A Monsterous Thing, Fashioned in a Cruel Furnace

Contains the following trigger warnings:

Sexual violence, physical violence, gore, language, abuse, mental health, scenes of war.

"Hana?", a soft voice pulled the tall and unkempt looking girl from her thoughts. She smiled nervously, bringing her focus to the vibrant aquamarine of Marie's neat dress. 

"Where'd you go?" Marie smiled warmly, reaching up to move the mess of hair out of Aahana's face. 

The warm afternoon sun made her squint as her brown, disheveled veil was delicately moved from her eyes. 

"N-n-nowhere." she stumbled over the word, her white, freckled face blushing hot like a fool's as she quickly stole a glance into Marie's sky-blue eyes before turning her attention to the lush grass at the girl's feet. 

"I'm s-still here…"

"Well stay awhile, won't you?" Marie chuckled, putting her hand gingerly on Hana's rosy cheek. 

"It's just up here!" She said, taking her hand and pulling her along. 

"I'm so excited t-"...

A shriek of radio feedback blasted her senses, making her wince. Distorted muttering followed

Amidst the battering wind and roaring rain there were…echoes…. echoes in her mind of a warm touch…

She put a mechanical hand up to the rigid metal of her faceplate, gleaming wet with streams of dripping rainfall.

What was this sensation? 

A sharp contrast…recycled air… Thoughts and memory…her voice… the girl's voice…Marie's voice?…muffled… gone? No… distant...Why now? Broken… her mind… like glass…what was she… remembering? Not real. Only this. Bleak. Cruel reality.

Kill. Only kill. Move forward. Step. Crush. Scream. Screaming? Right… 

War. 

Endless war. 

"Wage!…" Her helmet radio crackled again, over the muffled sounds of battering wind and thunder . 

Wage… 

Wage? 

Was she Wage? 

Yes…That was… That is her name… here…In this reality... In this dreary place. ..

"WHISKEY 7, COME IN!!" The man's voice screamed in her ear..

"What." She winced again, her voice gravelly and increasingly irritated.

She noted her metallic tomb as the incessant drone of orders were relayed to her. 

 It wrapped around her body tightly. Around her arms and legs. Her chest, her neck, her skull.

Suffocating.

She gazed through the visor of her faceplate. Everything was tinted red.

Environmental feedback fell in columns from the top of the heads up display.

Thermal blobs indicated various heat signatures in the darkness of the storm, far beyond the dim, red illumination of her helmet mounted light. 

The earth shook rhythmically around her as many legions of other mechanized infantry trudged forward over the flatlands. The spearhead of a mighty army. 

 Colossal, quadruped mechs lumbered slowly behind the armored columns, scarcely visible amidst the tempest, save the giant flood lights moving slowly across the landscape. The ground shook with each of their mighty steps above the howling of the wind. 

Her heart rate increased. Her eyes widened. Her breathing was short and hot. The time was near. The enemy was close now. This was reality. This was- 

Something slammed into her plated chest causing her to stumble backward slightly, shaking off the remnants of whatever waking dream she'd succumbed to. Her visor display erupted in flashing yellow and red warning icons. Hazard messages shot across the screen. 

The hydraulics of her armor hissed, its various motors groaned and whirred as she stabilized. 

"Insects…" she muttered. 

The fog of her thoughts receded. The world around her grew clear.

In the same instance, something screamed through the air to her left and the torso of an armored infantry unit exploded in a shower of fragmented metal and flesh.

They had entered kill range. 

The horizon lit up with incoming fire. Armor piercing rounds shredded many of the vanguard like parchment. Barrage after barrage of mortars and artillery whistled overhead, raining death and destruction across the forward lines.

 The dark and whirling clouds above illuminated brilliantly in intermittent bursts as anti-air flak rounds tore the air units apart in similar fashion. 

 A handful of burning fighters fell through the dark clouds, like disintegrating flakes of burning paper. Then a dreadnaught - engulfed completely in a raging and monstrous inferno, plunged slowly to the earth, basking the fields of war in ominous yellow and orange for a few moments during its descent before it struck the ground with a thunderous and rippling explosion and darkness once again engulfed the plains.

As above, so it was below.

The symphony of battle filled her ears. Thuds of distant automatic fire, booming anti-aircraft cannons, shrieking armor piercing rounds, deafening explosions, screams of men and women to push onward, to invade, to die. 

She felt alive. Her blood was boiling, her teeth clenched hard.

 She clutched her weapon tightly- a large, tri-barrel rotating cannon. Its size was absurd to any man or woman of average stature, weighing in over 300lbs and reaching just under 6ft in length. 

She was not of average stature, standing nearly 10 feet tall and weighing just over 800lbs without armor. Her custom archangel armor was over 2000lbs of steel by itself and put her above 10 feet, towering over other powered armor units. 

Stone and bone were pulverized beneath her boot. Men's hearts quaked as she loomed.

 She saw the dull glow of the distant fortified airport beyond this final and fierce resistance. Beyond hills and trenches, bunkers, barbed wire and bristling upturned cannons. Beyond the search-lights scanning the clouds for any aircraft that may have broken through the air defenses. 

 Scores of transport class airships sat grounded, awaiting their charge of the hundreds of refugees evacuating. 

================================

 "God help us", All-Commander Richthofen thought as he peered out the large, rattling windows of the airport observation tower into the black tempest.

  Dark, bellowing clouds swirled ominously in the sky as wide searchlight beacons scanned their width and breadth for any sign of enemy intrusion. 

 He brought his attention to the hundreds of refugees below, lining up to board the scores of grounded air transports, battered by the frenzied winds. 

The growing storm would make ascension exceedingly disastrous for the airships, and he could only pray for some small respite. They were fish in a shrinking barrel, left to fate.

 He wondered if his wife and son had boarded yet as he anxiously thumbed the release on his scabbard, gazing down at the slow moving masses. 

 He checked his timepiece and looked back out into the storm engulfing the surrounding plains. 

 The defensive lines were bustling with activity as they readied themselves for what every man knew would be a bloody onslaught. Artillery were wheeled into place and set at their maximum range. Heavy anti-aircraft flak cannons were positioned with overlapping fields of fire. What few functioning bipedal mechs remained were fitted with ranged cannons and heavy machine guns. Soldiers hunkered down in the trenches, readying mortars and anti-armor rocket propelled grenades. 

 It would be a valiant effort.

 They all knew this was futile, and yet there they stood. There they made ready with bravery in their hearts, knowing full well what fate awaited them. 

 Most, if not all, had witnessed firsthand the Kaiserreich's war machine. Pushed back again and again. Losing their homes and comrades. Now they were a cornered beast, ready to strike one last blow. 

The near imperceptible smile that had formed on his lips, melted away as another thought crossed his mind. 

 He didn't want to meet her. She frightened him more than the overwhelming might of the Kaiserreich, and he knew she would be the very tip of its spear. 

 They called her "the immortal ogre". A giant of a woman. A failed Imperial experiment to create super soldiers. "Archangels", they were called. She was the only subject who survived the process according to Intel.

  The hellish procedure left her scarred, deformed and broken. 

 All that remained of what he supposed was once a human being was a cruel and monstrous, hate-filled beast.

 He straightened his cap, pulling it down further over his brow hoping it might hide some of the worry in his eyes. 

Sirens began to sound. 

Lights deemed unnecessary were cut simultaneously, and those necessary lights flicked to a dim red. 

The airport was now awash in an eerie glow. 

Collective hearts skipped and then fluttered. 

The sirens drowned out the ensuing chaos.

Mostly.

What had been an orderly shuffle of refugees collapsed in the first ten seconds of alarm.

The fear of what terrible monsters nipped at their heels swelled in their hearts to bursting.

What humanity was left dissipated in the increasingly violent wind. 

"Sir, it's time." The guard beckoned toward the stairwell. 

==============================

She felt woozy and the back of her head throbbed. Her ears were ringing.

Something was dripping from her face onto her hands.

Her vision was swimming. She struggled to stay on her hands and knees. Her arms and legs felt wobbly.

As her eyes finally focused and the fog retreated to the corners of her eyes, she saw her hands in the grass. They were red and glistening. Bloody. So much blood. It was streaming down her face. Off the tip of her nose, down her lips and chin.

"M… M-Marie…?" She could hear her own voice emanating from her throat through a mouthful of coppery tasting liquid, but it sounded muffled. Distant. 

She tried to look up, but something slammed into the back of her head making her collapse, face first, into the warm and wet grass. 

It hurt. 

It hurt a lot. 

She didn't understand what was happening. 

She heard scuffling as the ringing in her ears started to subside. Panicked whimpering. Grunting. Boisterous laughter. Ripping fabric.

"Stay down, you stinking cunt." A gruff sounding male muttered behind her, grabbing a fistful of her hair and yanking her head up. His knee pressed painfully into the center of her back, making it hard to breathe.

"Lucky you're so fuckin ugly or you'd be next."

Her vision throbbed as pain shot from the back of her head. 

Her hair hung in her face, but she saw shapes struggling in front of her. One large, another small. Aquamarine. Stained and dirty. 

The large shape raised a fist and punched down hard. Repeatedly. Eventually, the small, aquamarine shape stopped squirming. 

"M-marie?"

Her heartbeat quickened. Her breathing grew fast and ragged as she started to grasp what was happening. 

"No…" tears welled up in her widening eyes, mixing with blood, casting everything in a hazy pink. 

"S-stop it! What're you doing??" Her cries were confused and frantic as she struggled to push herself up.

"Hey!" Another voice shouted angrily. "Keep her down!"

Something slammed into the side of her head making her ears ring again, but she hardly felt the kick.

"KEEP HER DOWN!!" 

The voices were getting increasingly more aggressive.

Another ferocious kick connected with her abdomen. 

She crumpled, looking helplessly toward Marie who lay prostrate on her chest now. The large man on top of her was heaving. Shoving his pelvis down into her. She shuttered with each thrust.

They made eye contact. Her face was filthy and tears streamed from her eyes, creating thin little ravines. 

Her split and bruised lips were moving. Saying something. Smiling.

"It's okay, Hana. Don't worry… it's okay… it's okay… it's-..." 

"nnnnnnAARRRAGHHGGHHGGGGH!"

"AHHHRRRRRRRRGH!"

Her teeth clenched together hard. Her hands pressed on the sides of her helmet as she crumpled to her knees screaming. 

"STOP!!! STOP!!!STOP!!! AHHHHHRGH!!!"

Her mechanical fists slammed over and over into the sides of her helmet. The visor sparked and shattered. 

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!"

His helmet betrayed nothing, but beneath the armored faceplate, Richthofen's eyes were wide in an expression of shock and confusion.

A moment ago, he faced the most powerful single foe the Kaiserreich had to offer. A terrifying and monstrous beast. Invincible. Omnipotent. 

 She had looked down on him from beneath her impenetrable carapace and scoffed. 

 But then something changed. She halted her thundering advance. Her weapon fell as her arms went slack.

He had thought, with some relief, that by a miracle her armor had malfunctioned.

That is, until the screaming started. 

Terrible wailing that froze his blood and caused his hair to stand on end. 

It was deafening. Pained and primal. 

His feet retreated of their own accord several paces.

He'd heard how unstable she was… but this… this was beyond that.

He summoned what courage he could and advanced. 

His grip tightened around his kinetic saber. It glowed hot white. An effective weapon if used properly. Finding the slits between armored plate during battle was often challenging, but the trembling, howling, relatively stationary target before him would provide an opportunity for exact precision. 

He would put an end to this feral thing. A mercy, he thought as he willed his feet forward. 

=================================

 Her breathing was ragged. She was wheezing. The back of her head throbbed and liquid was dripping down her face. One of her eyes was swollen shut and her lips stung, feeling split and cracked. 

 Her vision was hazy and whenever she blinked it cleared for a moment and new, warm liquid trickled down her cheeks. 

 A small figure dressed in dirty, tattered aquamarine lay curled in her lap quivering. She ran her fingers through Marie's hair and hummed a soothing song that Marie would sing to her on the bad days or after the treatments. 

She couldn't sing the words. She felt certain that she sounded too stupid. But she knew the tune, so she hummed it. Her humming was deep and guttural. Not like Marie's. Soft and sweet. 

The girls were both exactly the same age, but Marie was small and fragile. Kind. Loving. Hopeful. Warm. Everything the world wasn't. 

She looked at her scarred and bloody hand that rested on the girl's slowly rising and falling shoulder and noted her pinky was dislocated and bent completely backward, but more importantly, it seemed Marie was finally sleeping. 

She looked around her at what had been such a beautiful place, now tainted darkly in memory. 

 Several adult figures lay nearby. Crumpled and bent in strange positions. One of the figures seemed to stare blankly at the two girls with its remaining, bloodshot eye. Its head faced opposite its chest. The skin around its neck was twisted tightly like wet, purple fabric.

The air smelled metallic and of subtle piss and shit. 

"Insects…" she whispered as her humming trailed off. 

==================================

 He had increased his cautious pace as he drew closer to the writhing giant. Her screams had turned into broken, wheezing cries and she'd since ripped her helm from her head. 

 She'd vomited some sort of frothy black or red liquid and it dripped from her hair that hung wetly in her face. One of her hands clawed at the side of her head and blood appeared to pour from within her ears. The other steadied her on the stony earth as she whimpered and retched.

 She seemed to be experiencing some sort of vivid hallucination. She hadn't taken the slightest notice of him as he stepped toward her, one foot after the other. If he could reach her without breaking her from this terrible trance, he might have a chance to strike a death blow upon her newly exposed nape.

 As the distance closed, he noticed she was muttering something between raspy whimpers. An unfamiliar name. 

 Marie.

 He pondered it fleetingly as he stood, now within striking distance.

 He raised the searing hot blade above his head.  

 The events that followed took place over a single moment.

 Our perception of time is a strange thing. Finite moments of terror can seem to span hours or days even. A lifetime of memories can play over the course of a few seconds of horrifying realization. 

 So were these final moments of All-Commander Richthofen as his muscles tensed to cleave through the skull of the kneeling leviathan. 

 He glimpsed, through the stinking and dripping veil of oily hair, a gleaming blue eye. Bloodshot and crazed. A crystalline furnace of frigid disdain and blazing agony. An absolute hatred that seemed to spill from within a black heart, filling the quivering iris in a hellish glow. 

 His eyes met those of a monster. A hideous and terrible thing. It didn't matter what cruel experimentation had been done on this woman. She was… it was beyond anything mankind was capable of. 

"Demon…" he might have uttered shakily had her hand not shot up with an inhuman speed and crushed his neck between rigid and cold fingers.

 His blade clanked upon the stony earth and his arms fell to his sides limply, held upright only by the strong arm of the kneeling beast.

 He wondered, as the light drained from his eyes, if his wife and son had boarded yet…

 ….Or if, perhaps, he might find them waiting for him in some other place. Warm and bright.

==================================

 The Leviathan stood, releasing her grip around the man's neck and letting his limp form tumble to the hard ground. She scanned the infernal horizon. Distant screams and automatic fire filled her ears. The transport ships and their cargo burned uncontrollably. The air smelled of wet earth and rain. Of scorched metal and flesh.

Kaiserreich airships descended on the hellscape that had been a haven for thousands mere hours before. 

She picked up her weapon, letting it hang loosely at her side and set her gaze toward an approaching warship. A red and gold insignia was splayed on its wings, unique among the others.

As it descended, a soldier wearing the same insignia upon his gilded armor of the church's military branch threw open the bay doors and saluted, welcoming her aboard and bracing as the hovering aircraft sank beneath her weight. 

 A tall and slender woman, seated within, nodded toward the pilot and the standing soldier slid the bay doors closed, silently taking his seat soon after. 

 The craft ascended into the air, banking slightly as it made for its new destination, far from the burning rubble of the airport.