_ _Leader Of The Void Heralds Pov_ _

"What the hell is happening...?" I hissed as I rubbed my forehead in frustration.

 

Things had really gotten out of hand and I was barely keeping track of any of it. (First of all, those idiots from The Ravagers started attacking my territory's borders out of nowhere even though we were supposed to have an alliance, and now? Now I'm getting reports of fucking monsters in the dark kidnapping my men!) I groaned as I tried my very best to ignore the headache that I'd been dealing with for awhile now.

"S-sir?" A sudden and shaky voice came from the entrance of my somewhat shabby looking tent.

I had to physically suppress my urge to kill the annoying bastard in question, the one who most definitely had brought more bad news for me. I knew that it had to be bad news, after all my men had sent this damn scrawny idiot to tell me instead of coming here themselves. In fact if it was actually something good they'd be here instead to take all of the credit but no, no they sent the most expendable moron of the bunch just in case I get mad and end up killing him in my frustrations.

"What now!" I roared, causing him to flinch in terror and step back slightly.

"We...errm..." He tried to think of a good way to tell me about whatever it was he had to say but quickly stuttered it all out once he noticed that I was losing what little patience I had left, the low growl from underneath my desk may have also helped as well. "S-several of our p-patrols...they...they haven't r-return, sir."

"Damn it all!"

Everything was just going to hell and falling apart in my hands as of late, in fact this was just one piece of bad news in a long line of shit that I've been dealing with for a while now. I had half the mind to just grab what I could and abandon these idiots to their eventual fate but in the end I couldn't do that, not because I care for them or their lives, no, I just couldn't afford to lose what little power base I had left.

"Which ones are missing exactly?" I asked after a second of trying to calm myself down.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally just coming out and saying it. "T-that is the problem sir, the numbers just keep on growing."

"What?!" I slammed my fist on the table in front of me getting an annoyed sounding hiss in return, a fact that I ignored for the most part.

He was much quicker to answer this time around, of course that didn't stop his fearful and rather annoying stuttering however. "At first we th-thought that maybe they were running a little l-late or something but...but no...errm...it seems that m-most of them have gone missing, the men who are supposed to swap in a-after they have returned are, well, t-they have been waiting for over a-an hour now." That made me freeze in place as several thoughts popped into my head.

"Tell the men to get ready for a fight..." I muttered under my breath as a sinking feeling began to take hold of me.

"Wh-what?

"Fucking idiot!" I hissed as I whacked the fool aside and out of my way. "I'll do it my damn self."

                   _ _Carmen Pov_ _

(Here we are...)

[Having second thoughts already?] Goldy muttered but he already knew the answer.

(Not a chance.) I hummed with a shake of my head, well, technically it wasn't mine as I was possessing one of my offspring at the moment but you get my point.

I was currently more focused on looking at the sight before me, which was a fairly sizable encampment that was surrounded by rather messy put together walls and defenses that were illuminated by flickering lights. There were some people standing outside while even more walked around the thrown together shelters that they had created on the inside of said walls. In all honesty however, the whole place looked more like a somewhat cramped looking village made up of tents and sheds instead of the large, intimidating gang base that it was supposed to be but whatever.

Anyway, this wasn't the only base that would soon be under attack, in fact several large camps would soon be under siege within a matter of minutes. But that wasn't my current focus, after all I had a fight to win and battle experience to gain.

(Let's just get this started.) I mused as I walked forward.

It didn't take long for the people outside to notice my approach. "You see that?

"Yeah..." One of them mused in response as he stepped forward slightly. "Hey! Who is there? Identify yourself." He shouted at me but got no response.

"I'm warning you, identify yourself now!" Once again he got no response.

Before he could yell at me once again I stepped into the light allowing him and his group of buddies to finally notice that I wasn't actually human. "The hell?"

"Wh-what...what is that thing?" Someone asked in alarm but no one had an answer for them.

Unfortunately for all of them things were about to get a lot more hectic for everyone involved. <<Hunt them down...>> I growled through the link and as I did dozens of xenos charged forward from the shadows behind me.

"Holy shit!"

"M-monsters?!"

<<Make sure that none of them escape.>> Once again I spoke and this time more of my minions erupted out from the dark ceiling above directly into the camp below them, and additionally as this was all happening several of the thugs turned on their allies with a crazed look of devotion in their eyes.

To put it simply, chaos quickly inside soon after this as panic filled the air. Some men did try and run for their lives, that was until they suddenly realized that there was no escape for them, as such they were forced to stand and fight. Although I will admit  that their efforts were kind of meaningless in the end, they weren't really much of a match for the drones and warriors that were assaulting them on all sides.

I had also finally allowed my facehuggers to join in the fun and boy were they good at their job, some of them even rode on the backs of the other xenos before jumping at enemies once an opportune chance was made available to them. It really wasn't much of a surprise to me but it turns out that the little guys were very effective in thinning the enemies numbers, especially against humans who didn't have any facial protection and who were far more concerned with the much larger creatures trying to kill them.

My spies who had also joined in on the fight were proving less effective in combat then the xenos, however they were achieving their primary goal of spreading confusion and distrust amongst the ranks of the opposition. Honestly however they were doing pretty well, they were seriously messing up any cooperation between all of the defenders as well as their overall chain of command, a fact that was proving very beneficial in the long run.

To my surprise however, I also noticed that amongst the ranks of the enemy there was something of great interest to me. It was an odd looking group of creatures that appeared to look like a mixture between a feline and canine with dark red skin that stood around the same height as a german shepherd. Its body was slightly reptilian in nature given the scales but it did have fur running down its spine, its tail also forked at the end like that of a snake's tongue. Despite all of this the most interesting thing about it were the three tendrils coming out of it's back, all three were covered in sharp bladed spines, kind of like that of a porcupine but seemingly used more for slicing than piercing.

There weren't all that many of them from what I could see, only six or seven but they were definitely proving more of a handful then the humans around them. I would eventually end up learning that these creatures were called razor hounds, mostly because they liked to shred their prey to pieces before eating them. Some of these creatures had apparently been domesticated by the previous colonists before they fled, the creatures were then once again taken in by the prisoners as large guard dogs. 

Not to say that these creatures weren't aggressive towards the thugs, the razor hounds were actually more like cats then dogs in a way. Their overall behavior and way of interacting with their human companions was apparently something like this "feed me and we're good, if you don't then, well, I can't guarantee your safety". In the end I ordered my xenos to try their best not to kill them as they could be useful for creating a new variant of xenomorph.

Anyway, as for myself, well, I made my way through the battlefield knocking out those I could and killing those that were far too annoying to deal with. For the most part however I kept to the edge of the fighting as I occasionally took a second to observe the mayhem going on around me.

(This is going better than I originally expected it to.) I hissed as I tackled one of them to the ground.

[You should have more confidence in your schemes.] Goldy hummed as I pinned the screaming idiot down with my claws digging into his shoulders while allowing a nearby facehugger to do its "business".

(There's a reason the saying "no plan survives contact with the enemy" exists.) I huffed in annoyance while standing back up.

[That only applies to enemies that are actually threatening and competent.] Goldy mused and I simply shook my head at that.

(All enemies are threatening no matter how incompetent they may be, after all even a wounded and starving rat will fight to the death if it is backed into a corner with no way out.)

[My god...] Goldy gasped in mock horror. [I've... I've created a monster...an extremely paranoid monster...]

I was about to comment on that until I noticed something off to the side of me, something that made me pause in momentary thought. I could sense several people grouped together in one place, they were all within what seemed to be a somewhat large tent that was close to the central area of the camp but oddly though it was slightly separated from everything else around it. What actually confused me the most however was the fact that the vast majority of them weren't moving at all, and those that were moving around somewhat hadn't come out to join in on the fighting even though it was plainly obvious as to what was currently happening.

(And what exactly is in here I wonder?) I hummed as I moved over to investigate.

[I wouldn't look in there if I were you.] Goldy warned but it came a little too late as I had already stuck my head inside.

(Why....huh...?)

I felt my blood run cold as the realization of what I was looking at hit me, however the smell alone should have been enough of an indicator even before I looked inside. I knew that humans could be cruel and twisted at times, I mean who the hell doesn't know that but this...this took the cake for the most horrendous thing I'd ever seen in either of my lives.

Dozens of them, people, women and children alike, most had been broken completely, there was apparently no life in them, they just sat there and waited for death to take them. In fact some of them even had whole body parts missing, whole limbs just chopped off for a purpose I'd rather not know. I had expected this, especially when I realized that I'd been fighting only one specific gender up to this point, I had even ask some of my thralls about it and had learnt that there were some all female gangs as well as some gangs that had a mixture of genders but I could never bring myself to ask anything related to the sight in front of me right now. I...I just...I never expected that it would be this bad.

Their bodies were mangled and twisted, just left to rot when they were of no more use, it wasn't just women and girls either, young boys were also within the group. I didn't understand how to react to such...such a sight, I just froze as various things flooded my mind. I was baffled, I was appalled, horrified, sickened to my very core but most of all, the thing that stood out the most amongst this whirlpool of emotions I was feeling. It was rage, rage and disgust.

(I...shit...) I muttered completely speechless at the sight. (I really was hoping that...that this wasn't the case...) Goldy didn't say anything as I continued, no jokes, no sarcastic remarks, nothing, after all this was no place for such things.

After a moment of silence and contemplation I opened up the link and spoke with clear venom in my voice. <<Set them free, all of them, but don't harm any of these poor souls, they have all suffered enough already.>>  I was speaking to all of my xenos, all of my children.

<<As for the rest? The ones that did this to them? Well, you should treat those around you how they treat others.>> I muttered as I let out a rumbling growl from my tooth filled maw. <<They didn't show mercy, they didn't show restraint...so they shouldn't expect any in return.>>