Hunting the Beast

Athena had always considered herself an honest person, which was why she wasn't ashamed to admit she was confused.

Ever since entering this world, aside from the easily slain beasts on Morgo IV, she had always been dealing with human foes. Venya Revolutionary Guard. The United Republic of Dorn. Venya Imperium. The Kingdom of Decima. Her enemies had always been infantry soldiers, tanks, and gunships. This was the standard way that war was waged in this galaxy.

So where the hell did this demonic, mutant child come from?

She decided to intervene here for many reasons. First, she was curious. Secondly, the characteristics of the girl reminded her of infested Terrans, so perhaps a sample from the girl could help her unlock new Zerg units. It also didn't hurt to put down a wild beast that had butchered dozens of people.

She had so many questions, and to get to them, she had to deal with this monster first.

For a second, the girl and Athena simply stared at each other in silence. Almost immediately into the moment of awkward silence, Athena realized something. This girl might act like a bloodthirsty beast, but she was still smart enough to observe the reaction of her target. The girl had cut down dozens of people in this town without hesitation. The only reason she didn't attack Athena now was that Athena's reaction was too out of the ordinary.

So out of the ordinary that it made the girl instinctively feel threatened.

Upon realizing this, Athena took a deep breath and put the little acting skills she had to use. She took a few steps back, stumbling a little on purpose, and opened her mouth. To be honest, she tried to scream at first, but she quickly realized she had no idea how to scream realistically. Ah well. Having her mouth open in shock was a decent reaction as well.

The girl stood there for another second. Just as Athena thought her acting skill was so terrible that even a monster like the little girl saw through it, the girl suddenly leaped toward Athena with a speed faster than anything she expected. She was like a lioness who suddenly decided to pound on her target. In fact, the little girl sprinted over a distance of several meters within seconds, moving almost in a blur as she closed the distance between herself and Athena.

Given her supernatural speed, it was no surprise this girl was able to cut her way through dozens of people with ease. Even the town's sheriffs could barely let out a few shots before being gutted alive.

Luckily, Athena was ready as well. Before the girl could reach Athena, twenty figures suddenly appeared between them. 15 Terran marines and 5 marauders. The next second all of them opened fire without hesitation.

Athena had expected the girl to be torn to pieces by the gunfire. This was why she feigned weakness. She wanted to lure the girl up close and then take her down with sudden and overwhelming firepower, but to her surprise, that wasn't what happened. Initially, the girl was completely caught off guard and the C-14 rounds and punisher grenades showered her. However, instead of being ripped to shreds in an instant, the girl's body was still intact despite being damaged. Skin and flesh were torn off her face, but on a second glance, that damage almost seemed superficial as the girl continued to advance, an animalistic growl escaping her throat as she endured the agony of the injuries. Enough firepower to demolish an APC only hurt and slowed the girl. Concussive grenades from marauders designed to slow targets down did little to hinder the girl.

Athena frowned and took a few steps back. Two more lines of Terran units appeared in front of her as the shooting continued.

The next second, the injured girl charged into the first line of Terran units. The marines and marauders had been backing off slowly, but the girl was much faster. With a single strike, she dug her right hand into the chest of one of the marines, cutting through the CMC armor with relative ease and crushing the marine's heart in a single strike.

Before the marine could collapse, the girl dropped the corpse and pounced on a marauder a few steps away. The bone blade on her right forearm was brought down against the armored plating of the marauder.

This time, it was the girl who was surprised. The blade that had cleaved so many people in half only reached a few inches into the marauder's armor before being stopped in its tracks. Marauders had much thicker armor than marines and were so much more difficult to kill. The marauder, unfazed by the near-death experience, lifted his shoulder-mounted grenade launcher and fired right into the girl's chest.

As the unexpected blast knocked the girl back, she quickly realized the brutal kill she just committed didn't faze her enemies at all. Instead of being routed by the death like the civilians, the other Terran units simply spread out and kept on accurately firing at the girl. The girl had adopted a simple yet effective plan of routing the enemies with a swift strike and then chasing them down, but it had failed in front of the Terrans.

If the Terran units knew what the girl was attempting, they would likely laugh. Terran infantry units had faced Protoss plasma weapons and Zerg claws and acids and stood their ground. It would take much more than the brutal death of a single marine to rout them.

As the marines and marauders continued shooting, Athena observed the girl in silence. It was clear the girl was much tougher than she expected, but enough bullets could still kill her. Even now there were severe injuries across her body. One of her arms was almost torn off her body by several grenade shots. Just because she survived two seconds of gunfire didn't mean she was impervious.

Just as Athena expected the girl to stand her ground, kill a few more Terrans, and then succumb to her injuries, the girl did something much smarter than what her appearance would suggest.

She turned and fled.

Even with the injuries, she was still fast. Before the Terran units could pursue, the girl dragged her battered body into a nearby tavern and outside of the Terran units' view.

"Sir?" One of the marines turned to Athena. Athena quickly recognized him as Rum. "She is heavily injured. Should we hunt it down?"

Before Athena could say anything, there were several screams from the tavern. Screams that likely belonged to whoever was hiding inside.

Athena had known there were still survivors in this town. The girl obviously killed a lot of people on the way in, but most likely she didn't have the time to go from building to building, and Athena doubted everyone in the town would charge out onto the streets once the girl began killing. She didn't do anything about the survivors at first because she wanted to keep her Terran units to surprise the girl and secure the kill. That was no longer necessary.

"Rum, take the available infantry units and surround that tavern. Don't enter just yet. Just make sure that thing doesn't escape. We will slowly flush her out."

Athena knew the advantage of the Terran units was their firepower. Why would she order them to charge into an enclosed battlefield against a mutant that excelled in melee when she could just level the entire building?

"Yes sir."

"Vodka. Yes. You. Stay here for a minute."

She quickly opened the game. She had around 50 Terran infantry units left from the battle of Airfield Sigma. Her resource count was also back to 10,000 units after the battle. She quickly produced 40 more marines and 10 more reapers and summoned them into battle. They cost her around a third of her bank.

"Vodka. Take these reinforcements and round up everyone in this town. Be careful. This girl is likely alone, but you never know."

"Yes sir. And if anyone tries to run?"

"Shoot them," Athena said quietly. This was different from the airfield, and any witnesses out of her control could easily screw up her entire plan and put her life in grave danger. As far as she saw, this was one of the cases where her options were very limited.

As Vodka left with the newly deployed Terran units, Athena turned her attention back to the tavern the girl was hiding in. Her Terran forces have completely surrounded the building. Her roaches underground couldn't sense exactly where the girl was due to distance, but they could confirm the girl didn't escape through the ground.

"Adjutant. Do you have any information about that…thing?"

"Negative, commander."

Athena nodded, unsurprised. It was worth a try.

What was the girl? Some random mutant? Maybe just some girl who got bit by the future equivalent of a radioactive spider? Possibly, but Athena was leaning toward the possibility of her having something to do with a classified research program or experiment. In fact, she might just be the product of some type of bioweapon experiment. During the brief skirmish, when the girl got closer, Athena noticed something with the girl. There was some type of collar on her neck and a number of metal restraints on her arms and legs. All of them had been broken by force. If Athena had to take a guess, the girl likely pulled the metal handcuffs apart with brute force and then proceeded to smash the shackles on her legs. The collar, whatever purpose it was meant to achieve, was also somehow disabled. Such things would be impossible for a normal human, but this was someone who could tear open CMC armor with her bare hands. The amount of brute force she was capable of was truly impressive.

Since she was on the capital planet of the Kingdom of Decima, more likely than not this experiment had something to do with the kingdom.

If the girl was some type of bioweapon, it was likely still a work in progress. On one hand, the girl was a deadly fighter. Her almost supernatural resilience to damage. Her rapid reflexes and deadly mutations. She would be a good shock trooper who could tear open entire infantry squads with ease, but at the same time, she likely couldn't be anything more than that.

This wasn't Star Wars where every saber-wielding force-user had plot armor and the enemies only shot at them with single-fire rifles whose rounds were easily deflected. This was a world where every major military force had plenty of firepower and elite soldiers who were willing and able to use that firepower. The girl, despite the surprises she offered, only killed a single marine before being beaten back by the skilled and disciplined Terran units. Hell…even a well-placed Decima machine gun squad could do better against the marines. If Athena had heavier weapons here like siege tanks here, she could demolish the girl with ease.

Even if the girl, and perhaps an army of similar bioweapons, was unleashed on the Venya Imperium, it was likely they wouldn't last too well after the Imperium recovered from the initial surprise. Drone strikes. Missiles. Bombers. Artillery barrages. Anti-material sniper rifles. Even land mines and gunships. There were a million ways to dispose of an army of resilient melee shock troopers.

Given how the girl randomly decided to start killing townspeople here, it was likely she also lacked the self-control to follow orders. She was more a beast than a soldier.

Of course, if these were bioweapons that could be mass-produced, it would be a whole different story.

As those thoughts crossed her mind, Athena began producing units again, this time building 5 hellions and 5 widow mines at a cost of 1,500 units of resources in total. She wished to hunt down the girl as soon as possible and get out of there.

"Rum." Athena possessed the body of a marine next to the tavern. "Here's my plan…"

A few minutes later, the handful of reapers surrounding the tavern began slowly approaching the building. Instead of entering the building, they planted detonation charges on the external walls, retreated, and then detonated these charges.

Piece by piece, the tavern was being pulled apart. As the walls began collapsing, the Terran units readied their weapons for an attack they knew would come.

With only a small part of the tavern brought down, the reapers advanced on the tavern once again. As expected, this time the girl hiding inside the building went on the offensive. In a split second, she jumped out of the second floor of the building and tossed herself at one of the reapers, grabbing onto him before he could escape with his jetpack and digging her claws into his neck.

As his body was dragged to the ground by the girl, the reaper, kept alive by the stimulants pumped into his body, let out a quiet chuckle before sticking his detonation charge onto the girl's body and immediately triggering it.

The explosion knocked the girl to the ground, and this time, Athena noticed something interesting. She instructed her forces to hold their fire and allow the girl to retreat into the tavern in one piece.

A minute later, as the Terran units continued to detonate the tavern, the girl emerged from the building once again. The injury she sustained from the detonation charge not too long ago was no more.

"She healed!" Athena said in awe. Perhaps she was a little harsh on the girl. In addition to the other mutations, it looked like the girl was capable of rapid regeneration as well. Impressive indeed.

Rum observed in silence as the marines and marauders continued to fire on the girl, forcing her to retreat once again. "There has to be some limitation to this healing process."

Athena nodded. In Starcraft, Zerg units healed by extracting nutrients from creep. Terran medics healed biological units with nanobots and chemical stimulants. So what was this girl using to heal herself? The energy for the increased regeneration had to come from somewhere.

"Human flesh." Athena quickly realized the most likely answer. "She was chewing on human flesh when I first saw her. The survivors in the tavern…she is probably eating their bodies to increase her cellular regeneration and heal herself!"

She would need to make some confirmations to see if she was right, but if she was, then this girl was indeed more impressive than she first thought.

From the perspective of a human being, the idea of cannibalism disgusted her, but from the position of a military commander, Athena saw the appeal of such a power. In a battle against human forces, the ability to regenerate almost immediately by devouring flesh would significantly increase the survival rate of combatants. Any combatant that wasn't immediately killed would be ready to fight again in just minutes. They would be nightmares to deal with.

Unfortunately, the girl still had no ranged attacks, and once again she was forced back into the tavern by unrelenting firepower. This time she seemed a lot more reluctant in retreating, but the experienced Terran soldiers gave her no openings to close the distance.

"She is likely running out of biomass." Rum turned to Athena. "It is a good thing we didn't enter the tavern and try to take her down by force. The more casualties we take, the stronger she will be."

"Indeed." Athena nodded before gesturing at the hellions behind her. "Proceed with the plan. Let's get this hunt over with. We don't know if anyone else is coming here."

Another minute went by, and the girl recovered from all her injuries and made another attempt to break out of the siege. This time, she found the Terran forces quickly pulling back to the center of the town. Taking this as a sign that her enemies were running out of ammo, the girl chased after the Terran forces, hungry for fresh kills.

Unbeknownst to her, this was just what Athena expected. The girl might be smarter than the average animal, but she was still largely governed by her instincts.

Athena grinned a little as she watched through the eyes of a marine as the girl acted exactly as she predicted. To be honest, she was enjoying this hunt, maybe a little too much. The feeling of watching her prey move into her trap step by step. The control she had when as she gradually exhausted every card her prey had to play. It was truly fascinating.

The girl moved quite quickly and soon caught up to the retreating Terran forces in the center of the town. Unfortunately, before she could once again start killing, she walked past and triggered a pair of widow mines.

Within an instant, a pair of sentinel missiles shot out from the ground and hit the girl so quickly even she couldn't react in time. The blast was enough to send her to the ground with half her body ripped open down to the bones. Her right hand was completely torn off. A number of shrapnel cut into her face and limbs. These injuries were enough to kill an armored human, but the girl was still very much alive. Once again, sensing her life under threat, the girl tried to turn around and run to the nearest building, only to trigger three more widow mines that had been instructed to hold their fire the first time the girl came across them. These three shots hit the girl once again, burning away even more of her strength and severely reducing her speed. She was tough, but it was simply difficult to move with both of her legs missing major pieces.

With her final energy, the girl stood back up, only to be flanked by 5 newly produced hellions, driven by 5 daredevil drivers. Without a sense of mercy, five flamethrowers rained napalm on the already injured girl from all directions.

The hellion drivers were ready to go on the move if the girl still had enough strength to flee, but that turned out to be unnecessary. Two seconds after being showered by the flames, the girl finally collapsed on the ground, no longer moving. For all her physical capabilities, she was no match for a disciplined army with ample firepower.

This hunt was over, and the Terrans have won.