Crimson Sky

Cursing the other hunter's lack of wings, and the newbie, I turn away from the exposed area on the back of the manticore's leg that could be reached easily from an elevated position. I turn and grab ahold of the nearest medic. I make my way to the young hunter, weaving betwixt some of the mech-using hunters.

I drop the medic next to the injured hunter and leave the man to help him. I instruct one of the other hunters to stand guard.

Hoping that I made it in time, I focus once more on getting Samuel into position in the most effective way we've yet found. Knowing how much the man hates leaving the ground, I take a deep breath and make an attempt to grab him to take him up to face the beast.

The medic blinks at you, somewhat surprised at being pulled out of your arse, but proceeds to stuff an antidote potion down the paralyzed noobie's throat. You pick up Samuel but you find yourself no longer overtake the beast to get him onto its nose with the added weight as it bounds away. Samuel writhes out of your grip and falls onto the sands below.

"Cripple it!" He yells as he falls.

The medic blinks up at the griffin hunter before stuffing an antidote potion down your throat, you begin to feel the paralysis wear off. The beast is bounding away from you into the sandstorm. You hear Samuel yell.

"Cripple it!"

Annoyed at the wind's strength preventing my plan from working, I turn to the nearest mech-using hunter. "Those things have blades, why haven't I seen one used yet?" I yell over the sounds of the sandstorm and fight.

I go back to spinning and diving past the creature's line of sight to disorient it and distract it.

I get to my feet furious that I was so careless. I take to the air and charge toward the beast in pursuit. I fly right into its wing claws out stretched, I then spiral back and continue, hacking away from its flesh.

The beast roars and stumbles again, slowing enough for the mech users to catch up with it. They throw themselves onto its back legs, stabbing it repeatedly. One of them activates the crossbow on the mech's arm, firing a bolt up into the manticore's knee, bringing it down on top of him.

Seeing that the delicate flesh under the armoured skin is finally exposed thanks to the hunters' efforts and their mechs' blades, I aim into the manticore's leg; I open fire and hope to hit blood vessels, nerves or just damage the muscle and bone.

A passing thought flashes through my mind, I wonder how the gravitational power of the bullets will affect the creature from inside.

I decide to take a new approach and shoot through the air toward its face and go to slash its eye.

I look up and see the new hunter attacking the creature's eyes. Annoyed, I dart up and go to tackle him in order to keep the eyes intact for Samuel.

The beast screams in pain, the volume causing you to grasp your head in pain and plummet to the sands below. You feel something slice your leg as you fall. When the sound stops, you see that there is a shallow gash on your leg.

Your bullets cut into the beasts leg in a spray of blood. It seems to be having even greater trouble moving that leg.

The beast screams in pain at the newbie's attack and lashes its head back and forth. The force of the scream causes you to grab your head in pain, but you are further back and behind it. The newbie drops from the sky into the sands below, one of the beast's teeth catching his leg as he falls.

I drink the speed potion that I took from my locker, and go back to shooting into the growing number of wounds the creature has sustained as I wait for the effects of the potion to kick in. After noticing the young hunter's injury, I once again look around for the medic.

I wince under the pain from the gash but I will myself to get up and keep fighting. I fly into the air again but retreat to the back of the group to try to calm down and think about what to do next.

The potion kicks in almost immediately, though you seem to be doing little to add to the damage the creature has taken, as it is already unwilling to move those parts of its body.

The medic is already tending a far more wounded man in a mech suit. From what you can see, the newbie's wound looks fairly insignificant.

Samuel is running up the beasts body towards its head.

The beast is very weak, it wont last much longer.

You see Samuel running up the beasts body towards its head.

Using the enhanced speed granted by the potion I took, I fly just off the ground with usually impossible speed and grab Samuel to propel us both to the required spot in front of the creature. Now that I no longer need worry about the effect of the added weight, I can concentrate on the imminent squirming of the hunter that hates taking to the air and not dropping him as a result.

The beast roars and lunges forward, snatching Samuel from the griffin hunters grasp and snapping its jaws shut, leaving him clutching the top half of a mangled corpse. Several of the mech users leap forward and begin sawing at the beasts throat. One climbs up onto the beasts head and begins firing crossbow bolts into its ear. A red flash lights the sky from behind you.

The beast moves. Samuel becomes a lot lighter. Lines of pain rip across your stomach.

The Manticore draws back, its teeth speckled with blood.

You look down.

Samuel hangs in your grasp, his body gone, blood dripping from the ruined mess of what little is left of his torso. His head tips back and his gaze meets yours.

"I-" Any meaningful last words are lost as he coughs his last, blood splattering the goggles of your facemask.

The battle continues to rage about you, but you find yourself unable to focus on it. Samuel's body goes limp, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. His eyes are blank as they stare up at you.

Not being close to any of the hunters, the captain's death didn't really phase me too much but I turn around to see where the red flash was coming from.

You see the red flare the hunters send to show they are in need of help. The beast dies with a whimper behind you and the fodder begin working, draining it of blood and carefully cutting sections off of it to take back as meat.

The man you found earlier is still with the fodder, not having been taken back to the town as the fodder in charge were distracted by the battle.

After a few stunned moments of silence, I kneel beside the hunter and close his eyes. Slowly getting up I turn to face the manticore and prepare to attempt to finish the fight before more damage is done; losing as good a leader and friend as Samuel would cause panic in the remaining hunters left without anyone to command them.

I aim to jam and fire the rifle into the ruined eye socket of the manticore as a desperate attempt at a finishing blow with the remaining power from the potion.

You see the red flare the hunters send to show they are in need of help. The beast dies with a whimper behind you and the fodder begin working, draining it of blood and carefully cutting sections off of it to take back as meat.

The man you found earlier is still with the fodder, not having been taken back to the town as the fodder in charge were distracted by the battle.

The world is spinning, rushing around you like you're caught in a waterfall.

"I..."

You blink and everything snaps back into focus. The beast is already dead.

The fodder are busily working. Draining the manticore of its blood and carefully carving away portions of its flesh to take back as meat.

The man you found earlier is still with the fodder, not having been taken back to the town as the fodder in charge were distracted by the battle.

The sky in the distance is lit red like blood.

I stagger towards the strange man, asking the nearest hunter on my way who now has the highest rank amongst the survivors.

Calming down a little, I decide to go and help the man I found earlier. Before I do, I quickly fly over to the nearest hunter and warn him of the red flare behind.

The hunter looks worriedly at the sky.

"If they've fired that, they're in major trouble... It looks like that came from the lift. We'd better get back there." He turns and yells out to the group. "The Captain's group's fired the emergency flares. Double time people. Fodder, hurry it up!"

The hunter shrugs and turns away. Another hunter seems to be taking charge.

"The Captain's group's fired the emergency flares. Double time people. Fodder, hurry it up!" He yells, indicating to the flare that lights the sky red.

I signal for any other winged hunters to join me to set off in the direction of the flares as we can travel faster than the others.

I decide to leave the man from earlier to the fodder and head out with the other flyers toward the flare.

You arrive at massive metal structure that conceals the lift leading down into Evren. Two hunters from the Captains group are waiting for you, the canisters of blood and the Hydra meat telling of a successful hunt, but not a single fodder is in sight. As you get nearer, you see Kroge and Jose are the only two there. Kroge snarls and smashes his signature giant axe on the ground, waving his hand cannon in your direction.

"THE FUCK TOOK YOU SO LONG!?!?" He roars. "THERE'S BETTER FUCKING PEOPLE THAN YOU DYING DOWN THERE!" Jose steps forward.

"We got back around ten minutes ago to find the lift'd been brought back down. And this." He kicks a charred body towards you.

You recognise the corpse for what it is, despite the charring. The now black skin that is usually a luminescent white, the oversized, bald head, the spindly, gangly limbs with their thin, twig-like fingers. Vampires are a rare sight within Evren, you have only met them once. Fortunately it was but five, The diggers broke into a cave and you as the hunters were called in to kill them. You managed to kill four, but one was too fast, as is the mark of their race, racing past the swarms of hunters and breaking into the main market square, slaughtering several civilians before a group of enforcers managed to kill it.

The casualties have long been a stain on the reputation of the hunters.

"The rest of the group went down, but the captain didn't want to leave fodder in charge of telling you what happened. Too unreliable." Jose tells you hurriedly, glancing worriedly over at Kroge, who is begining to climb down the lift shaft by hand. "From what we can guess, they called the lift down to try and get people out, but it hasn't come back up."

The hunter who appeared to be taking charge earlier nods.

"Right, the Captain said these mech suits should be able to survive long falls, so follow me. Kroge, get the fuck back up here and grab hold of me, we're going down the fast way. All of you grab a fodder, looks like we're gonna need all the help we can get. You fliers go first."

You nod and dive into the empty lift shaft.

The bottom arrives quickly and you pull up, hovering slightly above the floor of the lift.

The sight that greets you is one of horror. The base of the lift is littered with corpses, huge chunks of flesh ripped from them, or necks and spines twisted at unnatural angles. As you look up, you are greeted with a warzone. The walls and floor of the market square are covered in the luminescent white bodies of vampires, hissing, spitting and wailing as they assail a small group of humans left standing in a protective huddle around the fountain in the centre of the square. You see the Captain and several others in mech suits forming the circle.

"REINFORCEMENTS!" One of the hunters yells. The Captain looks over, smashing three vampires out of the with one arm of the suit before gutting another with the blade on his other.

"GET OVER HERE!" He yells, smashing another vampire away into the sea of pale, glowing bodies.

The world is going to hell. From the amount of bodies you can see, the twenty or so survivors standing around that fountain must be all of the citizens that are not yet dead, and if there are any elsewhere, the thousands of vampires leave them with no fate but eventual death. Even as you watch, waves of the creatures continue to pour out of the tunnel leading into the mines.

There is a rushing sound from above you, followed by the gong like sound of metal hitting metal at high speeds as the hunter who took charge's mech lands behind you. You wince as you see the corpses ground into the floor of the lift. Bones and organs popping and gurgling under the weight of the mech.

Kroge clambers off, surveying the battlefield. His expression slowly becomes livid, his breath in pants. Wrenching the metal grate of the lift aside, he sprints into the heaving mass of vampires, swinging his axe mightily.

"KROOOOOOOOOGE! WIIIILL! SOOOOOOOOOOON!"

There are a further two thuds as two more mechs land behind you.

The day had gone to hell. It seems so long ago. You were dancing by the fountain. Everyone was laughing, smiling. Men were throwing you coins, winks, appreciative looks. Hoping to get under your skirt later. Perhaps one or two of the more attractive ones would.

The Hunters came through, glorious, quirky, huge and hulking, small and weak looking, all of them loved. You know some of the more attractive ones by name. You are told Samuel is heading the group, the young and attractive second in command.

Then the giant bulkhead door at the back of the lift opened, and for a moment, just a second, you removed the blindfold, to see the huge hulking machines that many of the hunters were now riding, giant men of metal that Al has worked on for years.

You smiled and replaced it. It was one thing to see them being put together, another to see them in action. Today is a testiment to Al's genius and the might of Evren. The surface may be hostile, the tunnels deadly, but those of Evren were mighty.

Oh how wrong you were.

They passed, went up in the lift to hell that was the surface, to brave the dangers and bring back the precious blood and meat.

Thus began the living death. The gong sounded.

The gong that everyone dreaded, the gong that meant that there was danger in the tunnels. The gong that summoned the hunters to save them.

There were no hunters to save them.

When the first of the luminescent creatures crawled its way out of the tunnel, you were wracked with the memory from less than half a year ago, the last time one of them got through. It sped through the crowds, faster than most could react, and slaughtered one of the singers performing near you.

The enforcers caught it and killed it before it could do any more damage, of course, as they did with this one.

They were not so lucky with the next, and it eluded them long enough for another two to follow in its wake. You ducked into Al's workshop to grab the weapons he made for you, prototypes, tests.

By the time you returned, the vampires numbered in the hundreds. Now,they number in thousands.

A group of civilians and off duty hunters fought their way to the lift, calling it down. They even managed to get in before they were slaughtered.

Then they returned, the hunters, fighting their way through to the centre of the marketsquare, where you and the remaining survivors had desperately grouped as the vampires slaughtered and gorged themselves about you, systematically murdering their way through what remained of the panicked crowds.

It has been almost ten minutes of constant fighting since the Captain and his hunters arrived. Several with wings have gone for supplies of potions, healing, strenghtening. You are currently under the effects of strength, healing, speed and stoneskin potions. What damage the vampires can do to you instantly repairs itself, and you rip through them by the dozens. Your body burns, you know that consuming this amount of potions cannot be healthy, but then neither will dying to vampires. You will deal with the consequences later.

Your childhood friend, Emmerabella, your mentor and friend, Al and your father stand behind you along with around twenty other who are not forming the protective circle, passing potions, tending as best they can to the wounded. Your blindfold hangs about your neck. A vampire leaps for you and you eviscerate it. It collapses into a heap of spindly, gangly limbs with their thin, twig-like fingers belying their inhuman strength. Its oversized, bald head, with tiny eyes and huge fangs splits open, greyish blood pouring out over the floor.

"REINFORCEMENTS!" One of the hunters standing in the circle yells. The Captain looks over at the lift, smashing three vampires out of the with one arm of the suit before gutting another with the blade on his other.

"GET OVER HERE!" He yells to those who arrived - you don't have time to look - smashing another vampire away into the sea of pale, glowing bodies.

There is the gong like sound of metal hitting metal at high speeds and you recognise the sound of one of Al's mech suits arriving. There is a moment's pause, before a deafening war-cry is heard.

"KROOOOOOOOOGE! WIIIILL! SOOOOOOOOOOON!"

There are a further two thuds as two more mechs land in the lift. Two vampires leap at you, one propelling itself off the other's back and high into the air above you, while the other scampers towards you on all fours, its teeth bared and aiming for your waist.

It has been an interesting and eventful day. The voices in your head are still arguing it out.

The urge to rip and tear these... creatures... that dare to defile your home, with your own teeth and claws is almost overwhelming.

That's not very gentlemanly of you, old chap.

Fuck the shut up, you moron. Can't you see I'm WORKING here!?

Well its hardly you that in charge old fellow, I do believe-

RIPTEARKILLSHOOTITBLOODIWANTBLOODEVERYWHEREALLOVERBATHEINITITWILLBEGLORIOUS

There is a chance that we'll get out of this alive.

Will you be quiet, he's trying to have a flashback.

Oh, yes, verily, you are quite right.

Why does he need to remember what happened you silly shit?! Even if he forgets he's got us to remind him.

I don't see why we're even bothering to fight... we're all going to die today anyways...

Well that's hardly gonna be the case. I mean, you are like SO pessimistic. I mean, really, suuure, the vampires turned up, we were having a lovely day, yes, yes, and suuuure maybe they slaughtered everyone except, like, the thirty or so people left that he's fighting in the circle with and suuure-

Will you shut. up!? Listen, the Captain of the hunters said when he got back from his hunt that the rest of the hunters would be returning soon. Now, as soon as they arrive, we'll hopefully be able to fight our way to the lift or something-

Because any way you look at it, this citys fucked. I mean, man, there's thousands of the fuckers-

EATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMI'VEHADITWITHTHESEMOTHERFUCKINGVAMPIRESINTHISMOTHERFUCKINGCITY

Yes, thank you.

Ohmygod. He's... He's right. We might as well end it now. END IT NOW

ENDITNOWENDITNOWENDITNOWENDITNOWENDITNOWENDITNOWENDITNOW

SHUT UP. Both of you! We've been fighting for almost ten minutes now, the rest of the hunters will be. Here. Soon. We've dealt with vampires before.

Yes. Well done. That was ONE vampire, dipshit. Can't you count?! There's about a thousand of them.

I'd say closer to three or four, though not all of them are in this square.

He is quite right, you know.

Yes. Thank you. Fuck off the both of you.

You raise your pistol and blow the head off and approaching vampire, before ducking behind several others, taking a moment to reload. Despite being the only Augmentor in this small band of survivors, the sheer amount of healing potions being passed around makes that redundant right now. You will tend to the sick and wounded once you've figured a way out of this.

EATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEMEATTHEM

As you reload, you take a moment to examine one of the vampire corpses within the circle. it is all spindly, gangly limbs and thin, twig-like fingers. Its oversized, bald head has been crushed by a massive blow, one of its tiny eyes caved in and several of its huge fangs missing, greyish blood oozes out over the floor. Its thin, weak looking body belies the speed and strength of these creatures. You envy it.

WANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANTWANT

"REINFORCEMENTS!" One of the hunters standing in the circle yells. The Captain looks over at the lift, smashing three vampires out of the with one arm of the suit before gutting another with the blade on his other.

"GET OVER HERE!" He yells to those who arrived - you don't have time to look - smashing another vampire away into the sea of pale, glowing bodies.

There is the gong like sound of metal hitting metal at high speeds and you recognise the sound of one of that strange professor's metal suits arriving. Several of them already make up the circle.

I can't deny their effectiveness, but where's the fun? I want to feeeeel their flesh rip in my hands-

RIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIPRIP

There is a moment's pause, before a deafening war-cry is heard.

"KROOOOOOOOOGE! WIIIILL! SOOOOOOOOOOON!"

There are a further two thuds as two more metal men land in the lift. You step back into line and a vampire leaps for your head, its mouth agape, huge fangs extended.

Well. Shit.

Breaking the cover of the circle of fighters as it wasn't going to help me now I sprint slightly forward before dropping and skidding below the scampering one, ramming up towards it's face with the daggers, leaving the other to go flying over my head.

I look around for the status of the others.