[IC] Running and Gunning - Higan Vs. The Magna Pater

[MelonHead]

There was a sudden explosive sound of displaced air that dissipated in the surrounding forest in an eerie fashion. It was as if the land was so quiet and expansive it consumed all noise. Certainly the place would serve as an interesting answer to the age old riddle, if a tree falls in a forest and none should hear it, does it make a sound. In the Forest of the Lost, nothing as vibrant and changing as sudden sound could be permitted to exist. As if to disprove such philosophical musings, there was a devastating cracking and creaking of destroyed wood, and suddenly a great oak plummeted to the ground.

“Oops.” The bearded pilot laughed, after his great metallic Walker’s sudden appearance caused the premature demise of a once mighty tree of the forest. Perhaps heralding the coming of true modernity, with the power of steel and all its other great and terrible innovations, Higan had arrived in typical explosive fashion. Controlling the mobile A.S.P, or Armoured Support Platform, through a rift had certainly been an interesting experience. He was way off mission and he knew it, but the slimy bastard he was after had made it personal. Computers re-adjusted to the new terrain all around him, flickering through numerous vision types to track movement and anomalies, or rather, it was learning what was normal and safe for its pilot. After a few seconds of such analysis it could pick out the anomaly in milliseconds should it make an appearance.

It was called an Anomaly back in the Grent Republic, an outsider that had come through a rift and began causing havoc. The rifts were becoming a bit of a bastard, and the creature that Higan was chasing was a particularly nasty bugger. He’d taken to calling it ‘Slimy’ for reasons that were probably fairly obvious. There was bloodshed involved, and Higan didn’t like it when his people got caught up in weird shit. He was going to go in and give the bastard hell.

Of course, he still had to find it, and he couldn’t help but think that his task was going to be a trifle more difficult than he at first summarised. Entering a massive forest in the early hours of the morning was not what he was expecting on the other side of the rift. Once he found the thing though, well, the rifle in his Mech’s right hand and the chain gun attached to its left would see it ripped asunder, and the tank gun mounted on its right shoulder would blow a hole in it wide enough for his A.S.P to sit in. It was a comforting thought, as he slowly swivelled his double man-height Walker hoping for the computer systems to whine at him. He knew things were getting serious when he actually had the voice software unmuted.

Inside the cockpit of the horrendously well-armed Mech the relatively short but stocky Pilot checked over his systems and equipment. He had a revolver on his hip and a knife at his breast. Though his only armour was a simple green pilot uniform that matched the camouflage of the A.S.P it had unnaturally dense qualities. He was about as ready as he was ever going to be, now it was just a matter of picking up a trace. Systems flashed at the corner of his eye on the screen in front of him, alerting him to a discovery of vital importance. Higan’s tanned face lit up with a vicious grin.

“Game on.”

[Doc Doctor]

As if on cue, maniacal laughter cascaded through the foliage, shattering the quiet like thin ice. It dipped and swooped in maddening pitch, as if some cross between a loon and a hyena were screaming down a distorted tunnel. The caterwaul would descend into hysterical, burbling sobs, the likes of which would raise the hackles on the back of any half-sane man. Nothing on this green Earth or on any other could have, should have made such a noise.

It was far, but not more than a mile. Like likely far less. Absolutely no other life stirred. No bugs nor birds or bears. Nothing. The trees seemed to lean in as if to stare down on the foreigner. They would not be Higen's allies. They would block and obscure his sight, slow down his progress. This was gonna suck.

[MelonHead]

Higan’s face dropped for a moment as cackling filtered through carefully modulated interior speaker systems. His brows furrowed and his expression darkened. With a sudden jump his smile returned again.

“Bit shit that is, let’s have some music, something… heavy.” Computer Systems gave the equivalent of a frown before a heavily modulated voice acquiesced to his demands and one of his favourites started to play. The noise from outside was blocked out by the defiant instrumentals of Ramor metal musicians as Higan began to nod along to the tunes. Completely ignoring the sounds, the Mech strode in the direction of the signature it had picked up. Systems aboard the A.S.P could analyse materials at an extremely advanced level from distance, and had picked up substance from the Anomaly. Minute amounts, invisible to the naked eye, mucous most likely. The sort of remnants any living creature would drop unknowingly just through the act of movement. It might have been untraceable to an ordinary humanoid, but such were the wonders of modern technology.

With a nonchalant air the Mech pursued the path of the creature, which by necessity had to have moved through the forest after exiting the rift. The trees seemed to edge closer to the great metal Walker, packed fairly tight. It was no matter, the A.S.P tore them asunder when they dared block its passage. If this was where the creature made its home it would regret coming to Ramor, that it would.

[Doc Doctor]

The Magna Pater's cunning was matched only by its senses. It had never encountered a humanoid machine before, though it knew of guns. To its aggravation, this thing confused its heat pits. Its sonar, however, flawlessly picked out every detail of the mech, even though the trees would have troubled the echolocation of any other creature. Those were big guns. It had enough strength to tear grizzly bears limb from limb, but this hulking thing somehow marching towards it was beyond strength. Even if it could somehow get close enough to outmaneuver and entangle this mystery prey, it could never get past the massively thick armor which so firmly bounced back its ultrasonic frequencies. If there were any weaknesses, it couldn't see them now. Even more mysterious, the metal giant somehow knew where it was.

The monster was patient, though. Like every predator, it knew that watching and waiting was sometimes the best solution. It could travel through the woodsy domain far more quickly than the mech, and could study its enemy all the while. It would pick and prod at every surface of this problem until it found a crack to exploit. First and foremost, though, it had to make the thing lose its trail. Once it was free, it would have literally all the time in the world to destroy this opponent. It was feeling rather, well, productive in light of current events. The Magna Pater began to experiment. It darted halfway up a tree and began lunging quickly from evergreen to evergreen, using its rudimentary wings to cover each distance, making sure not to rise close to the treeline. It would gradually swerve from its path to determine if the follower would still be able to track it. It had three-quarters of a mile on the metal thing and gaining, with hundreds of miles of woodland ahead. Even if the metal thing knew still where it was and was faster on open ground, there was no way it could catch up with the trees in the way. The metal thing could try jumping around like the Incredible Hulk, and would still not be able to make progress or sight the horror. This could go on for a while, and the longer the chase went on, the more urgent a certain set of questions would become...

Did mech pilots have built in toilets? What about autopilot for when it was sleepytime? How much food and water was stocked? There were a few streams flowing down from the mountains (which the Magna Pater was staying far away from on purpose), but few animals to hunt and eat. They always hid well when the monster's cry echoed through the woods (which it had also done with a purpose). Thanks to its metabolic regulation and expert hunting abilities, it would have no trouble at all traveling for long periods of time. It crossed oceans and continents with marathon ease when pursuing the families of victims across the world. The mech could go on, but the pilot had mortal needs. Unless the beast was cornered, these questions would eventually need to be answered.

[MelonHead]

“Electric vision, active. Anomaly detected, 1220 meters and increasing, secondary weapon advised.”

“You can be an awful backseat driver sometimes mate.” Higan grimaced as his music shut down to allow the computer to speak out its findings. He jumped to action immediately, Electric vision was made for scenarios such as this one and for targets like Slimy, and it hadn’t failed him yet. The monster was highlighted a goodly way off in green, the surrounding trees seemingly disappearing into the background as faint grey outlines. The bastard was a long way off, but for an Anti-Material rifle? Not far enough.

The Mech swung to attention, Computers worrying about complex calculations such as where exactly his foe would be a second and a half from pulling the trigger. Once that was sorted it was only a matter of point and shoot. So he did, and the Mech shot alright. The sound of the rifle discharging was devastating, and almost the second the round fired, splintering through trees with ease as it hurtled towards its target, the Mech was following its path.

As Higan’s Mech began its pursuit a second trailed by, and a little bit more. Splintering wood echoed through the forest, but the round remained unerringly on target, its sheer mass and velocity carrying it through obstacles with ease. As the few remaining milliseconds passed on its lightning fast journey it would arrive at its destination, a fleshy slimy monstrosity attempting to escape, without evasion heading right for centre of mass as it was caught mid-leap. The 40mm round outpaced the sound of firing itself.

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

The Magna Pater has never fallen for an attack it had seen before. It did not make mistakes twice.

My Hider

Exactly eight-hundred years ago

My Hider

in another world, much like this one

My Hider

http://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/88734-yami-and-doc-vs-cruallassar-and-lunar/ic

it had barely escaped a projectile many times the speed of sound. At the time it had accomplished this through luck and its ability to sense pressure gradients, but it wouldn't have been able to dodge the same thing twice. At that same period in time, it had also been struck midair by an explosive arrow and severely wounded. It learned well from both of those experiences. Its vicious wit far surpassed even the wiles of the mischievous Indian gods of lore, and it had had nearly a millennium to dwell upon the best ways of conquering modern and fantastical weapons.
The mech pointed and shot, as intended. The shot missed. The monster would have dipped sharply below the aim right before it fired. It was not fast enough to avoid the bullet, but it could avoid the barrel. Then, without warning, the monster vanished without a trace. Seemingly right off the face of the planet. No faint traces of bioelectricity or slime, no small cave it could of ducked into, no energy flux of trans-dimensional teleportation, not even the highly sophisticated threat detector could sense what had happened. It was gone, somehow. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know that not having the Magna Pater off the radar was some seriously bad juju. Whatever had happened, it looked like the clever beastie had already somehow deduced a weakness of its opponent.

[Doc Doctor]

@Doc Doctor

Suddenly, the Magna Pater's senses went kaput. It was struck a glancing blow along the curve of its snaking body and right through its right wing. The tough membrane stood no chance and the monster was rendered flightless by the injury. A foot long groove was opened up on its side, a couple ribs losing their tips. The bulge of its purple intestines poked from the lower portion of wound.

By no means were the coarse, greasy things that drifted through the Magna Pater's head comparable to human emotions. If they were, however, they would be most akin to surges of deep, resentful anger. It had taken a misstep for the first time in a very long time. It performed its vanishing act before it hit the ground.

[MelonHead]

“Good effect on tar-“ The Computer Systems vocalised analysis cut off suddenly and Higan’s frown deepened. It didn’t take a genius to work out what was wrong, the Computer had registered a decent hit on Slimy. The issue was, before it could even take the time to pat itself on the back it had lost sight of the target. The A.S.P took three more lumbering steps and then halted suddenly, skidding and sinking in loose earth, its left foot forward to stabilise itself as its left arm slammed into a tree and brought the great metallic walker to a stop. If the Machine could look quizzical, it probably would have. Its Pilot certainly was.

“Well shit, Slimy’s gone and dis-in-te-grated.” Higan laughed in his country-boy fashion. He probably should have been worried, but it could have been much worse. At least he’d shot the bastard before it learned how to hide properly. The view on the main screen had returned to an ordinary vision type, though the Computer connected to the optics flicked through all available forms of sight in order to re-acquire the target. Higan was happy to let it do the grunt work as he had a little think of his own. Perhaps his shot had triggered some kind of response in the creature? He wasn’t sure how it could disguise itself from Electric vision, then again, he didn’t really know how it worked to begin with, nor how Slimy worked for that matter.

“Oh well, time’s a wasting.” He decided finally, getting the Mech moving again with a little less urgency than before. It strode through the forest, each mechanical hydraulic sound accompanying a soft thump of displaced soil, permeated with the occasional cracking and creaking of intrusive bark brushed nonchalantly aside. He was heading for the Pater’s last known location, there was a good chance he could pick up the trail from there.

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

Less than a half minute after Higan had started moving again, the mech would once more pick up the monster's electrical signal. It remained where it was for several seconds, doing something weird to itself that resembled how a cat bathes with its leg raised. A moment later twin pinpricks of strange light would spark up in the electric vision, likely throwing the mech's anomaly radar right off the charts. The monster was still experimenting. If the metal thing knew where it was, could it see it? If it did, would the Eyes work? After this good old college try at poking a hole in the metal thing's defences, the Magna Pater would dart off again, this time further left of where it had been initially aiming. If Higan tried shooting at it again as it held still, he'd find it was much more agile on the ground than when leaping from tree to tree. It could move near the speed of a Cheetah in bursts and with superior acceleration, but a steady thirty-nine was its favorite pace when weaving through the trees in a hurry. Right now it was moving at thirty-three, sometimes drifting down to the high twenties. Its right arm was in pain, not broken but lacerated and with the membrane missing. Two miles ahead and on the other side of a small, rocky hill was one of the entrances to its lair. It didn't always scarf down meals in a single sitting. Deep in its sleeping chambers it knew there was the two-week old carcass of a fat woman it had snagged before being transported to that odd realm of smarty-pants aliens. It knew what it wanted now. It wanted to hide and eat and heal in the deep places that were too small for big metal things. It would measure the perception of its prey, bit by bit, until it found a safe distance for observation. Then it would wait and watch before deciding whether or not this one slept, or if it could be subjected to the Eyes. At first the Magna Pater had been convinced that it could just as easily escape and then stalk its prey above ground. That had been before it got shot by an anti-material round. Now it was on high alert and taking no further chances.

[MelonHead]

“Target located, 800 meters and clos-“ Once again Higan’s nifty front/back/everywhere seat driver was cut off by evolving circumstances it wasn’t prepared for. Two pinpricks of light had revealed themselves to the Optical systems, though not yet Higan himself who was still using ordinary vision on the main screen. He looked up in confusion, as if he could see his own Optic systems through the roof of the cockpit. Nothing was going to be easy with this one apparently, he slumped momentarily and then got moving again. Eventually, a good five seconds later, the Optics systems remembered their job and flickered to Electric vision automatically. In the far distance and gaining ground was the grounded form of Slimy, who seemed to be moving around erratically far ahead.

The Mech raised its rifle into position, Systems calculating the distance. It was impossible to predict where Slimy was going to be a second from when the shot fired, but there were some high probability guesses to be made. Higan paused for only a moment.

“Alright then let’s see if we get lucky eh?” He laughed, preparing to unleash hell upon the slick creature before it could fully escape him. The Mech lumbered after the beast faster now, darting past larger trees and through smaller ones. With the rifle in position he fired, the round shooting forward. The difficulty with the lower nature of the shot was that it had thicker parts of trees to burrow its way through, so it lost more power and speed then he would have liked. Still, the round would probably burst into Slimy’s general vicinity, splintering the trees around him and maybe even scaring the nasty bugger. To actually hit him though would require a lot of luck, the Mech wasn’t exactly spraying and praying, but it was firing into zones rather than bodies, so a direct hit was always going to be unlikely. Perhaps ten percent with each round.

For as long as the chase continued and Slimy remained in view, Higan would fire rounds off every three seconds, though if he was reduced to 80 rounds remaining with no discernible hits or damage he’d have to settle for just chasing the beast.

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

The monster seemed to know where each bullet was going to be. Its echolocation warned it at only half the speed of sound. Its frequency had to hit an object and travel back. So powerful was the creatures hearing, however, it could feel the faint traces of a change in air pressure whenever something faster than its echolocation was released. If you climb into a bath, the water rises. If a bullet enters the air at high speed, however small, there is a shift, one that the monster could detect almost instantly. This sense perhaps bordered on the supernatural, so keen it was, and the monster knew that it had at least a second to avoid any projectile coming its way. At a closer range it wouldn't be able to react in time, but at this distance it was safe. It noted how the metal thing did not have a perfect idea of where it was going to move. Perhaps...

For the second time that day, the monster made a mistake. It had taken a bite out of its own wounded gut to regenerate enough to stop the bleeding, but no mucous could glaze over the deformed scar tissue. The mucous helped it to slither over rough objects. A pointy rock caught its damaged underside as it scurried along and tore the wound afresh, just as a lucky bullet came whizzing right at it. Silently the beast ducked, the round passing so close the monster could feel the heat of it on the tips of its ears. It stopped to chew off one of the bony protrusions on its right arm which normally framed and flexed the membrane. Another bullet right for it. It threw itself to the left before charging on. To an observer, the creature would have still seemed calm. It was noiseless and punctual. On the inside, though, its hatred seethed like worms of fire. The metal thing had intruded recklessly into its forest, was tearing down its trees, attacking so freely and with impunity. Never before had the Magna Pater felt such loathing. It no longer felt the urge to kill for merely food or sport.

Beneath the tar and pitch folds of its brain, nightmares dinned like a million black bats. If it ever caught the metal thing with its pants down, so to speak, it would show it that down in the dim recesses of the Earth, there were many things too terrible for the imagination to conjur.

It was halfway to its lair, but hadn't managed to gain more distance on the enemy, having lost what little space it had earned. The mech was still three-quarters of a mile behind. A cold sun had risen up, but its light did not penetrate the foliage.

[MelonHead]

Higan had been pursuing the beast for a goodly mile by that point, which had taken the two about two minutes to cover. With little effect on target he had slowly staggered his shots, taking up to five to ten seconds to fire a single round. None-the-less at the mile mark he was down to eighty rounds remaining and Slimy had been unscathed. He wondered where the Creature ran to, perhaps some lair or haunt where it could lick its wounds. Perhaps it was driven only by desperation, fleeing the unseen Machinations of Ramor which had brought it great pain from afar. Higan figured it was a mixture of the two, Slimy was being a bit of a bitch and wanted to hide but it couldn’t.

Despite its wounds Slimy was better suited for the terrain and had outpaced the Mech, earning an additional four hundred meters as they ran, hence it was once again three quarters of a mile ahead of him when he had reduced the distance to eight hundred meters while it remained immobile. Higan was not overly perturbed though, he could hardly expect to keep close to Slimy with all the damn trees everywhere. He was half a mind to blow a chunk out of the forest with a HEAT round.

Such thoughts reminded him of the Anti-Personnel Rounds his Mech carried, and he smiled a terrible smile beneath his course beard. What a way that would be to finish off Slimy, fully deserved for what it had done to his patrol squad and the innocents they were sent to protect. The Ramor’s knuckles whitened for a moment as his fists clenched, the Mech mimicking his actions. As if spurred on by thoughts of revenge, the deadly salvo began anew. Locking in on Slimy’s form up ahead the rifle moved to compensate and fired, the sound echoing in the forest. The bullets would come thick and fast from then on, one every three seconds until his Mech decided to announce he was at half ammo capacity. Slimy was gunna sweat, maybe even bleed.

“Get dead, you fucker.”

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

The monster followed the five D's of dodgeball. It dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and... Dodged. Yet, it was no easy feat. It was not used to being in full retreat, and it despised that fact. Forget revenge upon just the metal thing. After it was done here it would travel again to the dimension of its enemy, to turn the world into a chaotic hive of monsters engaged in a never ending chain of autocannibalism. As formidable as such a place was, surely it could not hope to stand against a hundred billion or more brood. The literal translation of its name was not the "Great Father" for nothing. It needed only a safe place to hide and breed for a few years, perhaps in this very land or in another, in some remote pocket of the dark side of the universe. It was fond of this feeding ground, where the little ones practically walked right into its mouth, but that could not compare to the notion of an entire planet populated with these virtually unstoppable metal things. Such a threat to its existence could not be allowed. It bit off another of its long wing fingers after narrowly slipping past a bullet, and picked up speed to accommodate for the time it lost avoiding the gunfire.

In just another minute, it would be home. It knew that even the modern bombs with which the two-legs gleefully killed themselves were incapable of collapsing its cavern. The entrance could be conceivably blocked, but it trusted that the metal thing would be slow to find the other exits. If more metal things came and began tearing the place up, the rest of the world would notice. Policies and politics. It would take ages for a mutual understanding to be met, and by then...

Whether or not the monster had a good chance to escape, the survival of two planets now depended on its demise.

[MelonHead]

His shots weren’t having an ideal effect on his target, Slimy, but there was one benefit for Higan in regards to him blasting the hell out of the forest. As the Pater had been taking a direct route, albeit while zig-zagging, the Mech had been firing in a relatively straight line with an increasing number of rounds. What Higan found, and this was very much an unexpected but welcome consequence, was that the anti-material rounds were absolutely destroying the forest. Perhaps unsurprisingly rounds designed to punch holes in metal found the wood of trunks far easier targets, and had pretty much devastated them. Where the trees were still standing they were brittle, easily bowled over by the Mech. The effect was that Higan had essentially shot himself a straight path directly towards the Pater, and with a minute left until the creature was safe the Mech could finally unleash all its speed in a straight line.

The Mech picked up pace quickly, hitting a solid seventy miles per hour as it ran full pelt down the wood strewn path it had created for itself. He was firing rarely now, as the Computer announced he had reached half ammunition, it was time to close on his enemy. At double the speed of the Pater he’d be gaining on it by at least four hundred meters every thirty seconds, so if the creature took up to a minute to arrive to its lair he’d be right on its heels, and as the distance between them reduced… dodging the rounds of the Mech would grow exceedingly more difficult. He’d be firing sporadically at that point, one shot every five seconds or so, leaving him with thirty eight rounds roughly if the Pater arrived at its lair unscathed. However, that was still twelve more shots it had to avoid, with the distance and subsequently the travel time of each round reducing with every great stride of the A.S.P.

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

Ahead was the small, rocky hill behind which lay the beast's lair. It wasn't going to go over the hill though, but around it. Just a couple hundred feet of difference, enough so that there would be more than a few good-sized trees in the mech's way before they got there. Every little bit counts. The monster, sensing that its pursuer had put on a massive burst of speed, went into full throttle itself. It could ignore the pain of its body until it was safe, for now all that mattered was the cold sanctuary of its skeletal throne. Sixty-six miles per hour, not too shabby in comparison to the peak seventy-five of a healthy cheetah in its prime. At least, when it could avoid the bullets, which slowed it considerably. The mech was gaining steadily. Still, the forest ahead and the bend of the hill would make up for lost distance. Each bullet was getting harder and harder to avoid though. It was getting clipped left and right. An ear gone in the blink of an eye.
There goes a patch of skin. A rock dug up from a round smashing into the ground ahead thwacked it on the forehead. By the time it arrived, if it arrived, it would be in as bad a shape as it had been eight-hundred years ago during the death match it had against that ludicrous, teleporting elf.

Blowing up the entrance would not work, the tunnels were narrow and went deep. The rock that surrounded them was dense with age.

[MelonHead]

It was a race to the finish, so to speak, and one that the Mech couldn’t quite win in such unfavourable terrain. Still, the A.S.P put in a good effort, and Slimy had a few chunks blasted out of him for the trouble. The Creature’s signature began to fade as it rounded the hill, blocking Electric vision and alerting Higan to the fact that further expenditure of ammo would just be a waste. Forty 40mm Rifle rounds remaining, good enough to finish the bastard but less than the Ramor might have liked. The question was, would he be able to find it again once he reached the hill himself?

Perhaps half a minute later the A.S.P reached the foot of the hill and began to round it as Slimy had done. He was moving far slower by this point out of necessity, having lost direct sight of the monster it was only the large visible signs of its blood and other matter that provided any insight into its potential location. Like an ancient tracker the Mech paced after the wounded beast, rifle at the ready, alert for any signs of ambush as it often swayed to check both angles of attack. He refrained from looking directly behind himself, finding it unlikely the monster could have completely circled him, expecting it instead to be up ahead somewhere.

“Where have you ran off to Slimy?” Higan projected his somewhat rhetoric question outside the Mech in a taunting manner, though it was unlikely the monster would even care or understand. After perhaps a full minute of searching however, Higan would know where the monster had escaped to. The blood and mucous were telling signs, even by eye. The narrow hole in the earth was like a portal of itself, perhaps leaving no surprise that the creature had found itself in Ramor. A cave, leading deep into the bowels of the earth no doubt. This was certain to be shit. The A.S.P paused before the cave entrance as Higan worked through his options.

“Fuck.”

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

The monster navigated through its lair as quickly as and easily as the forest, if not more so. It was a long way to its bed chambers in the main cavern. The cave entrance that was nearest to a village, several miles from an old hunting path that lead to the humans, lay far away. That entrance was the quickest route to its chamber, at a half hours hike through the tunnels from a mortal's perspective.

After a substantial amount of time had passed, the Magna Later arrived home. It supped greedily upon the female carcass that it had left when called to the realm of metal things. Its strength returned, its torn flesh knit itself together, and its void eyes rolled in the darkness. It no longer felt hunted. Now it was out of sight, and in its element. Its residue was everywhere down here, but not all of it fresh. The monster suspected that traces of its body were being tracked. It did not consider that the metal thing could perhaps smell it, because its mucous functioned to cloak the scent of its body. It had no odor at all, and could stifle other smells. It knew the metal thing could not directly sight it, otherwise it would be able to see through the mech's eyes after having used the Malocchio. It knew also its body temperature was not to blame. It was never more than a smidge different from the environment. Whatever the case, it had time to prepare and playing it safe was what had helped it live so long. It began slithering all over the place to spread a chaotic trail as it contemplated its options.

It could always sneak off into another tunnel and reach the nearest village, taking up a victim with which to breed before hiding hundreds of miles away. But would that not be a sign of weakness? It had been the dominant force here for centuries. Could such a predator be reduced to abandoning even its own lair so easily? Black rage prickled its insides. No hunter in this universe or in any other should be able to best it, even in the short run. Was it not supreme in and of itself, a perfect killer? Its pride and contempt grew. It picked up a soggy ribcage and dragged it up the wall and along the ceiling. It stopped at a stalagmite near the center of the room. With a hog-like grunt, it raked its long tail through the ribcage whilst excreting a thick layer of dense mucous, and stuck the decoy to the protrusion before gooping up the stalagmite itself. A drooping wet thing at the top of the cave, large and positively radiating Patervibes.

After having done that, it rolled around in the bones to remove excess slime from itself. It briefly entertained the idea of waiting above the entrance and dropping down on the mech if it had decided to plow in, but... What if it could see through stone as easily as trees? Of course it would look up. That was where the decoy was anyways. Instead, the monster slipped beneath the layer of slimy old bones which densely coated the floor for thousands of meters, and were stacked into a towering pyramid in the middle of the cavern which, if there were any light to see it with, would be tall enough to be seen from one end of the chamber to the other. It collected the remains of victims when it could. After nearly two-thousand years as an extremely prolific interdimensional serial killer, its hoard was truly a wonder of the world. Most belonged to the smaller two-leggers, the noisy but soft ones which loved to toddle around carelessly. The only time it considered breaking and entering was when either it smelled a little one, or one that it had marked as a personal target.

It snaked to the side of the wall near which the entrance was, but not very close. The entrance was not big enough to accommodate a metal thing, at least not unless said metal thing resorted to force, in which case being too close was bad. Once it had nestled in, it stopped breathing. Its blood slowed, its empty eyes closed, and it became as still as stone. Whether or not the metal thing came, through that opening or if it made its own somewhere else, it had no problem waiting. It waited for years at a time, now and then. This was as good a time as any for a watchful nap.

[MelonHead]

The hydraulic sound of the A.S.P literally tearing rock and earth asunder filled the forest. It was an odd sight, the rifle propped up against a large rock as the metallic walker was reduced to menial labour in order to excavate enough earth to force entry into the cave system. Great scoopfuls of rock and dirt were thrown behind the machine as it worked tirelessly. In just a matter of minutes it had widened the entry point considerably, making a mess of the wilderness while it was at it. With a certain smug satisfaction Higan rubbed the Mech’s palms together to brush off the dirt, and oddly manlike it re-acquired its heavy rifle in its right hand.

“Alright, into the depths then.” He shook his head with a mock frown. “This is not one of my smarter ideas.”

It was tough going, of course. The Mech was not huge, standing at just over twelve feet it was roughly double the height of a man, but its weapons were an added hindrance. For some distance the tunnel was just too low to allow the Mech to walk properly, so it shuffled in a humiliating fashion on its butt, fortunately able to point its weaponry down into the darkness. However, though it looked incredibly stupid, it was a machine, and so even with truly horrible form it made good ground. With each passing shuffle the tunnel widened and deepened and night vision cameras betrayed the secrets of the darkness to Higan as he and his machine descended into the lair of the Magna Pater.

Eventually the ceiling was high enough that the Mech could walk in a slightly hunched slightly half crouched fashion. Once again, were it a man the conditions would be intolerable, but anything possible for a machine could be completed without complaint. Higan himself almost winced though in mock sympathy for his metallic ally’s joints. The going was still tough though, it was dark, there were terrible things in the cave and the path ahead wasn’t particularly clear. Higan had made the executive decision to track the creature using its blood, the only substance he expected wouldn’t be too common down in its cave system, unless it was routinely attacked by angry townsfolk. It was a good decision by all accounts, for until the Pater had reached its main cavern to feed it had been wounded and bled all the way.

Time passed slowly for the Mech as it traversed the caverns, and Higan couldn’t help but wonder if he was going to be able to find his way out again afterwards. As long as he was inside his Mech there wasn’t much to fear, he didn’t have to smell the caves, nor Slimy, after all. The Mech was not hugely behind Slimy by the time its echoing footsteps brought it to another narrow entry-way it couldn’t possibly fit through, perhaps an hour at most. However, Higan had no reason to suspect he had reached the end of his hunt, not immediately at any rate.

“Solid rock, even the A.S.P is gunna have trouble getting through that.” Higan had a tendency to vocalise everything aloud, it helped stave off loneliness and insanity on long scouting missions. Though now he was thinking about it, maybe it was just a sign he’d gone a little crazy a long time ago. He laughed at the thought.

The solution was simple, the door wasn’t big enough, so he’d make it bigger. There was a slight clunk as the Mech, able to stand up pretty much straight in the adjacent chamber to that which he was attempting to enter, settled into a braced stance. It wasn’t necessary to brace to fire but if time wasn’t of the essence taking precautions was always wise. Then, startling in the relative silence of the cave, there was a great burst of air. Swiftly following it came a great roaring and cracking as the HEAT round impacted just inside the Pater’s chamber a little off to the right, and half the rock around the door way disintegrated into nothingness. Dust flew up into the air and fragments ricochet off the Mech’s hull and into the cave beyond. Higan whistled appreciatively.

[Doc Doctor]

@MelonHead

The Magna Later remained immobile as the fire obliterated the entranceway just four yards in front of it. It had picked the metal thing's right side, and had been damn clever in not having been any closer. It waited for its foe to fully enter and perhaps be distracted by the decoy, for even a second. A second would be all it needed to emerge in the metal thing's blind spot and slip quietly unnoticed up the machine's broad, unfeeling back.

[MelonHead]

The dust and rock was taking some time to settle properly as the Mech ejected its spent HEAT round from underneath the tank-rifle on its shoulder. Higan ensured the A.S.P would load its anti-personnel round for the next shot, which would take about half a minute to prepare. There wasn’t much to be done while he waited for the dust to settle properly and the round to load, so he swapped over to electric vision to see if anything was visible through the cloud. Earlier engagements had taught him thermal vision was unsuitable for chasing Slimy, unsurprisingly considering its cold blooded nature, so electric vision was all that was available for perceiving through the smoke and dust.

There didn’t seem to be anything directly through the recently widened entry point that could be considered alive. At least, nothing that lit up the electric sensor. That left Higan with the question of whether the monster had passed through the great cavern he perceived ahead and moved on, or if it had found a way to avoid detection again. There was also a simpler solution, it may be that the solid rock that still stood on either side of the destroyed entry-way could be concealing the lurking form of the Magna Pater. In many ways that would be the worst case scenario, it would be difficult to react in time if it were waiting just beside the door.

The more Higan thought about it, the more likely it seemed that Slimy was waiting for him on the other side. However, would it be to the left of the doorway, the right, or directly above? With its injuries that had thus far seemed to render it grounded, striking from above seemed unlikely. Unless it could stick to the solid rock walls, though the shaking eruption of the HEAT round would probably have destabilised it if that were the case. That left the right or left. Fortunately for Higan, his A.S.P could perceive up to 180 degrees, so on entering the room he would have peripheral vision of both sides of his Mech until he moved properly inside and a blind spot formed. Not only that, but he was equipped with two weapons, secondary and tertiary armaments, one on each of the Mech’s arms. In that way, he had the capacity to cover his corners while the cannon on the shoulder covered the front. So, he could cover three angles of attack on entering the room, should Slimy be awaiting him.

Tentatively, which would seem somewhat ridiculous from an outsider’s perspective, the Mech strode forward. The heavy clunking sound of the anti-personnel round loading echoed through the chamber as the fearsome form of the A.S.P stepped through the dust and rock strewn doorway, just about entering the cavern as both its arms were flung wide, outstretched in each direction. Higan’s senses went into overdrive as he prepared to unleash hell should anything pop up on his sensors.

“Come on then Slimy, let’s dance!”