Rip and Tear

Rip And Tear

RIP AND TEAR!

The words reverberated through your mind as your mech was coated in a wash of demonic blood and viscera. You were going to obliterate every single goddamned demonic menace in this world singlehandedly if you had to. So what if these cyberdemons had tech of their own. You had willpower. Human willpower! And enough rage coursing through your system to see every one of them rended into a thousand pieces!

You heard Kamiko's voice cut through your bloodlust:

"Makoto! You're doing good but stay on the point, baka! You can't just leap headfirst into a hoard of demons on your own... I mean... Sure you can. It's not like I want you to be safe or anything."

You reluctantly steered your unit back on track, after snapping another few demons in half, of course. Harumi at radio control signalled you.

"Makoto! Kamiko! You're approaching the target. Readings indicate it's 2 klicks ahead, and 1 klick down. I repeat, this thing is underground. If you can't find an access point, make one. Your suits can handle it. This is the big one, guys. All the demons in this area have been surging from it."

The two of you closed on the location. Nothing to see but dusty plains and a few holes in the ground. You readied the bunker buster and fired it into the hot zone.

"Be careful!" Harumi cried. "It's--"

Your viewscreen turned to static. No, that was no static. That was layers of earth and rock. You were falling.

"It's hollow..." Harumi's signal faded away and cut out.

You checked your readings. Kamiko had dropped down with you. You were both falling. After a thousand metres of earth had passed, your suit crashed down onto the bedrock below. The interplanetary-grade shock absorbers took the full impact. It was quiet as the grave, and just as dark. You had only your instruments to guide you now.

"Kamiko, do you read me? We've made contact. What do you see?"

"Ugh, nothing yet. Warn me next time you're gonna try something like that, baka!"

Suddenly your system detected a rumble. It couldn't triangulate the location but it kept increasing in volume. It was laughter. Dark yet feminine. Then you saw her. Shining in the darkness. A woman, floating in the air. Her skin a ghostly white, her eyes red as blood, and her smile bible black. Her hair was curled above her head into a pair of horns, if that even was her hair. Her unearthly glow was contrasted by the metallic, pitch black carapace that folded over her body.

"What's this floaty bitch want?" said Kamiko.

When you looked at Kamiko you saw something out of the corner of your eye. You realised what she was.

"Kamiko! Run! She's not floating! She's--"

It was too late. You had seen that the shining black material didn't stop at her body. It echoed out into the darkness, forming a web. She wasn't flying or levitating. She was in a mech suit of her own, as dark as the cavern walls surrounding you.

The last thing you heard was your instruments frying and shutting down.