The scourging sun of the Mexican desert kissed Jackson’s green reptilian skin. The sands were warm to the touch, the air arid and hostile to any thirsty traveller. But Jackson wasn’t in the desert for a break or for a walk, he was on the hunt. Armed with his EF88 Austeyr, Glock, a short automatic Remington Shotgun, and a variety of weapons and equipment. He spent three days looking for his prey.

Jackson was sent to Mexico on the 13th of February. A day after the entirety of Disposal Unit 043 was annihilated by a monster that was spotted in the area. The reptile had no idea what the creature was, all he knew was how deadly it was. It would be unorthodox for the Order to send the Butterfly Legion on a mission without any clarifying information. But this case was different, besides being stretched thin after the Cascade, they also needed to know Jackson was still capable after he was presumed dead ever since he disappeared.

To the reptile, he knew he shouldn’t conduct the mission. It was all set up to test him to see if he should be given his own unit once more. He had to prove to them all that he was still capable, either by killing the monster or surviving the mission to deliver new information. That is all that was required of him.

The description of the monster was incoherent. From what witnesses described the creature was taller than a human, it was well built, bipedal, and had eyes that had a red glow which shined like a burning star at night. All of it was useless to Jackson, but what interested him was how it operated. It was reported that the monster would kidnap young girls and women, no younger than 16 and no older than 35. The Order at that point labelled the behaviour as a coincidence as the reports of the missing girls and women also correlated with the missing men's reports. But Jackson knew that was an optimistic assumption, a hunch for a reality that was far more disturbing, a pattern the reptile knew too well.

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Yet the reptile needed to find proof, one that could prove the intentions of the monster. That was the least he could do. However, his main concern was how Unit 043 was destroyed. The report of their demise indicated their deaths were quick and efficient like the creature was fast enough to overwhelm them. In one audio recording sent to the Order, Agent Lynda described how they tried to track the creature and other mundane information about their mission. What alerted Jackson when he heard the recording was how Agent Lynda responded to what she thought was fellow Agent Dominic. But upon further examination, the voice was an imitation of her then-declared dead comrade.

When Jackson searched their deserted camp the moment he arrived in the desert, he could tell that overpowering force was not used, nor was magic involved in some way. Instead, the monster was clever. An ambush predator sprung a trap on the 20-man-strong unit in the dead of night, killed them, and took their bodies to its layer. It was no dumb animal that killed its prey and left a trail back to its home. Jackson could tell it returned to the massacre and covered its tracks like it knew it was being pursued.

But the creature didn’t consider the possibility of an outsider that could smell their scent. For three sleepless days, the reptile tracked them down, and now he stood at the entrance of the monster’s cave, the home of the horror that terrorised rural Mexico. It was then the reptile could face the beast alone and prove himself to an Order that never expected their survival.