Chapter 126: Chapter 118: Familiar faces

Aranea stepped up into the narrow hallway leading down to the water storage tank. The moment she took her first step inside the corridor, a horrid smell of acid, exposed flesh, and blood hit her nostrils. The place looked like something straight from the slaughterhouse, with the remains of the defenders lying on the stone floor, torn asunder by the unexpected attack from behind.

Bodies were melted by acidic spits, greenies pried the defenders open, tearing out whole chunks of flesh from their bodies. Torn arms and legs lay by the corridor’s side, the floor was covered in red. Even the light coming from electric lamps was changed to red because of all the blood splatted across the place.

Bel wasn’t lying, upon coming down into the tunnels beneath the outer wall, they were met with countless of Chort’s creatures, crawling out of the cracks in the floor and jumping from the ceiling like insectoids.

"Support me with ranged fire." Aranea simply said, walking to meet the attackers.

She caught the first two greenies with her claws, spearing them through their foreheads. Before the bodies hit the ground, Leila and Sonya gunned down two more from the ceiling, leaving headless bodies falling to the ground.

Aranea moved on, bringing the retribution, killing swiftly and effectively. Her rail gun remained on her back, the wolf hag used only her claws, out-speeding the foes and leaving dead bodies in her wake. Greenies that tried to claw at her soon found their own wrists cut. When the creatures tried to spit acid at the warlord, Aranea rammed her claws through their faces. Weaving a net of irregular cuts before herself, the warlord moved on.

You turned this place into a slaughterhouse? Aranea thought calmly, grabbing a greenie by the neck. Welcome to it. She severed the creature's neck, abandoning it to struggle and die.

A greenie charged at her, and Aranea sidestepped the thrust of its right arm. She caught the creature’s head beneath her armpit, popping it like a rotten fruit. Kicking the next foe in its knee, she rammed the creature head-down into concrete, allowing her allies to fire above her head, tearing six other greenies to shreds.

Another form leaped behind them, aiming its clawed hands for Aranea’s neck. The warlord jumped back, dodging just in time to grab the new foe by its head and slam its head against the stone wall.

"Blue?" Aranea asked, seeing the lean blue form of her new opponent. Still pressing her palm against the creature’s forehead, she demanded to know, "What is going on, why…"

She saw something rising from the creature’s chest, timed with a hissing sound coming from elegant jaws. The warlord pushed her hand without hesitation, splatting the creature's upper part of the head into crimson remains. Shaking off the blood, she turned toward the corridor.

"Grenades," Aranea commanded, taking off three acid grenades and placing them into slots within her left vambrace, allowing them to easily slide into her paw at a moment’s notice, "Keyl, Olesya how are you?"

"We are advancing." Olesya’s words were merged with the booming sound of her energy cannon.

"Everything is clear on our path, too." Keyl reported.

"I can’t fucking believe that we allow an ice fang to lead us," Yuki grumbled over communications, "Sir, get down!"

Aranea heard a shardgun shot and the sound of falling bodies. Through the cameras, the warlord saw how a blue that threatened Keyl's neck discovered a new hole in its chest, just before Keyl sliced in two greenies before himself, leaving a wide slash at a wall.

"Stop using this outdated shit!" Yuki snapped at Keyl, stopping upon hearing Aranea’s growl, "Sir. With all due respect, you have claws and a shardgun, your oversized sword makes for a bad killing tool to use in a narrow space…"

Aranea stopped watching after the second pack, walking toward the ruined door at the end of the corridor. They had to split, advancing only through one narrow corridor would allow the other foes to either attack their allies in the back or regroup and attack Olesya’s and Aranea’s packs in the rear.

What is going here? Aranea pondered as she disemboweled a greenie with her claws. Yes, these creatures were cannon fodder, but before they ran, they ambushed us instead of attacking us head-on. And these blues are not sentient either, there is no thought behind their attack, nor do they use weapons. No, this is not important right now. She dodged claws aimed at her face, and a laser beam flew past her, melting a hole through a blue’s head. What really is important is why Jekaterina went here. What does she hope to achieve by getting stuck underground?

Slicing another greenie Aranea came into the main hangar and stopped for a brief second. A large metal staircase led down onto a stone platform built over four massive water tanks. Countless pipes were connecting them to the main sewer system of the city, leading the water into the city. Right below the stone platform was placed another tube-like steel cylinder, the size of the building. Inside this cylinder, the wastes coming from the city were recycled; urine and other materials were changed back into water before being spread between other water tanks, creating a constant flow of water.

Still, without outside sources of water, this system could hardly work for long on its own. Moon City relied on a steady supply of water from other regions and from Pearl to sustain itself.

And on the platform, Aranea saw hundreds upon hundreds of greenies, mixed with several blues among them. She noticed Jekaterina on the far edge of the platform, standing on a small automatic stairway and tinkering with the cylinder that the mutants had brought in here. Below was a water tank, its lid open, showing pristine water within the slightly rusted metal structure.

Aranea waited no more, jumping from place and allowing soldiers behind her to throw grenades. Six acid grenades. The grenades landed amidst the crowd of foes, exploding and melting creatures all around them. The acid in each grenade was designed to dissolve insectoid chitin; the leather-like hides of both blue and greenies were merely a toy for these weapons. The enemies refused to retreat once more, standing their ground, hissing and dying in droves, waiting for Aranea to land among them.

She obliged them, feeling too angry at the loss of life that she saw. Her legs crushed two greenies beneath her, the armored arm bisected a horribly burned blue. Without halting, Aranea moved on, killing and butchering everything and everyone in her path, relying on her soldiers to shoot down foes to the left, right, and behind her.

The blood pulsating in her temples, slowing everything around her to a crawl. Slowly, impossibly slowly, a greenie moved toward her. She tore away his arm, using it to spear him and another creature behind him. A blue swiped at her pauldron, failing to leave a mark. Without power armor, these beings presented a danger to the halfbreed, forcing her to dodge and weave around their hits. Encased in her power armor, Aranea never even felt his attack, responding with a brutal thrust that left a hole in the blue’s chest.

One by one. Quickly. Reveling in the slaughter, the halfbreed pierced a greenie's forehead with a claw, moving the claw down and bisecting the creature’s head in two. So easy. She wondered if this was how Janine felt in combat. Another greenie spat acid in her face. The deadly substance harmlessly splashed against her now-fully closed helmet, hissing in vain without being able to melt its way through. Aranea used cameras on Leila’s power armor to locate her foe and end him while she waited for her lenses to come back online.

A mutant lunged at her, throwing aside his allies and smashing some beneath his feet. His jaws opened wide. And efficiently. Aranea refused to fight the being on its terms, allowing a grenade to slide into her left paw and pushing it inside its mouth before kicking the beast backward.

The creature looked at her in surprise, pain appearing in its beady eyes for a short while when its neck bulged, splashing acid all around. Aranea moved on, evading the military acid’s splashes, unlike the biological acid of her foe, this substance would melt its way even through the toughest power armors.

Here, in this underground hangar, Aranea could not use her rail gun. A single shot of it would undoubtedly ruin the complicated systems of pipes all around, leading to water shortages in the future, or even to a potentially massive explosion if she hits one of the many wires. Killing foes with a shardgun would be too slow, and so Aranea pressed on, using her own claws to make her bloody way to Jekaterina and stop whatever Soultaker was planning.

She felt… Divine. It was a dangerous, sickening feeling, but right now she welcomed it, seeing how the enemy forms around her fell beneath her claws, feeling the flesh and muscles being rendered asunder under her assault. The blood, mixed with acid, covered the floor, causing foes to hiss in pain and slip, making them even easier prey for her advance.

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Her allies opened fire, downing the most dangerous foes around her. Through her HUD, Aranea saw how Olesya and Bel landed on top of two mutants. Bel blinded her foe before goring him with her claws. Olesya simply plunged her flame claws into the creature’s skull, killing it instantly. Leila landed between Aranea and the enemies, joining the mad dance of the never-ending melee, slicing four foes around her with her armored wings as sharp as blades.

The moment the half wyrm turned her back on the foes, someone charged from the crowd, hitting Leila in the wing with enough force to send the wolf hag across the entire platform. She heavily landed at the edge, her left wing crumbled and bent under the unnatural corner. Kaleb and Sly managed to grab the woman before she could fall off the platform. Another hit reached Aranea, who was busy dodging a blue, and cracked a helmet’s lens, exposing her crimson eye in the process. Cursing, the warlord finished off the blue, jumping back to face the new opponent.

A towering figure rose before Aranea, looking at her with blue and white eyes with no pupils in them. Even here, among all this chaos, she recognized this pale-looking creature, with the short, fat tail protruding from its back, the three-fingered, oversized hands. On his face, he had five scars in the shape of a half-moon.

"Grug?" She jumped back, evading the overhead swing of her foe. The fist connected with the ground with the force of a cannonball, creating tremors all around the huge stone platform.

"Hi. Aranea, right?" The being responded shily, tearing his arm free from the concrete. "Eye is giving you away," He charged, making another amateurishly wide swing that narrowly missed her head. "Please turn back. I don’t want to kill anyone."

"What are you doing here?" Aranea dodged another swing, stepping back and gesturing to her pack to hold fire. Following her orders, they poured their anger at the creatures around them.

"Can’t say. Otherwise, pain comes."

"Grug." Aranea started, raising her paws before herself, "I have no idea for whom you are working. I have no idea what you were doing. But you tried to save me once, and you saved me and my soldiers the second time. Stop it," She saw him halting, "You are no match for me. Just surrender, I swear that no one will hurt you. If it comes to the worst, I will arrange your transfer to Iterna. Just…"

"I can’t. Not anymore. He won’t let me!" Grug cried out, kicking with his leg. Aranea saw this movement way before the knee even reached her, dodging and slashing at his side in an instant on instinct alone. Feeling her claws scratch against his ribs, the warlord stopped herself from pushing further. Grug recoiled, retreating two steps and grabbing at his wounds. Tears showed up in his eyes. "It hurts," He wailed, his blood hissing as it made contact with the concrete. "You dared to hurt me, puppet!" Grug roared in a changed voice, sounding bombastic all of a sudden.

"Grug. I'm not sure who your masters are, but they can't be stronger than the Reclamation Army," Aranea paused, attempting to calm him down. She owed him this much. Maybe even more. "Think about it! We can protect you, you can help us deal with the people who hurt you. We can save you!"

"Un... true," Grug said, his voice shifting between whining and calm. Suddenly he lunged forward, pushing Aranea aside with a force that surprised her. His mere tackle was enough to send the warlord five steps back. "It’s… Stop crying, coward!" Grug painted, grabbing his wound anew. His body shook, veins appeared at his thick neck. Still painting, Grug looked at Aranea with calm eyes. "Thanks for the offer, but no, not at this point, puppet. You should worry about your own people. Before Green kills them all."

"Form ranks, everyone!" Aranea shouted the moment she heard that name.

They managed to do this just in time. A mere moment ago, the wolfkins were busy wiping out the greenies and blues. A moment ago, they advanced in an orderly fashion, with their wolf hags and warlords splitting enemy hordes, allowing their soldiers to thin out foes at their leisure.

In the next moment, several figures charged from the greenies’ ranks, covering six to seven meters with a single leap, moving as fast as any wolf hag. Most of them were gunned down by the reclaimers, but three of them, identical-looking twins, all dressed in a strict green business suit, elegant boots, and a silk green shirt underneath the jacket, closed in on the wolfkins. A single chop from one of them broke a male’s head. The woman continued her chop into a thrust, piercing the chest of a scout from the Alpha team. The moment the attacker started pulling out the heart, Bel was on her, nearly slicing off her head with a kick.

Another foe appeared behind Sly, reaching out to tear off his head. Kaleb was faster, shooting the woman in the chest and pushing her back just in time for Leila to stand back. The copy of Green barely bothered to look at her tattered suit, the armor-piercing shards got stuck in her skin. Her punch was interrupted by Leila, who broke the woman’s wrist before shattering her head over her knee.

The last one was taken down by Olesya and Velka. Velka pushed the woman back with an acid grenade, and Olesya evaporated the woman’s upper part with her beam cannon.

"You ruined my surprise, idiot," another Green said from behind the greenies, her right hand digging into Grug's wounded side and tearing at the wound. "And how dare you call me by my name only?"

Grug screamed out in pain, falling on one knee, not daring to do anything to protect himself as his mistress widened the gash in his side. Seeing this Aranea charged forth, aiming to land a kick at Green’s temple. A hand caught her leg. Another Green smiled icily for a moment, before Aranea’s punch turned her face into a bloody mush. The body started falling, disappearing in the air, and two more Greens came forward. The two became four. And four became sixteen.

Behind them, Green, who fought against Bel, split herself into three copies, pressing on to kill the wolf hag. Bel dodged the incoming attacks with surprising ease and grace, retreating step by step and being unable to find an opening to strike back. Until Keyl dashed over to her, severing one of her opponent's heads and allowing Bel to finish off the two remaining copies with a double thrust of her arms.

"You," Aranea spat to Green, forcing herself to be calm, "I remember you."

"I would’ve said the same to you, but let’s be real, I would be lying.’

"Where are the cubs? What have you done with them, you degenerate? Depending on your answer, I might kill you before I feast on your insides."

"A mutant thinks it can ever touch me with its fangs," Green pressed a gloved hand against her lips, "How quaint. I almost wish I was ordered to kill all of you here. Stay back, doggie, it will be over in a minute."

"Forgive me!" Grug howled, falling at Green’s feet and whimpering, "Please forgive me, miss Green! Please, please, let’s leave this place before W-venom is released! I am scared!"

Aranea froze in place, feeling horror at the mention of this chemical poison. If her instincts are correct, and this thing was in the cylinder, and it is released into the water... the entire city will perish. Everyone, the Resistance, the Reclamation Army, the locals… No one will survive, regeneration or not. Even the wyrms probably won’t escape in time.

Green turned to Grug with a stone face: "You are ruining the surprise, Grug. But since you’ve been a good boy and remembered my name," She left his wound alone, reaching into her pocket and throwing him a chocolate bar, "Here. Calm your nerves, we are merely here to watch and kill a few muties."

"Olesya, let’s do the trick from Bonafell. Everyone else, support us with fire." Aranea forced the fear away, allowing another acid grenade to fall into her palm.

Retribution will have to wait. She will stop Jekaterina. And then she butchers Green, but not before she tortures the information about the missing cubs out of her.

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