months…
She didn't know how long she had been firing before she finally stopped, panting and shivering from anger and the cold. Nothing moved from within the darkness, the air silent and oppressive. Her unwavering gaze just stared silently at that opening, Danielle waiting for about a minute before she finally lowered the handgun. Whatever had been coming was dead.
It was something that we released. We were foolish and power-hungry and help us the pain the pain let us die let us—
Danielle had dropped the Autogun, doubling over and clutching at her head. The voices of thousands seemed to speak at once in her mind, screaming and crying, begging for freedom and death. There were voices she recognized and those she didn't, their cries growing louder and louder as the white mist built up around her. Then, all at once, the voices cut off. Danielle blinked rapidly in confusion, slowly lowering her hands as she looked around the chilled room. All was silent, but that rotten stench had gotten much stronger.
Seeing that she had dropped her Autogun, Danielle bent over to pick it up off the ground. That was when something shot forth from the darkness. Tendrils of pulsating black alien flesh latched onto her body, everywhere they touched instantly becoming numb. Gasping in fear, Danielle did her best to pull away, but even more shot out from the darkness and burrowed into her body, the flesh rippling and spreading over her arms and legs as if it wanted to devour her.
Danielle screamed out in terror, crying for help as she was being pulled further and further into the darkness. But no one was coming. Rico wasn't here to save her. She tried to reach out to grab onto the edge of the door, but the tendrils jerked her backwards, screaming and struggling, into the waiting darkness.
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"I'm now inside the ancient spaceship. Well, it's not just a spaceship. It's a… 'casket.' Something or somebody was sealed in this spaceship to remain buried here. What was it? Why was something buried in such a manner? Anyway, I know a monster is sleeping in this cave. We've opened the forbidden door."
Rico sat behind the cover of one of the obsidian monuments, weary from the seemingly endless fighting. The discoveries within the engineering section made dread gnaw at her heart. These weren't ruins, but an ancient spaceship that was still operating. What was even worse was the fact that something was trapped within the ship and had probably been awakened by the military entering it.
They desired the D-Factor for more power, and they blundered upon something that was much more than what they could handle. Danielle was right. There is a demon inside of here.
"That's what all the robots in the mines were for. They were used to keep these monsters from escaping to the surface," Rico murmured quietly, running a hand through her bangs. Her glasses were held in her other hand, sweat dripping down her face. How much longer could she keep this up? Which fight would be her last? She was running dangerously low on supplies right now, so she had to use them sparingly.
Rico sighed tiredly, slipping on her glasses once more as she rose to her feet. The monsters here were coordinated and fought tenaciously against her. The biggest threat, the Chaos Bringers, were the main reason why she was so fatigued right now. The centaur-like monsters charged with incredible speed and attacked with a long, strange blade that also served as a rifle when it drained her energy to use for its energy blast.
She took up her Red Saber, walking through another door and through more of the machine-filled corridors. The rooms contained mostly Dimenians, Claws, Dark Gunners, and Delsabers. Even as she cut down a trio of the floating silver-and-red Claws, she saw three of the Gunners drop down along with two Delsabers that teleported in. The Gunners were almost like four-legged spiders with dark grayish blue skin. Two had green diamond-shaped crystal while the third had a red crystal. This Death Gunner was the leader, and as the crystal hovered just a few inches above its body, red energy charged up around it.
Rico's eyes flickered to the two Delsabers that were waiting for the chance to strike while she swapped her weapon out for her Red Handgun. The Gunners were set up in a triangle around her, the two Dark Gunners to her sides while the Death Gunner was straight ahead of her. As soon as the Gunners fired their thing but piercing beams of energy, Rico dove diagonally out of the way, snapping up the Red Handgun and firing several shots at the Death Gunner. It dissolved into black dust and purple blood as the two Dark Gunners hit each other with their own attacks and fell at the same time as their leader.
Cringing as she landed hard on the ground, she noticed the two Delsabers leaping into the air, coming right at her. Their right arms were pink Photon blades while their left consisted of a clawed shield that stored life energy it stole when striking its victim. Their bodies were humanoid in shape but with an eyeless head and black-and-yellow flesh. Rico quickly took her Red Saber in hand once more, eyes flickering sideways to the closer of the Delsabers as it came down through the air. She rolled somewhat and came up on one knee, holding up the Red Saber and letting the Delsaber fall on her blade. Rico felt a jolt strike her arm before the sound of the Dark creature's body dissolving reached her ears. As she rose up, she spun and blocked a strike from the remaining Delsaber, which had landed just a few inches behind her. Wincing, she struggled to hold back the large Photon blade, her eyes narrowing behind her glasses.
The Delsaber was definitely stronger than an average human, Rico's arms shaking from the sheer force exerted to hold back the blade. Knowing that she would lose this stalemate if she waited too long, she braced herself before bringing up her right leg to kick the creature hard in the gut. It stumbled back, lowering its guard just long enough for Rico to plunge the glowing red tip of the Red Saber into the beast's neck. It instantly dissolved, Rico panting as she noticed the next door unlocking. She passed a crystalline monument to check what was on the other side, only to be filled with disappointment in the corridor when she saw that the next room held three separate doors.
"This entire place is just one huge labyrinth…" she murmured, turning away and returning to the previous room. She had been in the ruins for well over an hour, backtracking, getting lost, translating the runes on the monuments… Even for a seasoned hunter like herself, proud of the fact that she was one of the best of the best, she was on the verge of breaking. Being within this dark, lonely place was taking its toll on her.
She knelt down and placed another message capsule by the door, clearing her throat and trying to keep her voice steady. "I… I want to run away! But I have no place to return to…" Hesitating, she thought of Danielle sitting alone near the entrance, wondering if her only friend would ever return again. "Perhaps no one will ever find this message and listen to it. Ever…" She made no effort to hide the sorrowful note in her voice as she closed her eyes. "Pioneer 2 will not come down when they discover this planet is dangerous. Will somebody from Pioneer 2 still come save us? Who knows? Regardless, I leave this message here. This is evidence of my existence."
Rising to her feet with the tip of her Red Saber pointing towards the ground, she fought back the tears that threatened to fall as sorrow gnawed at her heart. And yet instead of turning back and returning to Danielle, she was continuing to delve deeper into this cursed spaceship. These monsters drove her in deeper and deeper, herding her somewhere.
"And if I turn back now, I'll be overwhelmed by these things. I just don't have enough supplies and stamina to fight my way back through them." She sighed, rubbing her bloodshot eyes before she glanced at the three doors ahead of her and picked the center one. Alien machinery whirred and powered the ancient spaceship all around her, the sound starting to give her a headache after hearing it for so long. She could make out another sound like hooves clanging off of metal just above the hum, Rico tensing up immediately. She looked to the right out of the corner of her eye, seeing a Chaos Bringer pawing at the ground as it prepared to charge, leveling its massive blade.
It never fails that one of these shows up when they're not wanted.
Swapping her weapon in one swift move, she took out her Red Partisan and waiting for it to charge before stepping to the left and bringing the red Photon blade horizontal with its midsection. She felt a powerful jolt as it rushed right into the blade, its tiger-like growl heard before it dissolved.
She rested the bottom of the Red Partisan on the ground and leaned against it slightly, wearily scanning the room. It was odd that there was only one enemy here, but she had encountered such a situation a few times before. Rico had almost finished examining the room when something on the ground caught her eyes. She froze, trying to figure out what it was from where she stood. It was near one of the two doors in the room, and as she strode forward, she realized that it was a badly damaged arm unit, the screen cracked straight down the middle. "Wait… the military never got past the first level of the ship, so how did one of these—" Eyes widening, her heart pounded in her chest as she knelt down to pick it up with a trembling hand. Pressing a few buttons, the screen flickered to life, somehow managing to still work despite the heavy damage. As she checked the inventory, her heart finally sank. It contained a Brand with a Flame Barrier as the unit's shield and a few 'mates and 'fluids.
"Danielle… This is Danielle's! But why is it here? I told her not to come after me!" Frantically looking around, she searched for any sign of the young teen, but to no avail. Where was she? Was she hurt?
Calm down! Panicking won't help her!
Rico stopped now, the rational part of her speaking clearly in her mind. If she freaked out, she would never find Danielle. Taking a deep breath, she examined the unit more closely, discovering that the bottom had been pulled apart with incredible force.
"Something must have chased her down here, something that she couldn't fight against on her own. But if she got ahead of me, why were there no signs of fighting?" She shut her eyes, trying to picture every situation in her mind. "Unless she tried to run through and avoid fighting… that's one possibility. Maybe in one of the struggles, one of those things caught hold of her arm unit and pulled it off. Either that, or something dragged her in her and ripped this off. But that's not like the monsters I've seen. They're mindless creatures concerned only with killing."
Withdrawing the few items she could before the ruined unit finally died, she rose to her feet while her emotions swirled within her. Anger, sorrow, worry, and guilt filled every fiber of her being as she thought of Danielle's unknown fate. IF something had happened to her friend, she would never forgive herself for leaving Danielle behind.
Calming down and controlling herself as best as she could, Rico pushed down her emotions and focused once more on the task at hand. Now there really was no turning back. She had to find Danielle before it was too late.
And I'll tear through every single one of those things that stand in my way.
Fatigue no longer bothered her now as she gripped the Red Partisan tight enough that her knuckles grew white, her dark red eyes carrying looks of both cold anger and determination. Without hesitating and driven by the need to protect Danielle, she rushed through the door before her, ready to face anything tat tried to stop her.
Just hold on, Danielle… I'm coming!