The state of mankind's birthplace The Resort World Earth is much lamented by its survivors having been ripped from the universe during a age of great interstellar strife in the most traumatic of manners, its people warped by a psychic event only remembered as the Awakening, a marketing term given by the now defunct company TerraCorp that was responsible for it happening in the first place. the sky a impassible miasma of unreal known to all as the haze, the wildlife mutated and warped beyond all reason, the only solace for the men of earth was the self destroying power they received. Psionics a strange spiritual technology that translates thoughts into reality granting untold power and immortality to those who master it while making monsters of those who cannot.
It has been 516 years since this brutal Awakening and the world has regained some semblance of normality, great nations have been born in these century's and work has begun on fixing what has been so thoroughly broken, with years of hardship seemingly behind tensions have been escalating as ideas of how to fix the broken world begin to clash. In the small satellite state of Crimson Soul however these things seem so distant, a minor manufacturer of weapons and goods of no strategic importance past raw industrial output of its automated manufacturing, the only settlements of the twisted northwest continent lie within its borders.
Founded in 157 P.A.(post awakening) by the oppressive corporation TerraCorp the blood red desert of crimson soul became one of its most industrious colonys. The region quickly grew with its access to a great wealth of buried resources and special cacti perfect for psionic manipulation, however all was not well with TerraCorp and with uprisings local and abroad the country took its destiny into its own hands with the help of TerraCorps own AI TC3 its oppressors became its saviors and a promise was made that no soul shall ever be chained again within its borders.
Act 1 – The Land In Bloody Red
Chapter 1 – Lix Himself
20 miles east of Heron Shore near the north border adjacent Sinners Swamp Earth - 4:12 pm, Date 122, 516 P.A.
"The Target is East by Southeast of your position Lix" A voice says barely coming through from Lix Delltronious's short range communicator.
"Understood, Do not engage until I tag it" Lix Reply's putting the communicator away and Surveying the rocky landscape its barren red stone contrasted against the large thorny bushes obstructing his view the Haze hanging forever ominously above.
Lix stands up inspecting his long rifle, being a plain looking single shot break action it could be mistaken as a rather simple weapon if it weren't as long as lix is tall and didn't fire 76.2 Custom AP Cartridges.
Lix Himself could be mistaken as rather simple, wearing a plain red long coat matching the landscape behind him, a ivory white chest plate over his coat bearing his family sigil of a oroboros and ornate white cutlass at his side being the only signifier of his status as a butcher.
It doesn't take long for Lix to find the target consuming the fresh corpse of some kind of lizard in a thicket of bushes, the gruesome creature standing 12 feet tall at its full height resembles a praying mantis covered in chitinous armor. insect like wings twitching on its back, its bladed arms tear into its prey cutting it into so many ribbons.
Lix and his companions have been hunting this thing for weeks, unable to keep up with its speed and unwilling to reveal themselves to it with a loud vehicle their party opted to chase it on foot quietly to catch it off guard, while creatures like this weren't rare in this region due to the uninhabitable swamp to the north unleashing such horrors on regular basis, this one had made itself a issue severely wounding multiple veteran butchers who managed to corner it, Lix was not going to let it escape again.
Quietly Lix aims his oversized weapon at the distracted monster, out of the corner of his eye he sees his two companions Fizz and Hait also lying in wait, wearing the same basic outfit as Lix, white ornate cutlass's at their sides they brandish their weapons ready to attack at a moments notice, Fizz wielding a metal short-spear with a long piercing blade at the end and Hait drawing a composite bow a poisoned metal spike pretending to be a arrow aimed straight at the nightmarish insect.
A loud crack of sound covers the landscape as the right arm of the monster explodes in fire,chitin and blood. the creature unleashes a high pitched scream, immediately Hait fires his arrow at the now cauterized stump that was its arm however he misses as the creature turns and rushes at Fizz who was now running at it, his eyes and weapon crackling with psychic energy, Fizz stabs at the enraged insect his spear piercing its armor effortlessly, it recoils and slashes at Fizz taking his spear with it and leaving a massive gash in Fizz's chest. before anyone else can react the creatures wings erupt into motion and the creature awkwardly and quickly fly's east a trail of blood dripping from the spear sticky out of its chest.
"Damn, it ran." Lix laments reloading his rifle and brushing his messy golden hair out of his eyes.
As the 3rd son of House Delltronious Lix was born to be a Butcher, luckily he took to it before he could even hold his sword, his family originally from the north east of the eastern continent became well known for their ability to hunt down monsters and when they made their land safe they moved to crimson soul hoping to take the Legendary Sinners Swamp, while they where unable to even scratch it lix has carried their dream becoming one the most prolific Butchers in Crimson Soul hoping to one day conquer the swamp himself no matter the cost.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
"Sorry, missed my shot." Hait The Arrow sighs looking in the direction the monster fled his short dark green hair contrasting against his violet skin glowing faintly in the morning light.
Being a Fractal Hait was a oddity among Butchers, his species lack of psychic capability often seen as a liability in pitched combat and their lack of corporeal flesh making medical aid impossible, Hait however enjoyed the hunt too much to let something like the lack of unimaginable power stop him, being a master poisoner and expert archer he found his niche in House Delltronious despite the danger, he strives to become the best Butcher he can.
"we can follow the blood trail, it cant go far with those wounds." Fizz says welding his chest and chest plate shut with psychic energy, his body starting to crackle with psychic static, he stands up and pulls a strange cigar from a metal tube in his now very red coat lighting it with a zap from his finger, he takes a long drag of green embers as the psychic static slowly dissipates.
The youngest man to take the Butchers challenge at the age of 24, Fizz fancies himself a prodigy of sorts taking on any kind of Prey and usually coming out on top, his skill became apparent to many Butcher Houses within Crimson Soul but he remained independent until he was saved by Lix after almost feeding the children of a rather nasty Bird, he since joined house Delltronious, believing he can further his skills and career learning under Lix.
"lets not make waste." Lix says slinging his rifle onto his back and begins to follow the blood trail taking the lead as his companions follow
It doesn't take long to reach the creatures apparent destination, an automated mining facility called Sigma dig ,a small facility on the surface only, Sigma dig is one of the most important mines Crimson soul going below the Sinners Swamp and allowing access to otherwise untouchable resources, it is connected to the rest of the Soul via a massive Magnetic rail network the covers most of the region.
Lix and his companions approach the mine the blood trail leading down into the mines rail tunnel, a massive hole in the fence surrounding the mine allowing the group to wander right in. "Trying to get home underground? these things continue to surprise" Fizz remarks approaching a small building to the left of the tunnel and knocking loudly on the door "Anyone home?" he yells. There is no Reply.
"Move." Lix grunts pushing Fizz out of the way and kicking in the door."We can pay for the damage later, that thing is still dangerous."
The room is mostly empty and covered in dust, a small desk sits in-front of the door only an inactive monitor sitting ontop it, on the far side of the room a rack of air tanks and masks sit under a sign reading "Caution: Check Air Before Wearing".
"Where are the guards?" Fizz asks following Lix into the room. Lix grabs two air tanks heeding the wisdom of the caution sign by making sure they are full.
"I don't know, it looks like nobody has been here in ages." Lix says handing one of the tanks to Fizz.
"The facility is automated, perhaps security was seen as a waste of resources." Hait adds leaning in the door way as his companions strap the tanks to their belts oxygen masks now hanging lazily off their necks.
"Where there guards here when you took the challenge Fizz?" Lix asks scratching his head
"Yes, but that was ages ago." He reply's thinking for a second "Besides anything that would break into this place would have no trouble against anyone who could stand to sit around here all day."
"I suppose that's fair" Lix says to his companions as they make their way to the Rail tunnel.
"Hows your chest?" Hait asks.
"Its fine, it was pretty deep but didn't hit anything important, should be good as new in a few hours, pain in the ass getting the plate repainted tho."Fizz replays patting the welded scrap metal on his chest.
"Regalia is important Fizz, you really should treat it as a honor to be able to wear our symbol at all." Lix jokes
"Yea yea." Fizz Laughs as the trio heads down into the tunnel, walking on a small maintenance platform to the side of the magrail.
The tunnel is quite long and barely lit, going deep under the swamp to the north. the group stays at ready as they travel down into the mine a uneasy silence filling the air for what feels like hours.
"yknow we probably could've taken the elevator" Hait laments lazily playing with a arrow.
"What if the creature bled out in the tunnel? we would have to make walk back up here anyways." Lix sighs
"maybe but is it really that likely? when was the last time something from the swamp bled out fleeing?" Hait argues
"it could also have been hit by one of the maglevs. besides it is our responsibility to clean that up if it happens." Fizz chimes in "that elevator always goes way to fast anyways, makes me feel ill."
"Quiet we are almost at the end" Lix says drawing his ivory white cutlass as light streams in from the end of the tunnel
when they reach the end they are greeted by a large loading bay an unmanned windowed office at back left corner behind behind the large elevators doors on the left wall, a barely lit hallway with various doors on its sides at the back of the loading area leading to the mine proper.
it takes a second for the groups eyes to adjust to the artificial light, but as they do they see a terrible sight.
"Well we found our Prey." Lix says looking at the corpse of the mantis creature its head missing replaced with a burned stump, Fizz's Spear still buried in its chest.
"Who the hell could of done this?" Fizz says almost sprinting to the creature and grabbing his spear, brandishing it at the ready. "Lix, orders?"
"Calm down, there are plenty of people capable of doing this, as well as plenty of weapons." Lix replys "Tho nobody should be down here."
"Maybe a squatter?" Hait throws in "This part of the mine has air and it wouldn't be to hard to live down here aslong as you stay away from the mining drones."
"Now that you mention it where are those drones?" Fizz adds
"Probably mining," Lix replys "but if someone was down here who shouldn't be TC3 should notice." He begins to ponder.
before any revelations can be had however the party is startled by the whirring of the elevator.