Breach-13
Riana Brians
The first time Riana saw that crack hovering in the cave, a part of her almost revered it. It seemed so……captivating. It kept thumping in her head, as if calling out to her. That part of her wanted nothing more than to run up to it and look at it up close. A part of her which she had suppressed back then. She needed to make a good impression, after all.
But now? Now she was absolutely loathing that past self of hers. Not after those abominations crawled out.
"Fuck!"
It had been going very well. A few patrols across the site here and there with Mr. Tea, on a lookout for anyone seemingly up to no good. They should have told her to look out for the Crack itself, damnit.
These things had come out in droves. After the Crack (Was that the best name they could come up with?) started acting weird, a massive wave of abominations just started...... emerging from it. The massive initial wave burst through the barrier, before falling upon everyone still on-site.
Technicians and those other science geeks were scrambling about. Those who had survived, that was. It was pandemonium in here. Currently, she and Mr. Tea (She refused to call that man by his real name) were fighting for their lives as those abominations overran everything around them. The two of them were fighting near the lifts, trying to fight off some of those abominations charging towards them with a few other surviving combat operatives.
"Wait, help!!"
"God damnit! These little rascals!!"
"Where's reinforcements?!"
All around them, corpses and the bodies of dying operatives were strewn about. She wanted to go help them, save them, but she couldn't. She couldn't afford that luxury. Heck, she shouldn't even be alive. The only reason why she had been given a fighting chance was because those all-black security guys had taken the brunt of the assault, and had taken out a large portion of those abominations that had appeared in the initial wave as soon as the barrier broke.
Not enough, though. And now, they were mostly all dead.
Now normally, she shouldn't have been in such a difficult position. Her Ability, which she had taken to calling Arsenal, enabled her to materialise any conceivable weapon that could be fully wielded by a single individual, provided she fully understood its mechanics and how it worked. This included machine guns, rifles, swords and shields etcetera. The Ability also enabled her to intrinsically understand the layout and function of any weapon she touched, which had come in handy during several high-stakes operations against Origins using dangerous weaponry. She got to walk away with said dangerous weaponry as her nifty new toys, to boot. In addition, to complement her Ability, she had taken dozens of courses both during and before her employment in the Cordiale on weapons engineering and war studies.
Shit. That all felt so useless now. The current cave structure meant she was restricted in the type of weapons she could summon. A part of her wanted to decimate these abominations by mass-spawning grenades and other explosives everywhere, but that could cause both a cave-in and friendly fire, killing both her and the people she had to protect.
Just as she stabbed a dagger into a small, rodent looking creature with bloodshot eyes, she spotted something else on the edge of her vision.
Another abomination was approaching her. This one looked like some sort of a massive albino spider, horribly mutated. Like the other abominations, its eyes were bloodshot, and its mandibles and legs were all splattered and dyed crimson. The blood of its victims.
Its approaching form was enough to give Riana shivers down her spine. She had spent years fighting Origins and regular humans. Sure, there were a few fucked up ones and psychopaths for sure, but a part of her had always been comforted in knowing her opponent had been human, just like her.
Now? The sight of the incoming abomination was enough to freeze her in her tracks. No reasoning, no hesitation, no motive. Just killing instinct.
She froze. She couldn't move. Why? Damnit, move. Please! Why couldn't she move, for the one time when she needed to more than ever?
But as she screamed at herself internally, the spider abomination had already reached right in front of her. It leapt into the air, looking to pounce on her motionless form.
I'm screwed.
She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the pain. The pain that never came.
What?
As the attack never came, she squinted her eyes back open, only to see that same spider abomination hovering mid-air. No, not hovering, it was stuck. There was some massive, transparent, liquid structure floating mid-air between her and where the abomination had just been a second ago, and the abomination in question had now been caught mid-leap by the mysterious liquid.
What? She couldn't process the sight in front of her.
Then all of a sudden, right before her eyes, the whole liquid structure twisted. With the abomination still inside. Its body was mangled and twisted open, and its gory insides spewed out onto the still surrounding liquid.
The whole structure quickly fell back to the ground afterwards, losing its form and splashing the liquid everywhere, and leaving the spider abomination, which a few seconds ago, she thought would have certainly ended her -and brutally, that was- lying dead in a mangled heap on the floor.
As she stood dazed, unable to comprehend, a familiar voice rang out from behind her:
“Damnit, get yourself together! Are you looking for an early grave?!”
Turning around, she saw Mr. Tea- no, Keith Lothal shouting furiously towards her. She hadn't paid him much attention since the battle started, only enough to know he was there. Now she saw him for the first time since this nightmare began. His head was facing away from her, as he was engaged in his own battle. He held a pistol in one hand, and was seemingly trying to catch stray shots of the surrounding abominations attacking their nearby allies. As he waved his other free hand, the transparent liquid that had killed the spider abomination -which, now that she had a clear mind, could make out as water- lifted off the ground and flowed mid-air back to his position.
He saved me.
The thought jolted her awake from her stupor.
Damnit! He saved her. They had been busy bickering tooth and nail just a few hours ago, and now, here he was, having to cover her own ass because she -the senior operative- couldn't keep her shit together. Fuck!
For the first time in her life, Riana felt utterly helpless. She had never felt this way. Not when she saw her dad getting stabbed in front of her eyes as a child, not when she saw her comrade being shot dead in her first mission.
But there wasn't any time to dwell on emotions. Not if she wanted to survive. All around her, people were fighting for their lives. Dozens upon dozens of monsters still remained. Dead bodies were laid strewn across the site. Those abominations haven't even eaten them. The lifts they had hoped to use were all damaged and unserviceable. Worst of all, it meant there wouldn't be any reinforcements coming from the surface. Not until an actual response team arrived. How many hours would that take? The situation was grim as ever.
Breach-13
Riana Brians
The first time Riana saw that crack hovering in the cave, a part of her almost revered it. It seemed so……captivating. It kept thumping in her head, as if calling out to her. That part of her wanted nothing more than to run up to it and look at it up close. A part of her which she had suppressed back then. She needed to make a good impression, after all.
But now? Now she was absolutely loathing that past self of hers. Not after those abominations crawled out.
"Fuck!"
It had been going very well. A few patrols across the site here and there with Mr. Tea, on a lookout for anyone seemingly up to no good. They should have told her to look out for the Crack itself, damnit.
These things had come out in droves. After the Crack (Was that the best name they could come up with?) started acting weird, a massive wave of abominations just started...... emerging from it. The massive initial wave burst through the barrier, before falling upon everyone still on-site.
Technicians and those other science geeks were scrambling about. Those who had survived, that was. It was pandemonium in here. Currently, she and Mr. Tea (She refused to call that man by his real name) were fighting for their lives as those abominations overran everything around them. The two of them were fighting near the lifts, trying to fight off some of those abominations charging towards them with a few other surviving combat operatives.
"Wait, help!!"
"God damnit! These little rascals!!"
"Where's reinforcements?!"
All around them, corpses and the bodies of dying operatives were strewn about. She wanted to go help them, save them, but she couldn't. She couldn't afford that luxury. Heck, she shouldn't even be alive. The only reason why she had been given a fighting chance was because those all-black security guys had taken the brunt of the assault, and had taken out a large portion of those abominations that had appeared in the initial wave as soon as the barrier broke.
Not enough, though. And now, they were mostly all dead.
Now normally, she shouldn't have been in such a difficult position. Her Ability, which she had taken to calling Arsenal, enabled her to materialise any conceivable weapon that could be fully wielded by a single individual, provided she fully understood its mechanics and how it worked. This included machine guns, rifles, swords and shields etcetera. The Ability also enabled her to intrinsically understand the layout and function of any weapon she touched, which had come in handy during several high-stakes operations against Origins using dangerous weaponry. She got to walk away with said dangerous weaponry as her nifty new toys, to boot. In addition, to complement her Ability, she had taken dozens of courses both during and before her employment in the Cordiale on weapons engineering and war studies.
Shit. That all felt so useless now. The current cave structure meant she was restricted in the type of weapons she could summon. A part of her wanted to decimate these abominations by mass-spawning grenades and other explosives everywhere, but that could cause both a cave-in and friendly fire, killing both her and the people she had to protect.
Just as she stabbed a dagger into a small, rodent looking creature with bloodshot eyes, she spotted something else on the edge of her vision.
Another abomination was approaching her. This one looked like some sort of a massive albino spider, horribly mutated. Like the other abominations, its eyes were bloodshot, and its mandibles and legs were all splattered and dyed crimson. The blood of its victims.
Its approaching form was enough to give Riana shivers down her spine. She had spent years fighting Origins and regular humans. Sure, there were a few fucked up ones and psychopaths for sure, but a part of her had always been comforted in knowing her opponent had been human, just like her.
Now? The sight of the incoming abomination was enough to freeze her in her tracks. No reasoning, no hesitation, no motive. Just killing instinct.
She froze. She couldn't move. Why? Damnit, move. Please! Why couldn't she move, for the one time when she needed to more than ever?
But as she screamed at herself internally, the spider abomination had already reached right in front of her. It leapt into the air, looking to pounce on her motionless form.
I'm screwed.
She squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the pain. The pain that never came.
What?
As the attack never came, she squinted her eyes back open, only to see that same spider abomination hovering mid-air. No, not hovering, it was stuck. There was some massive, transparent, liquid structure floating mid-air between her and where the abomination had just been a second ago, and the abomination in question had now been caught mid-leap by the mysterious liquid.
What? She couldn't process the sight in front of her.
Then all of a sudden, right before her eyes, the whole liquid structure twisted. With the abomination still inside. Its body was mangled and twisted open, and its gory insides spewed out onto the still surrounding liquid.
The whole structure quickly fell back to the ground afterwards, losing its form and splashing the liquid everywhere, and leaving the spider abomination, which a few seconds ago, she thought would have certainly ended her -and brutally, that was- lying dead in a mangled heap on the floor.
As she stood dazed, unable to comprehend, a familiar voice rang out from behind her:
“Damnit, get yourself together! Are you looking for an early grave?!”
Turning around, she saw Mr. Tea- no, Keith Lothal shouting furiously towards her. She hadn't paid him much attention since the battle started, only enough to know he was there. Now she saw him for the first time since this nightmare began. His head was facing away from her, as he was engaged in his own battle. He held a pistol in one hand, and was seemingly trying to catch stray shots of the surrounding abominations attacking their nearby allies. As he waved his other free hand, the transparent liquid that had killed the spider abomination -which, now that she had a clear mind, could make out as water- lifted off the ground and flowed mid-air back to his position.
He saved me.
The thought jolted her awake from her stupor.
Damnit! He saved her. They had been busy bickering tooth and nail just a few hours ago, and now, here he was, having to cover her own ass because she -the senior operative- couldn't keep her shit together. Fuck!
For the first time in her life, Riana felt utterly helpless. She had never felt this way. Not when she saw her dad getting stabbed in front of her eyes as a child, not when she saw her comrade being shot dead in her first mission.
But there wasn't any time to dwell on emotions. Not if she wanted to survive. All around her, people were fighting for their lives. Dozens upon dozens of monsters still remained. Dead bodies were laid strewn across the site. Those abominations haven't even eaten them. The lifts they had hoped to use were all damaged and unserviceable. Worst of all, it meant there wouldn't be any reinforcements coming from the surface. Not until an actual response team arrived. How many hours would that take? The situation was grim as ever.
