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Isaac was pleased to see his army return in one piece, relatively speaking anyway. There had been quite a few losses from the raid on Elysium granted, though he had taken more than enough material to make up for that. All that remained was for him to run it through the drexler and replenish his numbers, then conduct some more raids against the rest of his crewmates and their territories farther south. To that end his recon drones had been busy monitoring the southern lands while he'd been preoccupied with transporting the backup arrays to a more secure location and expanding his existing facilities deeper into the mountain, and they'd fed him some very interesting information during that time indeed. First and foremost, the news of Fletcher's death had finally traveled beyond the gilded walls of Olympus, and it was causing quite a stir, which was exactly what he needed right now. While his former coworkers were the main problem, the fact that they might not be able to rely on their colonist pawns much longer only served him and his secondary goal of avoiding mass civilian casualties.

Furthermore, should this distrust and doubt erupt into all-out rebellion yet again, it would finally present him with the opportunity to make some allies. Maybe even regain a measure of the colonists' trust, something he would desperately need if he ever wanted to get things back on track, not to mention avoid an even messier conflict with the Earth as its government didn't tend to look kindly upon planetary uprisings when last he'd checked. That development aside however, his drones had also spent the last couple of days or so keeping tabs on Meredith's domain. Probing it for any signs of weakness or vulnerability he could turn to his advantage. Beyond sabotage, which was fairly obvious insofar as offensives were concerned, Holcomb wanted to do something a bit more drastic. He was well aware of Meredith's control over GAIA, to say nothing of the damage it could cause in the right hands... but, of course, he was getting ahead of himself. The first order of business was to eliminate the so-called goddess herself, and to that end he had hidden away a handful of drones within her lands.

Their goal?

Assassination.

In all honesty whether he gained control of GAIA or not was of little consequence, so long as he could successfully remove another piece from the board he would be happy. As for the remainder of his warforms they would not be sent out to raid. Instead they would stay behind to work on the expansions and see to the defense of the base, primarily the drexler, as if that was compromised then Isaac would have no army to wage his war against the false gods with.

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A sinister change has come upon the lands in Lycia. It was not long ago a domain bustling with life and commerce. Yet -- in the passing of a single day, the domain’s hallmark liveliness came to an abrupt end. Such is the cataclysmic power of the gods. The star of Hellas still shines on Lycia as before, but dimmer. The trees still grew as before, but gnarled -- twisted. Strange beasts roamed in the woods. And humanity is fading, departing to greener pastures. Those that remain are either oblivious to the changes – or they are the most doomdriven and stubborn among mortals.
A band of fighting men remained in the Lycian Village of Rivens, huntsmen by craft, acolytes devoted to the stern Goddess Artemis. For surely they need the Goddess’ favor to overcome her most ungodly beasts. They had heard of the coming of the Chimera, and seeking death and honor they descended in reverse direction of the evacuating masses to meet and slay that which brought them to flee. Both in defense of humanity, and for personal glory in sight of the Gods. They are the fearless few, the chosen ones. They don’t understand the nature of their quarry, and nor do they hold interest understanding it. Any Hellesian understands innately it is not their place to know. All this group cares for is the thrill of the hunt, and achieving worthiness of Artemis’ gifts.

Rivens had fortunately been evacuated in orderly fashion, forewarned by displaced refugees about the looming danger headed their direction. They have outran, seemingly, the storm of the Grand Aether… Or so they’ve hoped.

The huntsmen entered the deserted village with bow strings pulled, their weaponry of choice yew bows with metal tipped arrows. They were ready to unleash their volleys at the first moving shadow. Step by step they inched past the outer cottages and - as they approached the plaza - the acolytes spotted life nor movement.
The cottages were plain single story buildings with straw roofing. Visible were tables and stalls with half eaten produce and utensils abandoned on them. Stacks of lumber were in the yards, and as far could be discerned the only trace of life was a lone rooster trotting about, left without his flock of hens. All around nothing out of the ordinary.
‘’No sign of disgusting Beasts. They have not come here yet?’’

Slightly put at ease the huntsmen lower their bows to navigate around the village plaza. They set up position, threw over some tables, moved lumber and furniture to serve as makeshift barricades blocking each entry point -- and waited.

Ten minutes passed. Then an hour. And all this time there reigned deadly silence; there was no wind and no birdsong. Nature was in trauma by what earlier transpired, and the hunters were increasingly unsettled by these omens. They were finnicky, twiddling their thumbs and endlessly staring into the distance past their barricades.
‘’Are they still coming?’’

Suddenly: a gust of wind. They each felt it blow past them and made each hunter spring to alertness.
It was then that they all heard a voice reverberating through the trees.

‘’Men of action. You’ve braced for battle. Yet there is no need for such, relinquish your fibres and depart peacefully, or be torn asunder. This is the will of the Great Aether!’’

The stern huntsmen looked at each other, frowningly and muttering among themselves. ‘’Just like the rumors…’’ They hesitate, until finally one among them speaks, raising his voice defiantly against the whirlwind. ‘’We have no fiber sacrifice to you, Typhon, demon slut! We know it shan’t appease you. In Artemis’ name we came to battle your hordes -- to revenge our kin in the east. Show yourselves immediately!’’
There was no reaction, the entity in the clouds seems taken aback by such an unexpected challenge from mere mortals. Eventually its reverberating voice resounds, its source as ever ethereally unknown.

‘’ … I wonder what sound you will make when I do… this!’’

A screech was heard from the turbulent clouds as a shadow grew above them. The men looked up, and in that very moment engulfed by a red fume detonated amid them.
A deafening boom!
Huntsmen bodies were flung like rag dolls into the savaged cottages. Wood splinters around as not just the barricades, but all surrounding constructions were undone. The huntsmen closest to the detonation remained thereafter motionless on the ground. Others outside of the immediate impact zone cringe and twitch as they try and raise themselves back to their feet. They have only moments to recollect themselves, because snarling from the underbrush the terrors of mankind arrive…

Leaping into Rivens emerged a ferocious beast, saliva dripping in gallons from its gaping jutting maws – the Chimera has come -- it seeks to set its fangs into yielding flesh.
It appeared as a grotesque colossal and black Capricorn with oversized fangs of a carnivore. Its jutting teeth are so large that the creature is incapable of closing its mouth.

One of the hunters whose eyes met the beast’s instantly tried to grab for his bow, all the while never losing eye contact. For he knew such would immediately provoke it. However his fingertips could not sense the bow around the back of his waist where it ought be. The archer’s tool was forcefully discarded in the earlier detonation and, glancing backwards he saw it lying beneath a collapsed stall. The moment his eye contact was broken, the Chimera pranced and leapt at the fumbling huntsman. Its glistening teeth raring for the swift kill…

...Suddenly, a massive spear half the hunter's size streaked past the hunter's head with the violent crack of a sonic boom, moving so quickly that he didn't even have the time to notice that it was bone-white down its entire length til it'd already made its mark in the capricorn's skull, striking with the force of a massive bullet. Despite the speed with which it moved, it did not shatter, glistening with bright crimson blood that quickly bubbled and fizzed away all the way down to its gnarled root…

The beast’s head was penetrated by the javelin as its haft was lodged into its skull. The chimera was stopped in its tracks and fell with its full weight on top of the hunter.
The man yelps, taking a hold of the beasts’ jaws to keep them from crushing him. Then he looks about him to perceive what transpired.

Behind him, perhaps some ten feet away, was a seven, perhaps eight-foot tall woman, clad in nothing but a peasant's rags, charging to meet the beast, her hands bare. Powerful muscles rippled beneath her broad built, ghostly-white skin as she seemed to come up from the ground in a splash of blood, messy black hair billowing behind her. Her left arm hung behind her, flimsy and ragged, itself drooling a steady stream of the same bubbling blood, only to apparently regain its rigidity and violently flesh back into place as she moved. No words came from her lips, no taunts -- all that could be gathered of her emotional state was a look of grim, simple determination etched into her unscarred face.

The hunter was perplexed to witness this Amazonian-type entity engage the penultimate predator.
‘’A-Artemis?’’ He stammered at this penultimate huntress. With nothing but her hands she hoisted the beast off of him. It was not yet dead and she somehow knew this. Blinking its eyes, the drooling beast leapt backwards to recompose itself, while somehow ignoring the fact part of its brains (or where its brains should be) had been crushed.

It bellowed a guttural roar and without showing even a sliver of hesitation now aimed its fangs towards her instead.

The woman offered the hunter no response, focused entirely on her prey -- wild. Simple. Close to death, but until it was gone...

She remained silent even as the savage thing charged her, utterly unafraid of its approach. Only once the beast was in arm's reach did she react, diving beneath its slavering maw. One arm struck out, but instead of simply colliding with the beast's neck, it punched through it entirely, cleaving its spine apart with a single blow. Its limp body simply slammed against her broad chest with a dull thud, neck hanging from its torso by a handful of shreds of flesh, eyes empty of thought staring out into the distance.

‘’Amazing.’’ One of the surviving hunters commented under his breath, looking at the huntress with perplexion. Slowly but surely more of the huntsmen were trying to stand up. Some of them, while not dead, suffered heavy concussions and broken limbs. These mortals were not the sole witnesses of the woman’s daring deed however.
From the clouds above peered one of the Olympians at the unanticipated appearance of this unknown party, the jealous eyes of the very orchestrator of this invasion; the Grand Aether.
In truth he was one of the Panthera, the third in command of the Hephaestean faction of Olympus. His name: Barber Scionwiz

Like the rest of the Panthera, Barber appears as a cyborg of dark feline signature. However unlike his peers his body is highly maneuverable, both in and out of his hovering installation. It is such that makes him the candidate of choice for carrying out blitz strikes on unwitting targets.

Sitting in his floating mobile the Great Aether raced across the skies of Lycia, directing the monstrous horde to depopulate the planet’s surface beneath him as he went. He was notified immediately by his mobile’s software that one of the Chimera ceased functioning. Never before had this happened during an engagement with mere Hellesians, and so his monitor lens zoomed in at the coordinates of his Chimera's neural signal vanishing…
Indeed he perceived there a new presence; some ghostly woman in rags. She had to be mortal, for all Olympians are meticulously registered in the database. The Great Aether pans his lens closer to her face.

Her face was pale and young. Badly scarred, yet eerily difficult to look away from, almost like a compulsion. Nothing aligns her features to anything in the Olympian database…
‘’No matter!’’ Barber exclaims defiantly. ‘’I care not for this little intrusion. She is no match for the godlike prowess of the last batch of Chimera!’’
He pushes a red button indicated with ‘Goblin Mode’...
Fierce howls reverberate through the air from the Lycian countryside. Their ominous bellows reveal the beasts are many. The closest Chimeras close in on Rivens with terrifying speed.
The hunters too were made aware of their approach. Most of them, the living ones, have collected themselves.
‘’We should leave now. They are too strong – and backed by the Wrath of the Gods.
Mistress! Avatar of Artemis!’’ The Captain of the Hunt calls out to the unknown goddess.
‘’You should come with us in organized withdrawal. We needn’t die needlessly…’’

Too late: two Chimeras appear nigh her, considerably smaller ones but ingrained with ungodly speed. They are specifically designed to be the fastest, swiftest moving biological constructs in Hellas. For once they have caught your scent, you can never hope to outrun their predation…
The two lionesque beasts leap with drooling jutting fangs to single-mindedly tear out the goddess’ throat.

The woman lets out a sharp, guttural laugh -- her arms shoot out, faster than the beasts can hope to react, each powerful hand finding purchase around one of their throats, clamping down tight. She handles them like helpless, inconsequential pets, eyes flicking toward the Grand Aether hovering in the clouds, cold and angry, staring daggers.

"It doesn't matter how many of your pathetic little monstrosities you send after me!" She guffawed, crushing their spines in her grasp with a simple flex of her hands and a wet, sickening crack, the bodies uselessly collapsing to the dirt.

"Instead, you insipid little worm, I have a message for you to convey to your Master." The woman raised her voice to the sky.

‘And he won’t hear it, since you’ll be dead!’ Barber thinks to himself as he looks at the radar of his board. Ah, the real deal is approaching – the most fine-tuned predator of all. A personal favorite of the Aether.
Though its speed is held back by its cumbersome weight, it is large, vast and powerful. A beast that appears in suffering, covered in blotches of diseased pale skin and grisly horns sticking from its spinal cord. Borne of torment and locked in perpetual ravenous hunger, it is adorned with scythed appendages sprouting from its shoulderblades – appendages resembling tentacles of hard sinew, muscle and skin tipped with bladed bone-like razors.

Its approach left a trail of hewn and felled trees in its wake, and in mere moments its appearance tore through the buildings of Rivens. Purveying the environment by smell, it already knew the coordinates of the woman as its scythed appendage – like the crack of a whip – crashed out from the nearby walls to cleave her in half.
The group of hunters, taken aback by its sudden appearance had but seconds to react before three of them too were cleft in twain by the beasts’ scythes.
They shriek as their gore splatters on the grass – the collateral in the Hunt of the Apex Chimera.

‘’In name of my master, ARTEMIS! All interlopers in the Mortal Village of Rivens are sentenced to death!’’ Proclaims the Grand Aether.

“Your lies mean nothing, filth. The rest of you, flee! I will deal with this murderer.”