The initiation day was, quite possibly, the most memorable day in the life of Ruby Rose. History would be created during that one point in time and she, as everyone else around her, would be its main actors. On that point, she reminded herself to thank her sister after the initiation for waking her up...
Most of her time was spent on eating cookies and taking care of her favorite gun, a scythe sniper rifle she called "Crescent Rose", which was also her sweetheart. Many a student were creeped out by the midget in red when they stepped closer to start a conversation, only for her to growl as soon as their eyes glanced at the lethal tool.
One thing that bothered her constantly, apart her social awkwardness, was her inability to find that guy with his robotic companion. Just the night before she casually noticed him on the other end of the room, seemingly busy with something. And now he vanished like a ghost. She hoped to find him in the locker room but that turned out to be a failure.
The reason why she wanted to find that particular person was a rather simple one. Everyone was a stranger to her, except her sister and the other two girls she met... and that one blond guy whose name she forgot...
In any case, she wanted to socialize, mostly because her dear and sweet sister wouldn't stop bothering her about it. Especially when she learned that she, Ruby, met this guy. In all honesty, her older sister was a puzzle to her. One moment, she would tease Ruby and, as soon as said reaper showed her the person in question, all that air of fun kinda... dropped, soon to be replaced with utter annoyance and a comment about how "he looked average to her".
Ruby was finally able to meet him when the initiation started. She and everyone else were outside, listening to the headmaster's brief lecture. The boy's robot stood behid him.
"Your objective is... simple, although, due to the circumstances, it's far from it." The headmaster moved his head so that he could get a good look at every applicant. "All you need to do is to find and retrive a particular object. That said, the rumors you heard about teams are true. You will form pairs based one rule."
"And that would be?" One of the students asked.
"The first person you watch in the eyes will be your partner during your stay at the academy." He responded with extreme seriousness, much to everyone's confusion.
"What kind of half-assed rule is that?" She heard the boy ask disbelievingly. Even she had to cringe at such arbitrary rules.
But the headmaster went on, ignoring the comment. "A word of warning. Do not hesitate to use your weapons against every living thing out there, not just the Grimm. The Emerald Forest is filled with dangerous wildlife, as you may already know. Any questions?"
He paused briefly as someone raised a hand. "Yes?"
"Um... how are we going to... there?"
Everyone recoiled as they heard some kind of mechanisms activating, followed by that same voice screaming as it flew into the forest. Ruby briefly glanced at the boy she wanted to talk with.
"Oh motherfu-"
It was all she was able to hear before he flew backwards and into the forest.
This was officially one of the worst days of his life, according to Braylon. One that he would gladly forget if it weren't for the fact that his PDA was capable of turning his memories into data, storing them in the database and making them virtually indestructible.
Nevermind the fact that he ended up into a tree's crown, or the fact that he went through said crown and crashed into another tree, sending both him and the tree to the ground. What made him angry was the huge amount of time he was going to waste just to find an object in a forest. Time that wasn't really on his side.
So after he decided that he had enough staring at the green foliage above him, the Vault Hunter jumped back to his feet. He felt no pain as the Shield absorbed the damage, but even then had to admit that what the headmaster pulled there was just dirty.
He glanced at the destroyed tree, brooding about how he had killed an organism even before he started the initiation. Was that all he would do in his life? Just kill things to death? He wasn't sure. He was, however, clueless as to which direction should he pick to start his search. Shrugging to himself, Braylon took a random direction, hoping that it wouldn't be a wrong one.
His travels brought him to a small clearing, illuminated by the sunlight. He stopped mid-step when he heard something shuffling in the bushes. Seconds after he turned to look at the spot, someone came out. It was a girl with short blue hair and emerald green eyes. She was holding some kind of a blocky, black rifle in one hand while the other held said hand firmly in place. Braylon raised an eyebrow as he was finally able to notice her state. Bleeding wounds everywhere, clothes torn apart, a look that begged him to help her. Something that he did not.
He had two reasons why. His personal one was, to quote, "not giving enough fucks". The other was because she was died way before he could do something.
It happened like this. The girl took few more steps forward, barely able to hold herself from crashing down on the dirt below her. She dropped her weapon as she slowly raised a hand towards him, tears falling from her eyes. Suddenly, something large and black roared as it jumped out from the foliage and straight down on the girl. It happened so quickly, that Braylon was only able to register a large maw biting down the victim. Blood splashed everywhere, followed with loud pops and crunches. After said maw lifted up, and kept munching on the corpse, Braylon finally realized that the creature was nothing more than a large Beowolf.
The Beowolf spotted Braylon and stopped chewing the victim, whose legs and arms could be seen dangling from the mouth. It perked up its ears as he drew his pistol. It kept staring for few more seconds, then opened its mouth and shook its head, spitting the corpse somewhere to its left. It chuckled as Braylon pointed his gun at it, with more Beowolves stepping out from their hiding places.
"A pack... this day just keeps getting better and better."
It soon became clear that the other Beowolves were the underlings, their sizes varying, yet none of them were as developed or as large as the leader who, unlike the rest of them, sported additional armor made of bone on its entire body.*
(Doom: Plutonia 2 – Deadly Town)
The two smallest Beowolves, having nothing but the bony masks, growled and ran towards Braylon. One of them received four shots and crashed into the ground mid-rush but he was unable to stop the other, who leaped with the intention of tackling him to the ground. Instead, he cocked back his left hand, materialized Holo Sabre and pushed it forward right as the tiny Beowolf reached his personal space, impaling it through the chest. That wasn't enough, as the young Grimm kept biting and scratching at his Shield. Braylon put an end to its life by pointing the pistol at its head and firing until it stopped moving.
Tossing aside the body with the fuming head, Braylon saw three larger Beowolves fastly approaching his position. He jumped backwards, avoiding two of them. The third one was, apparently, smarter as it leaped from his position with the speed of a bullet and slapped Braylon, tossing him into a tree.
"Alright... not bad..." He slowly got back to his feet and swapped his pistol for the Orphan Maker. "Looks like I need a bigger stick..."
Just as he thought that, a Beowolf jumped from his left side, straight towards the business end of his weapon. He simply pulled the trigger, gifting the Grimm with a huge hole in its chest, as if a cannonball passed through.
"Guess who just got the Darwin award..."
Braylon quickly reloaded his shotgun, not wanting to get ambushed again by the monsters. The trio from before tried their trick again, but he was prepared this time. Due to his Shield being fully charged, the Orphan Maker received a drastic increase in its lethality, to the point that the first Beowolf's upper body turned into a cloud of gore as Braylon pumped two cartridges worth of ammo into the creature. Rolling forward, he dodged the second Grimm's swipe. Then he slid below the third one's legs as it attempted to grab him.
As soon as the Beowolf was behind him, the Vault Hunter spun around, temporarily switched Orphan Maker for the Holo Sabre and stabbed it into the back. It howled as it tried to shake Braylon off, who grabbed its fur and climbed on top of its shoulders. He then jumped into the air above and landed on top of the Beowolf's head, splitting the skull in two with his holographic tool.
Using the about-to-fall corpse as additional help, Braylon jumped towards the last remaining Beowolf of the trio. Both of them crashed to the ground, with Braylon on top. Raising his Holo Sabre, he brought it down towards its head, but was stopped when the Beowolf in question grabbed him with both of its hands, clearly knowing his intentions. It howled and flailed with legs and head while loosing the power struggle. Braylon kicked the Beowolf's head, making it loose its concentration for a brief moment and allowing Braylon to proceed with his execution. The Holo Sabre went deep inside its mouth, the tip emerging out from the back of the head, as a torrent of blood rushed out. Braylon jumped off,, allowing the monster to choke in its own life liquid.
The last two members of the pack were killed with the Ajax's Spear, each bullet tearing huge chunks out of their bodies, turning them into a bloody mess. Only the alpha remained.
Braylon spun around several times, searching for the last remaining threat. After the third attempt, he turned around and saw the alpha just in time as it grabbed him and lifted him up. His rifle fell to the ground before he could do anything with it. Braylon had to resort to more radical methods of breaking himself free from its grasp by materializing Holo Sabre and repeatedly stabbing the arm until the Grimm let him go. As he fell, he noticed that a small swarm of Sturgs rushed towards them both. Swearing loudly, he grabbed Ajax's Spear and started running in the opposite direction. He was also able to pick up the black gun that belonged to the woman from earlier. There was no need to turn his back to know that those animals assaulted the alpha Beowolf, even less for knowing that there might be a possibility that some Sturgs decided he was more tasty than the Grimm.
So he limited himself to sprinting forward, hoping to escape. Fighting a swarm of those insects on such an open area was a fool's errand. Even more so when he didn't have lots of ammo.
He eventually stumbled into a cave, in which he gladly went without thinking twice. As soon as he went a little deeper, the air became colder and the light dimmer. He had to activate night vision if he wished to proceed further. At one point in time, Braylon noticed that something was approaching him from the opposite side. As it came closer, it became evident that what ran towards him was one of those things that he saw on the news the day before. The one that, according to reporter, could explode if it came too close to its target. **
Braylon aimed with his rifle and fired a short burst at the creature. For some reason, the bullets made it explode with enough force to shake the cave. Panicking, he wanted to turn around, to avoid being buried under a pile of rocks. But as he did, the ground below him crumbled and he fell into the short abyss, which consisted of a large lake with rocks serving as its bottom. Since the water barely reached above his ankles, the fall would have been a rather unfortunate event for a common person.
Landing on his butt, the Vault Hunter hissed slightly at the painless discomfort. He got up few minutes later after he took a good look of his much colder surroundings. There were two tunnel-holes positioned so that, should he turn towards one, the other would be behind him. He turned to one of them because he heard that unmistakable sound of tiny legs skittering on the hard rock. The one and only warning that Sturgs were approaching.
Seeing no point in waiting for them to come en masse, Braylon pressed the trigger, firing into the darkness of the tunnel, hoping to kill some of the insects. High-pitched shrieking and explosions echoed through the cave as the first Sturgs came into view. Swarmers and Mireborns came by dozens, most of them exploding as the bullets tore through their bodies.
Then the rifle clicked.
"Shit!" Braylon cursed as he took several steps back. His only effective defense was out of bullets, so he was forced to backtrack to the tunnel behind him. As he went through the tunnel, he took out the pistol and the Unforgiven, using them to kill several fast Swarmers. The Unforgiven was out of ammo too, so he placed it back into its respective holster and kept firing with the pistol. Suddenly, he lost his footing, screaming as he fell backwards, sliding down the slippery earth below him.
The slide ended abruptly as he shot out of the tunnel and on the cold, hard floor. Still, he kept firing at the slowly decreasing numbers of Sturgs, until none of them remained alive, ignoring his surroundings for the moment. After the last Sturg was dead, his acidic fluids contributing in making the tunnel unusable, Braylon sighed in relief as he stood up.
(Atrium Carceri – Ruins of Desolation)
"Great." He muttered to himself as he turned around. "Now where am... oh..."
His pistol slipped from his hands, landing on the floor with an echoing thud. In front of him was the last thing he needed to see. A large tunnel-like cave, with walls covered in slime and moisture, groups of glowing fungi scattered everywhere, cocooned remains of both animal and something he couldn't quite recognize, giant glowing egg clusters every few meters or so.
It was a nest.
And he had to go through it.
"Fuck. Me."
The good news was that none of the inhabitants came to greet the newcomer. Yet. Quietly picking up the pistol, he began walking down the tunnel while also inspecting his surroundings for potential ambush spots. He stopped at the first egg cluster.
"Computer. Activate BioScan."
BioScan activated.
The touchscreen detached and rose vertically, like a computer monitor, revealing a small kit containing freshly-formed tools used for gathering specimens and data. A tiny camera formed near the monitor, which Braylon pointed at the egg cluster. Said camera beeped as a bluish light scanned one of the eggs, with the monitor displaying some basic information about it.
Scanning complete. Data incomplete. Warning: required sample to complete data.
Braylon took a small syringe from the kit and stabbed it delicately into an egg. After he extracted some of the yellowish liquid, he returned the syringe to the kit.
Extracting samples. New data acquired. Elaboration...
One of Braylon's reasons for starting such a project was purely scientific. Cataloguing newly discovered species was not only helpful in expanding his already large knowledge, but it also helped him fighting more efficiently those organisms that turned out to be hostile. In this case, it was Sturgs, as he named them, although he was sure he would need way more than one sample, since there were so many subspecies fo those insects.
A shrill wail made him more aware of his surroundings, as he immediately stopped everything to find the source of the noise. There, out of the next egg cluster few meters forward, came out something that could be best described as a yellowish worm the size of a human leg, with three tiny legs on each side and a grayish beak-like mouth. It also had two long, black antennae just above the beak. ***
It came out, seemingly unaware of the human intruder. It then stood erected like a signpost, only to let out another wail. Braylon took no chances and fired with the pistol, frying the insect-like creature and ending the wail abruptly. He would return to his previous job, if it weren't for the fact that he heard the skittering noise coming out of every hole in the wall around him.
"Um, not to be a bother... oh who gives a damn. Give me some ammo!"
"This is becoming more tiresome than it is worth."
Two black cases teleported close to his location, one of them containing an unmodified grenade. Braylon swapped the pistol for Ajax's Spear, reloaded and took the grenade in his left hand.
A group of Mireborns appeared from behind. After he killed them, he turned around to deal with three more Mireborns, followed with five Swarmers. He reloaded as a group of ten Sturgs marched towards him. While the rifle was good with dealing with the insects, in such particular situations would do poorly to protect its user. That is why Braylon threw the grenade, which also happened to land near the egg cluster responsible for the worm-like creature from before. The explosion that followed was more than welcome, as it not only killed the entire group, but it also destroyed the eggs, splashing their content everywhere.
Braylon jumped over puddles of acid and kept going forward, now free from danger. He met more of the yellow worms, which he killed before they could alert more members of the hive. After some time, he stumbled into yet another type of worm, yet this one was much, much different.
It looked physically like its yellow counterpart, only ten times the size, far bigger then a human. It had no antennae and its color was somewhere between orange and red. ****
As soon as it spotted him, it opened the mouth and released a stream of fire. Even when he jumped to the left, the Shield took some damage, but still nothing worrisome as fire did poorly against that technology.
"Jesus." Braylon complained as he got up. "Where the fuck did you come from? Sci-fi movie from the fifties?"
The worm let out a deep wail as if it understood him.
"Well, this ain't no fifties!" He roared as he fired several bullets at the creature. All it did was pierce the skin, causing small torrents of reddish ichor. Other than that, it didn't prove very effective.
It wailed again before gurgling as if choking on something, shaking in the process.
"Ugh, so disgust-oh shit!" Braylon immediately dived away from an incoming fireball.
"Enough with this!" The Vault Hunter materialized the Orphan Maker. As the animal spat another stream of flames, Braylon jumped sideways and fired, the shot perforating enough of its body to spill large quantities of the red ichor, much to the thing's distress. A second shot made even more damage, making it rise the upper body in the air. The third shot split it in half, killing it.
"Finally..."
With the last bastion of resistance was brought down, Braylon had the peace required to go further into the tunnel. It took him approximately fifteen minutes to reach the dead end. There were two things of interest there. First, the egg clusters were tightly packed, filling most of the space, going so far as to hang from the ceiling and walls. And second, there was a pile of earth, almost like a mound in the middle of the sea of eggs. Braylon had to climb it to reach the top. To his surprise, there was another hole that led deeper into the earth.
M1rzaTheBroJo: Depends on its functionality in the story. Keep in mind that his arsenal will grow over time. Some weapons will probably be replaced, some added, etc.
*Entry #28: Alpha Beowolf
Type: Grimm – Beast
Faction: Creatures of Grimm
Description: "While Grimm are largely useless, they do have a rather interesting way of self-improvement. Their strenght and intelligence increases with age, bonus points if they happen to survive one or more conflicts with mortals. Some achieve sentience, others become unstoppable. In the case of Beowolves, they achieve alpha status, thus the ability to form packs that will obey their orders without questioning them. An elite mook at best and a greater annoyance at worst."
**Entry #29: Creeper
Type: Riftspawn
Faction: None
Description: "Exploding green penises. Why do I have a feeling that this thing is going to spawn memes in whatever this reality has for internet?"
***Entry #30: Sturg – Larva
Type: Riftspawn - Insect
Faction: None
Description: "I see no reason why this thing exsists. There is literally no reason. Not only these insects are so diverse that every subspecies might as well be a species on its own, but so far not one individual had any signs that it passed from a larva-like state. This makes me think that these larvae, apart from being walking alarms it seems, might actually be useful for another, third, subspecies. A suvspecies that I yet have to see."
****Entry #31: Sturg – Advanced Larva
Type: Riftspawn – Insect
Faction: None
Description: "...Yeah, no. Scratch that. I'm beginning to think that these larvae are actually the third subspecies I mentioned in entry #30, never meant to develop past that point. More importantly, how the fuck can these things spit out fire?!"