Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Not everything goes according to plan. On a planet as dangerous as Shear, one had to learn that nothing was ever set in stone and you always had to be prepared for a different outcome. If you didn’t, then you were left behind or, in some cases, killed. It was like this even before the Monsters came and started tearing the planet apart at its seams, all that meant was that you had to adapt faster, and the margin for error was much, much smaller.

The crew of the Laurie Anne was reminded of the fact every day they lingered here, searching desperately for survivors or anything that could be scavenged from the planet’s surface. The days where they did find anything were few and far between, but it kept them going, kept them believing that maybe there was a chance that the situation could be salvaged. The missions where they couldn’t were the hardest. Not because the monster they were tasked to kill was particularly difficult; they dealt with those on a day to day basis, but because they knew that they failed, that they lost another innocent to the jaws of a beast, a life snuffed from existence in mere moments.

But then there were…strange days, ones that seemed too quiet, like there wasn’t anything wrong and some massive beast wasn’t about to come charging from the underbrush trying to kill and eat them. It always inevitably happened, but the lull before the battle was always unnerving to them. 

Today was one of those days. A crew of four had dropped at the Rendering Plant, hoping to keep it running long enough for the colonists in the nearby areas to evacuate. One of the Ebonstar guards posted there had signaled an S.O.S., which led to their current predicament. They knew there was a monster in the immediate area, they had even seen it themselves; but it was always out of the corner of their eyes or somewhere way off in the distance. The beast, a towering, fire-breathing, scaly creature they called Goliath, was always a step ahead of them, always ready for them when they caught up, and always somehow managed to escape just before the dome came down. It was frustrating to say the least, knowing that they were being outsmarted at every turn, and that they would eventually have to fight for their lives (and the colonists’ lives) once it reached stage three.

In the meantime, however, they still had a chance. The beast was still stage one, and its bright orange and black-striped hide didn’t help it hide at all. Their best bet was to wear it down and hopefully catch up to it enough to trap it under the dome where they could do some real damage. The team, consisting of Sunny, Abe, Caira, and Lennox, was on its trail, however faint it was, and were hopeful that their time to strike was soon. It had to be, right?

“God damn it all! How can we lose the tracks of a huge fucking monster?! It can’t be smart enough to cover its tracks!” Abe, exhausted and frustrated, was pissed. It had been two hours and all they had seen of the damned thing was the back of its head.

“Let’s just go off of the last one we saw. It's still probably headed in that direction.” Sunny suggested, determined to keep their morale out of the gutter. Grumbling, Abe started back in that direction.

“Damn thing probably doubled back just to fuck with us.” he muttered, but continued nonetheless. They eventually made it back to the main facility, just outside of its walls, where a Nomad grazed peacefully, and saw what looked like a kill site. There were no remains to speak of, just broken tree branches, scuff marks, and a pool of blood with drag marks leading away from it.

“Got the bastard now. Come on, we follow the blood: we find our monster.” Abe said. He set the pace at a light jog, following the stained earth past the facility, through the small neighborhood, and eventually to a cave mouth. Just inside the cave were the bodies of several reavers, all adorned with massive slashing wounds. The smell of copper was tangible even outside of the cave. They stepped in, weapons ready to fire at any twitch of movement. Following the blood; they made their way through, watching as the spatters turned into pools and eventually into one continuous trail.

They stopped when the sound of labored breathing hit their ears and searched for the source of the sound, all of them eventually coming to a stop on the bloodied orange body pressed into the cave wall.

The monster watched them back, its sky blue eyes tracking every movement, waiting for the perfect time to react. But it never did, and it probably never would. As the team observed the beast, they could all see the extensive damage done to it. Bruises formed deep purple spots on its ribs, some of them most likely broken, deep gashes on its forearms wept with blood, its leg twisted and bent awkwardly beside it, and in its neck a tree branch had found its way between the hardened plates, skewering it. The team lowered their weapons in surprise at the beast's condition, none of them had ever seen such damage done to a monster before that wasn’t done by them.

The Goliath wheezed, struggling to breath around the limb lodged in its neck, shuffled closer to the wall and leaned against it, whining quietly as the branch jostled. Caira took a bold step forward and holstered her weapon. When the monster did nothing, she approached further, eventually stopping in front of it and kneeling, unbothered by the blood that now stained the hem of her pants. The monster grumbled apprehensively at her proximity, but did nothing to get her away, opting to focus on breathing rather than the hunter that it could have easily killed right then and there. Caira watched as every intake of breath shifted the branch and every exhale shuddered painfully out, pulling a quiet, almost unheard, whimper from the back of the beast’s throat. Slowly, she reached a hand forward and placed it on the smooth scales of its head before reaching for her sidearm with the other. 

Those blue eyes watched as it was unholstered and brought to a gap between its scales, a chink in its armor, before it sighed in quiet acceptance. It did not struggle away, didn’t growl or spark a flame, but pushed closer. The medic took a breath, holding it for a moment, before pulling the trigger. She watched quietly as life slowly bled out of the fiery orange scales, as the last few spasms of the dead monster ran their course before it was finally still, as those blue eyes dulled. The medic sat quietly regarding its body before getting up and dusting herself off. Turning to her team, who had stood behind her quietly, she nodded at them.

“Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Once is a chance. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. It was a saying that was passed around every now and again, though it had stopped being as common in this day and age. Patterns and coincidences weren't something that very many people had the time to think about, not when they were busy trying to evacuate a planet with a pest problem as severe as theirs.

But sometimes there were quiet moments. The time before the drop, or just after evac when they were contemplating what series of events lead to them dropping beasts that dwarfed them on a daily basis. Or the time between missions when the fate of their teammate was yet unknown; if it would be the last they ever saw of somebody, or if, by some miniscule stroke of luck, they found somebody else that was both willing and able to help. 

It was times like these when Caira was left alone with her thoughts. The next few days after the encounter with the impaled Goliath were the strangest. Her team regarded her as some sort of hero while she just thought she was doing the right thing. Leaving something to drown in its own blood was something she never wanted to do, so at the time, putting it out of its misery was the best option, and it seemed to agree.

Her wandering thoughts led her to question why it had acted the way it did. In any other situation, a monster such as that would have no doubt chosen to swat her away, and it was nothing short of a miracle that it didn't. She tried not to dwell on it much, wandering thoughts weren't good for research; but at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder if this was the beginning of a pattern. A silly thought; none of her other drops had ended in the same fashion, but one that her mind often strayed to.

It was the very same one that plagued her even now as she stood on the precipice of the drop zone, taking account of all of her gear and ammo. The Weather Control Tower had signaled a state of emergency: a hurricane was bearing down on them and something had taken out the power to the tower. Security footage had shown a Goliath in the area and the supervisor, at least the one that was appointed, had called them to take care of the problem. 

She quickly brushed all other thoughts aside as she landed, she needed to focus and having a wayward mind would put them in danger. Their trapper was quick to find the tracks of the beast and point them in the right direction; the cave system to the east of the main building. 

*

Nobody particularly enjoyed slogging through calf deep mud, especially when said mud was trying its hardest to do its best impression of quicksand. The hurricane that was closing in was now just close enough that it had started to pour rain on the team of hunters, so now time was becoming much more important. The longer they hunted the monster, the longer it would take for them to get the power back up and running, and having torrential rains in a thousand mile radius was unpleasant at best. If they didn't get the situation under control, they could end up having to wait for the thing to run its course before having access to areas they haven't yet evacuated, and nobody was willing to run that risk. Griffin, the team's trapper for the mission, has placed several sound spikes around the map in key locations trying to get a ping, but the rain made it much more difficult for them to pick up sound. So here they were, split into pairs, hoping that they'd run across it or that the rain would let up enough for the spikes to work. 

Other than the occasional wildlife getting bold enough to go after them, it had been relatively quiet during the mission. The goliath hadn't shown itself; either they had some terrible luck or it was actively avoiding them; and nobody had reported an evolution site in the area. While it wasn't ideal, it was much better than having to deal with the rain and a monster that was constantly terrorizing the local populace. 

Caira had ended up with their support; their captain, a man named Cabot. She found that having the ability to turn invisible when they were running from monsters was quite useful, as was the massive railgun he managed to haul around. The other team was on the northern end of the cave and were working their way towards them. They were hoping to corner it somewhere in the middle, but with how quiet it was, she wasn't hopeful. The only evidence they had that it was still in the area was the occasional footprint they saw. 

As they were working their way to the middle, the pair heard a shout from one of the team on the northern end before the all too familiar sound of gunfire echoed through the area. The duo rushed to help their comrades, but when they arrived, all that they found was the rest of a pack of Blitz Leopards being chased off. Disappointed that it wasn’t their monster, the team continued their search together, briefly stopping by the main control tower to check on the colonists inside. They were informed that the storm was almost directly above them and if they didn’t deal with the monster soon, the situation would be unsalvageable. 

As they walked away to resume the hunt, their eyes were suddenly assaulted by white-hot light crashing into the ground a mere one hundred meters away from them. Not even a second later came deafening thunder that rattled their teeth and seemed to shake the very ground beneath them. After the last of the rumbling thunder cleared, they noticed a particularly strange sound coming from the direction the lightning had struck: a faint, almost imperceptible wailing. Caira, thinking it could be a lead on their monster, decided that she would be going that direction. Griffin, not wanting their medic to be hurt or possibly killed, joined her. 

After they split once more, the pair headed off in the direction of the sound, or at least where it was, as it had gone quiet. A faint trail of smoke was their guide to the proper location, and as they came upon it, what they saw in the epicenter startled them. It was their monster, its skin cracked and charred where the lightning struck, but where it wasn’t burnt they could see pale brown overlaid with darker splotches. It had curled into an almost fetal position, however its muscles still twitched and spasmed from the remnants of the stray electricity running their courses. 

Griffin, at the first sight of the beast, immediately grabbed his SMG and took aim, but Caira was quick to redirect its barrel.

“ What the hell are you doing? ” the Trapper whispered harshly.

“ Just hold on a damn second, I’ll let you know if I need help. ” She replied before quietly walking into the small clearing. She approached slowly, her sidearm ready and her grenade launcher already in hand, and stopped just inside the monster’s vision. Or at least what would have been its vision. With how close the bolt had struck to its head, she had no doubt that its optic nerves had been damaged, and looking at it now confirmed her suspicions. It could still partially see her, most likely blurry and out of focus. She holstered her grenade launcher, drawing the monster’s attention with the small sound it made as she put it away, but it made no move to attack her. As it turned in her approximate direction, she saw the extent of the damage the strike had caused. On the right side of its neck was a sizable crater of charred flesh, scarring radiating from the point of impact over the rest of its body. There was no doubt extensive internal damage, so even without their intervention the monster would have most likely died from those or an infection. How it didn’t on impact from the bolt was one of her main questions, but she figured that these things were most likely resilient enough that they could probably survive with some degree of difficulty. 

As she looked into its eyes, she thought back to the encounter with the other Goliath. There was a degree of lucidity in its gaze that she had not been able to forget. Every monster that she had fought was always blinded by rage and hate, it was as if their very presence was offensive. But not that one. It had looked at her the same way a scared animal would have, and she could see it now in this one. It was severely wounded, and something it could barely see had just approached it. It didn’t know if she was a threat or not, and that scared it. It was scared that it couldn’t defend itself, scared that it couldn’t run away, scared that she would kill it . Its unfocused eyes frantically darted around for a way out, and finding none, it finally went still. It whined a desperate plea for mercy as she stepped closer, shifting to expose its weaker underside to show it wasn’t a threat to her.

She was struck with a decision to make. Did she leave it alone to risk it growing and destroying the Weather Tower, leave it so it could live the rest of its most likely short life in relative peace, or give it the same mercy kill as the other one? She didn’t see an option where the beast ended up living, but she was desperately curious as to what would happen if it did. Not to be a blood hungry, crazed monster, but the thinking, feeling, lucid , creature that she saw as she looked at it. She turned to Griffin, who was still watching carefully.

“Call Cabot.”

*

It didn’t take long for the captain to reach them, the other two hadn't gotten much further than the other side of the main control center. In the time it took for the team to reach them, Caira could see the monster's condition rapidly deteriorate. It had gone almost completely still, with the only noticeable movements being its shallow breaths and occasional twitch of its head. 

‘ It’s not going to make it. ’ she thought, sighing quietly. “Scratch that, Cabot. You can tell the employees that they can get the Tower running. The Goliath won't be a problem anymore.” The medic said into her comm. 

“ I'll let them know. I'll get evac started after we regroup. ’ the captain explained.

“Copy that, Cap.” With a click, the comm link went quiet and she was left with Griffin and the dying Goliath. What was she meant to do about it? Should she comfort it, or would it swat her away? Caira looked over at the monster, watching how each expansion of its chest split the delicate scabs trying to mend grievous wounds. 

She decided to take a chance. Caira sat down as quietly as she could next to it before reaching out and gently touching its head. Eyes that had previously been screwed shut flickered open to look at her. It examined her for a moment before scooting closer, its head bumping into the palm of her hand before resting on one of her legs.

With one last deep, shuddering, breath it finally settled, and then it was gone. 

Footsteps approaching them indicated that the rest of her team had finished up at the Weather Control Tower. Pulling herself from under the weight of the monster's head, she stood and addressed her captain. “I'd like to get samples from this, if you don't mind.”

Chapter Text

The samples she had collected, frustratingly, had all turned into dead ends; no thanks to its brain matter being fried in its skull, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. It was tiring, she felt like she was running around in circles, chasing leads that never actually existed. She leaned back in the plastic chair she was seated in, pinching the bridge of her nose with one hand and tapping a pencil against the table with the other.

What was she missing? She couldn’t go to her team for help, none of them had been on both missions, so there was no possibility for feedback there. She stupidly didn't collect samples from the first on like this, so even if the ones she did have weren’t unusable, she couldn’t even begin to make comparisons besides behavior. Their circumstances were completely different.

Was it really just a coincidence? She set the pencil down to look back over her notes. Both monsters were a Goliath, both were stage one when they were found, and both had received fatal, traumatic injuries. But what about this particular set of circumstances was causing them to behave in such a manner? God, she needed better samples. Even better, she needed one of these outliers to actually live so she could at least try to take a look under the hood. But there was no way to tell if she, or anyone for that matter, would experience this again.

Caira stood and made her way out of the lab and towards the bunks, hoping to catch some sleep before she was inevitably called to drop again. As she laid down, her thoughts wandered back to her encounters once more; the faint spark of intelligence in their eyes, their desperation, their fear, their pain, the smell of copper and burnt flesh, gasping and shuddering breaths, cold and lifeless scales.

She would not get much sleep.

*

Now this was something new. Cabot had been alerted about a sighting of several monsters in one area. From what he had gathered from the panicking colonist; a Behemoth, a Kraken, and a Goliath had all been spotted at the Dam, all stage three, and all angry. However, they hadn’t made a move on the settlement yet, they were all focused on one another. Their captain quickly gathered as many as he could; there was no way a team of only four would be able to take on three fully grown monsters; so here she was: assembled in a team of twelve in the hopes that they could stop the three before they decided to wreak havoc on the Dam.

Their jumps were staggered so that they didn’t crash into each other, and after reassembling, it didn’t take long for them to find their quarry. Or two of them, at least. The Kraken’s body had been flung a significant distance away, its limbs and ribs pulverized, spinal protrusions cracked, some of them missing, and most of one of its ‘wings’ was torn away, its electrical organs producing rogue arcs of lightning even in death. A good portion of its skin was marred with disfiguring burns, to the point where it was almost unrecognizable.

The culprit was not far away. The Behemoth, its massive frame unmistakable even in the low light of the moon, bellowed out a challenge, which was met in kind by the third party member. The Goliath, who up until now had been unaccounted for, leapt from a nearby ledge, landing only a stone’s throw away from the group of stunned hunters. Did they watch this unfold or step in?

Their answer was made for them in a matter of seconds. The Goliath charged, its massive spikes leading the way as it sprinted headlong at the Behemoth. An unstoppable force meets an immovable object.

The power behind the strike was immense, enough to send both parties stumbling backwards a good few feet. The Behemoth almost seemed to shrug it off, while the Goliath had to regain its balance after catching itself. It charged again, though instead of hitting its opponent head on, it went in for a grapple, perhaps hoping to flip the beast and expose its vulnerable underside. The Behemoth retaliated in kind, its massive arms were almost long enough to fully embrace the other monster.

The outcome of the brawl was fully obvious to the team of hunters, the Goliath would be no match for the Behemoth’s brutality. Its crushing blows were enough to force jagged rocks from the earth, and would be more than enough to shatter the limbs of the smaller monster if it made even one wrong move. And slip up it did.

The Goliath couldn’t get a solid grip on the rocky crags of the Behemoth’s shell, its claws slipped, and the Behemoth took the opening the second it saw it. Massive tusks gored into the Goliath's underbelly, forcing it to the ground where massive claws came to grip its tail and upper body. The Goliath squealed, painful crunches emitting from points of contact. The Behemoth dragged the monster as if it weighed no more than a sack of grain before slinging it into a nearby cliff face where it slouched; either dead or unconscious. Victorious, the Behemoth raised its head to the sky and announced its success for all to hear.

It was not aware, however, of its next set of challengers. The team of twelve had finally decided to get this show on the road. Weapons primed and ready for battle, the Hunters charged.
They had taken on worse with only four, after all.

*

It was not long before the beast finally collapsed, its limbs thrashing in a final attempt to take one of them with it. Their sheer numbers were enough to outmatch the Behemoth, they were able to make short work of its armor, and from there, there wasn’t much it could do to stop them. As the twelve of them waited for evac, Caira looked back over the battlefield. Her eyes grazed over the body of the Behemoth, landed briefly on the Kraken, before coming to a stop on the Goliath. She watched it closely, knowing them to be hardy and brash enough to get back up long after they should have been down.

A small movement caught her eye. An expansion, a breath, forcing open cracked ribs and bruised lungs. Her gaze quickly moved to its face where her eyes met its pale yellow one. Her heart rate quickened in the anticipation of another fight, but she quickly tried to settle it once she saw the look in its eye.

Curiosity. She looked back to see her team still celebrating the kill before turning her attention back to the Goliath. This would either be incredibly worth her while, or really, really stupid. Actually, it was stupid either way, she was just hoping that it wouldn’t get her killed. She broke away from the crowd under the guise of gathering samples, something none of them batted an eye at, before carefully, oh so slowly, approaching the Goliath still slouched against the cliff. She could see it tracking her every move, watching as she picked her way across the craggy ground, but making no effort to move against her.

Caira did much the same, she kept her eyes locked on the monster, watching for any hint of a twitch of its muscles. She knew the danger, she wasn't stupid, but she'd be damned if she wasn't curious. She stopped a short distance away, far enough that it couldn’t leap at her if it tried, before standing and observing it. The monster did the same, cocking its head to the side as if to get a better understanding of what was in front of it. She was observing its wounds, taking mental notes of the burns and lacerations, but most importantly the cracked and semi-crushed facial plating. Unconsciously, she took a step forward to get a closer look, paying no attention to the small pebbles falling from the rock spires in front of the Dam.

She saw the Goliath’s eyes flick upwards, tracking something else’s movement, and she briefly looked up to see what could have caught its attention. She reacted far too late.

To the outside observer, what was currently playing out was nothing short of horrifying. Caira, who had said she was gathering samples, had wandered into the trap of a monster. Several of the amassed hunters had turned at the sound of falling rocks only to see the Goliath they had presumed dead leaping at the medic. They weren’t able to react fast enough to stop it from barreling into her, claws gripping and pulling, before skidding to a stop when it collided with the stone spire. To them, the giant boulder that landed on top of it was nothing short of a miracle. The eleven of them all rushed over, guns drawn and primed to fire, just in time to see the woman stumble away, clearly dazed but no worse for wear other than a few scratches from the tumble. The monster, on the other hand, had taken the full weight of the boulder, it having landed square on its shoulders, and it now lay; again; unmoving.

“Holy shit, Caira, are you okay?!” Abe was the first to reach her, having kept her in the corner of his eye, and being one of the first to react. The medic shook herself, taking account of all of her limbs, before replying.

“I think so? What just happened?” She asked.

“You were almost monster chow, that’s what.” Hyde said derisively.

“What? No, that's not…” She turned to look at the monster behind her, a frown furrowing her brow. “God dammit.” She hissed. She quickly walked to the Goliath’s head, the rest of the hunters following quickly to make sure she didn’t do anything that would actually get her killed. She stopped just in front of the creature’s face, where she could see its eyes were screwed shut. At the sound of her footsteps, it cracked one of them open. The team could see it let out a deep sigh, almost relieved, before it made a sound none of them had ever heard before. Though the sound was loud, choppy, and sounded a hell of a lot closer to a diesel engine sputtering than anything else they were familiar with. It took the crew a few moments to figure out what the sound meant, but once they did they were baffled. Monsters were never, never happy to see them, as if they had a reputation of being some of, if not the, only people able to kill them. But here this damn thing was, absolutely chuffed that the medic was out of harm's way as it lay dying under a stone. The yellow eye then turned to the rest of the team, taking them in one by one before it heaved another great sigh and the burning glow faded. Its body grew still, stiller than before, and the crew stood in confused silence.

“What the fuck just happened.”