"What do you mean the forward outposts aren't responding?"
A young man saluted his superior as he entered to explain the situation, "Sir, we've been attempting to contact them for nearly half an hour, Outposts Alpha, Bravo and Charlie have not checked in and Outpost Delta's transmission was unclear, a lot of interference and what sounded like growling."
The captain stood up from his desk, "Three outposts unresponsive and one with interference? There were no reported storms out in the desert and surrounding areas right?"
The young man nodded, "Correct sir, and we have been monitoring the weather and we double checked when we couldn't reach them. If I may speak freely sir?"
His captain nodded, "Go ahead Corporal."
"I think it may be sabotage sir" the young man continued, "Three outposts with ten men each, is too suspicious. And a fourth with interference, at least what I hope is interference."
The captain turned to him, "And what is that supposed to mean Arc?"
The blonde soldier hesitated, "As I mentioned a minute ago sir, the interference sounded almost as if something was growling. I know this may sound a bit crazy, but maybe a wild animal got in their comm room?"
The captain suppressed a chuckle, "And did so undetected?"
Keeping his composure the corporal nodded once more, "As I said sir, I know it sounds a little crazy, but I swear to you it sounded more like growling than static."
The captain turns around, "Either way we need to investigate. Send a team of four to each outpost to investigate and keep trying to raise them in the meantime and if you reach them tell them I demand an explanation and it better be a good one."
The corporal salutes, "Yes sir!"
Leaving the captain's room to head back to communications relaying the captain's orders to his sergeant who begins assembling the search teams.
"What do you think it is Sergeant?" one of the other soldiers asked.
His sergeant looked at him, "Mantle probably, they're always coming up with some new toys to throw at us."
"So you think it's sabotage as well then?" the private asked, "I guess it does make sense, no storms in the area and three out of four going dark."
Another soldier agreed, "Too convenient to be anything else. Hey remember that crazy old man we saw in town last week? Maybe it's that monster he was talking about" the soldier laughed.
His companion laughed with him, "Maybe."
"What monster?" Corporal Arc asked them.
The two privates looked over at him, "There was some old farmer we saw in town, he was trying to tell everyone about some monster, big black body like a living shadow, white bones protruding through its arms and shoulders like spikes. Glowing red eyes and long arms with claws. He said it tore apart and ate his flock of sheep. Went on saying that it was just before sunrise when he woke up, he heard howling and thought it was a wolf, but right before he went outside he heard his sheep going crazy and when he looked out the window he saw them all getting attacked and ripped apart. He hid until it was gone and ran for his truck before driving to town to get help."
"I know who you're talking about" the sergeant said, "That old guy has been living on his own for almost a decade now, it's sad, but his mind is just going in his age. His sheep were killed by a regular wolf or other predator, not a monster."
One of the privates chuckled, "Yeah you're right sir, a monster just sounds like a bad movie."
His companion nudged him, "Like that old one you watched last week? What was it called, "Chuppa-thingy?"
"Chupacabra" the first private corrected, "And it ate goats not sheep."
His friend laughed again, "Well we know it wasn't that then."
"Cut the chatter" the sergeant told them, "Goof around after your shift is over."
They both fall silent and go back to monitoring their respective systems while the sergeant sends out the search teams. Sixteen men total, four being sent to each outpost each an hour trip out, to the north, east south and south west. Directly west of their base a mountain range, untraversable by ground, so some anti air defenses covered that direction and the forward outposts formed a nice perimeter defense and early warning detection for any enemy incursion. It had been five years since the war began and while no one still knew which side started it both sides continued to fight it.
It started with Mantle and Mistral, Mistral sending supplies to Mantle and in return Mantle gave advice and aid in settling the snowy northern regions of Anima. Mantle had a history of poor treatment to its own citizens and the use of slave labor between both kingdoms and on top of it all Mantle believed the best way to rule was to control. Banning arts and all forms of self expression was the path they chose, controlling their own through those means on top of the other atrocious acts they practiced is what led to Vale disliking them and thus the tensions between the three. Despite those tensions the King of Vale at the time agreed to allow Mistral to settle parts of the islands and peninsulas east of Sanus while some of his own people settled there as well, but one day the high tensions broke into riots.
The conflict grew from that day and still both sides believed the other shot first, Vacuo determined to remain neutral eventually realized if Mantle and Mistral won then they would also be conquered and allied themselves with Vale. It was then the war escalated once again. Mantle's technology and Mistral's numerous forces gave them the starting edge, but once Vacuo joined Vale the latter had access to the former's natural resources primarily dust mines that Vacuo had more of than their enemy.
Instead of attempting to invade Mistral or Mantle the King of Vale decided to hold their own ground and wear their enemy down through attrition, Mantle and Mistral would spend more resources trying to capture their territory while they would only spend what was needed to keep it, a war of attrition. Thankfully Mantle turned out to be horribly inexperienced with desert environments and each of their campaigns into Vacuo ended with defeat, but could Vale and Vacuo keep it up? It had only been five years since the war started, but how long until it ended?
Outpost Delta was to the east, the only one that responded to the hourly check in transmission even if it was just static. The truck slows to a stop at the outpost gate, they already see something wrong, no soldiers in sight. The watchtower is unmanned, protocol is for at least one lookout at all times.
The four soldiers step out of their vehicle, "Sweep the perimeter real quick" their sergeant says, "No splitting up, we stay together. We'll check the outside fence first then we'll open the gate."
Leading his team around the outside of the outpost they check the ten foot tall fence on all sides, no signs of anyone cutting through it to sneak in and no signs that someone climbed over, the razor wire was still intact.
"Maybe someone jumped over it?" one of the soldiers suggested.
"Possibly" their sergeant said, "Let's check inside the perimeter, get the gate open, we'll stay together and check each room as a team."
The gates were designed to open from the inside and with no sign of those assigned to the outpost they had no choice, but to force the gate open. Hooking their truck's winch to the gate they pulled it open with little effort and entered. The guardhouse was empty, no signs of a disturbance the same with their mess hall. Each of the outposts had a ten man group assigned to them, but they weren't that big, so where was everyone?
"Barracks maybe?"
The sergeant quickly raised his closed fist signaling for his team to stop and be silent, he saw movement. The lights across the outpost were out save for their flashlights; they were in the dark, but he saw something.
"Sarge?" one of them whispered.
He turned to them, "Lights off, stay quiet" he said hearing the sound of growling.
Footsteps followed and in the darkness they saw two glowing red orbs appear, seeing how close they were to each other and the way they were moving left no doubt they were a pair of eyes, but could those eyes see them?
Raising his weapon the sergeant took aim just under those red eyes, unable to see the body of whatever it was, but so long as he aimed under them he should hit something. Whatever it was around the size of an adult human, maybe even bigger judging just from it's footsteps. The growling was obviously an animal of some kind, but what?
They waited to see what it did, silent and unmoving was the way to survive in the wild when a potential predator was near. The red eyes moved away, but the soldiers dared not release their held breaths just yet. They waited until the sergeant was confident they could move. Looking back he whispered for them to follow him, one hand on their weapon, other hand on the shoulder of the one in front of you, lights off and he would take the lead.
"Stay low and move quick" he told them, leading them directly ahead to the main room of the outpost.
Feeling in the darkness for the door handle he realized it was already open and cautiously stepped in immediately they were met with a foul stench. The floor shifted under him and a blind check with his hand revealed it to be the door, risking his flashlight he immediately saw the damage, large slash marks and a dent in the center from some kind of ram. Lowering his weapon he covered the flashlight with his hand allowing only a crack between his fingers to let the light through as they searched the room.
"What the hell did that to the door?" one of them whispered before the sliver of light revealed a body slumped against the wall in the corner behind an overturned desk.
"Whatever did this" the sergeant said, seeing the mauled body. Slash marks, rended flesh and exposed snapped bones, organs and blood alike spilled out onto the floor.
"What the hell?" the one behind him gasped, "What kind of animal attack was this?"
"There's no way there's only one" another said, "No single animal could take out ten armed soldiers."
"Maybe it was more than an animal" the one in the rear suggested, "What if Mantle experimented on something and created a monster, maybe monsters really exist. We all heard Griff talk about that crazy old man, the story he was telling people about something that ate all of his sheep."
"He's just crazy" the second in the group said, "Some crazy old man, and you know Griff is all talk."
"Quiet" their sergeant snapped, turning his light off and they heard the growling again, just outside the doorway, whatever it was it was back. They could hear it sniffing around, heavy inhales as it wandered about.
"Wolves have a really good sense of smell" one of them whispered, barely audible to his allies next to him, "Is it tracking us?"
"No" the sergeant answered, "The smell of the body will mask us, at least in here."
"So it knows we're here somewhere" the private responded, "If it doesn't find a trail going away it will come back in here."
The sergeant took his weapon again and aimed at the doorway, seeing the red eyes come into view. He lowered himself to one knee, once again aiming just under the pair of glowing orbs, the only light in this dark room sent a primal sense of fear through him. Resting his arm along the table he aimed and waited to see what would happen, he didn't want to reveal their position, what if there were more, but if it came closer he'd have to shoot.
The creature did come inside, sniffing the air as it entered and the eyes seemed to get higher, the creature stood up. With one final sniff the monster growled and the sergeant knew those eyes were finally looking right at him. Pulling the trigger of his crossbow he fired a bolt and heard the creature yelp before it fell into the doorway and a heavy thud confirmed it's fall.
Taking his flashlight the sergeant shined a revealing light on whatever it was and the creature was a perfect match to the one the crazy farmer warned people about. Quickly the sergeant took a picture of the monster seconds before it began dissolving in a black mist leaving no remains behind. Turning back to his men they all had the same expression, what the hell did they just kill?
"Wha, what" one of them began desperately trying to push his fear aside and find his words, "Sarge?"
The sergeant turned his light back to the body in the corner, "Weapons ready, we need to look around."
In the barracks they found the rest of the outpost team, eight bodies torn apart, eviscerated and mauled, their final twisted and pained expressions permanently frozen on each of their faces at least the ones that still had faces.
"There are only eight bodies here" one of the private's noted, "That was the lieutenant in the main room, there should be ten. Did one of them make it out?"
"Keep searching" their sergeant told them, scouring the barracks before moving to the basement that served as the rec room.
"The door is locked" one of them said, "Wait, no something is holding it shut."
The sergeant raised his weapon again, "Kick it open and step to the side, you two watch our backs."
The two behind them turned to guard the stairs while the one in front kicked the door open, hearing something tumble down the short staircase to the basement floor the private quickly moved to the side giving his sergeant an unobstructed view of the doorway in case something was in there.
"I'll take point" the sergeant said, entering the room with the one who kicked it open right behind him, the other cautiously moving backwards keeping an eye behind them just in case.
Reaching the bottom of the stairs they saw what barred the door was the folded ping pong table. Meaning someone barricaded themselves down here. Finding the light switch the sergeant flipped it on and called out for whoever was hiding to show themselves. In the corner they heard something shift along the floor and they saw someone stand up, blood along his sleeve a large bite mark on his upper arm where a chunk of flesh was missing. Slowly he turned to them and they saw his ghastly white skin and eyes that seemed to have turned red, just like the creature they recently killed.
Seeing the private's insignia on his shoulder the sergeant addressed him, "Report Private, what the hell happened here?"
The private with an expressionless gaze shuffled toward him at first before snarling and breaking into a full sprint only to trip over an overturned chair and fall to the floor. The sergeant and his men backed up their weapons trained on the private as he slowly got up still snarling at them. The sergeant ordered him to stand down, but when he charged again they were forced to act. Raising his weapon the sergeant slammed the butt of his crossbow against the private's head briefly stunning him and allowing one of the others to wrestle him to the ground only for the private to bite him.
Screaming as he was bit the private let go and kicked their crazed ally away and once again the sergeant slammed his weapon across the private's head knocking him down.
"Bridge, report" the sergeant ordered not taking his eyes off the unstable private.
"I'm fine Sarge" he said, "Aura held up, it just hurt."
The crazy private growled as he rose to his feet again and looked at them, still undeterred and once again attacked forcing the sergeant to shoot him the bolt going into the private's knee, but even after falling he persisted and began crawling towards them. Left with no choice the sergeant took his knife and plunged it through the private's skull killing him listening as he died with a raspy exhale. Cautiously turning the body over the sergeant took in the details of the private's body, the drastic change to his skin tone, his red eyes, as far as he knew only a severe infection of some kind could cause this, but what?
"Take the body and load it on the truck" he told his team, "I'm going to check the radio and report to HQ."
Locating the radio the sergeant found the cause of the interference, damage to the transceiver and the wrong frequency. Not bothering to fix it he rejoined his team and returned to HQ, arriving just as another team was sent out to look for them. Turns out the other three outposts were the same, the entire team assigned to them dead, mauled and ripped apart by something, but no evidence as to what.
Going straight to the captain they revealed the body of the private they were forced to kill and began making their report as well as showing the picture of the creature they killed before it dissolved in a black mist leaving no trace behind.
"Just like that crazy old farmer said" one of the privates mentioned, "A monster."
"At least it's dead now" another said with relief to which the captain agreed, but before he could congratulate them the sergeant interrupted.
"Sir, this doesn't make sense" he began, "According to that farmer, this thing killed his sheep a week ago. And his farm is on the other side of town, five miles away from here. And each outpost a mile out in each direction, all of which went silent around the same time. There's no way this thing did all of that and took out forty soldiers in that time frame."
The captain and everyone else realized where he was going, "There's more than one" the sergeant finished, "And considering what happened to the private we found, his skin tone and his eyes and the bite mark, I think these things might have something to do with that as well."
Before anyone else could comment one of the perimeter guards started yelling over the radio, "Contact! North fence!"
Gunfire and screams could be heard along with what sounded like howling, but from a pack and then an emergency broadcast from their central command began reporting monster attacks ordering all bases to check in and be on alert.
The door to the captain's office barged open a soldier wielding a sword and shield stood there, "Sir, there are some kind of monsters, they're coming from everyone, hundreds of them!"
The captain reached for his own weapon mounted on the wall, "Very well, everyone get out and do your jobs" he looked at the blonde soldier that just arrived, "Corporal Arc, you and Sergeant Helms grab a truck and drive like hell until you reach Center Command, you tell them everything, we'll hold out until you get back with reinforcements."
The blonde soldier slid his sword into a holster attached to his shield and saluted, "Yes sir! Good luck."
The captain nodded, "To the two of you as well."
Sergeant Helms quickly placed what evidence they had into a briefcase and readied his crossbow quickly joining Corporal Arc as they made for a truck and quickly drove away from the base, running over one of the monsters as they fled, out in the darkness seeing hundreds of red eyes glowing. It would be thirty-six hours before they returned with reinforcements only to find the base had fallen, most of them dead, the ones that weren't had turned out just like that one private, ghastly white skin and red eyes and began attacking them as well.
"That's all" a young man said, setting the biography down and running a hand through his messy light blue hair before looking at his three teammates and asking them what they thought.
"Crazy" his red-haired teammate responded, "So that's how it happened, the first contact with grimm."
"Tell me about it" their team leader said leaning back in his seat, his monkey tail holding his water bottle, "We didn't learn about that in history class."
"Well" the blue-haired boy who read the story said, "This home did belong to a general who fought in the Great War, this is his biography...You think Headmaster Lionheart knows about this? It is the first time I'm hearing about it as well."
Their dark-skinned teammate spoke up, "It's possible. It is common knowledge the grimm first appeared in Vacuo, but based on the account you read Neptune, it sounded like they appeared all over the desert before encountering the military forces out there."
The blue-haired boy raised a finger to his chin, "There are conflicted stories on how the grimm were first found, the only commonality between them is it was all in vacuo, it wasn't for another couple of weeks that they started appearing in the other kingdoms, that's why the popular theory is that Mistral or Mantle created them. What do you think Sun?"
The boy with the monkey tail, their team leader stood up from his chair, "Well right now it's just a story, let's put the book in our pack for now and keep searching the rest of the mansion. We still have to find the owner."
"Hopefully alive" their dark-skinned teammate commented, "We did find grimm in the foyer and we haven't seen any of the staff."
"Maybe they escaped into the forest" their red-haired teammate suggested, "Or they could be held up somewhere inside, we've only searched a couple of rooms so far."
Their team leader stretched his arms back, "Yeah, Scarlet's got a point, we've still got a whole mansion to go through so let's get to it. Team SSSN move out!"
A/N. It's your boy! So 2020 has been crazy 'eh? Almost a whole year without doing anything, I'm glad to be back to this, to me writing is more fun than video games and movies.