Chimera Law

The ship landed carefully on a ridge near the mining facility. Night was approaching and the sunset was a gleaming array of colour. Orange, yellow, some red and blue all mixed together perfectly. Akio stepped down from the steps, followed by Kanesaki. As they walked further away, Akio turned and gestured to the pilot as he gave a thumbs up back. The ship's engines roared and it took off, leaving the two to continue their mission.

'The facility is near here. We're meeting the other two at the entrance, it should be lower down but the ship couldn't navigate down there so we have to go on foot.' Kanesaki nodded and they leapt down the first drop in the cavern from the ridge. Peering down, he could see that it was a long fall. 'Yeah, be careful on the way down. Even with your healing it'd still be fatal.' The two cautiously made their way down, leaping from the edges of the cavern as they grey smaller and smaller. Eventually, they made it to the bottom safely with minimal struggle; night had fallen by then. 'Where's the facility?' Akio pointed up ahead of the two; there was a large cave-like entrance. It was massive, the darkness was an overwhelming presence.

'There was an actual entrance, but it got caved in during its abandonment. Earthquakes messed up the area and eventually the facility just couldn't handle it. Roughly 2,000 workers died, even more from just trying to escape.' As the two walked, Kanesaki noticed two shadows moving above them. We were followed, he thought. Akio turned back, sensing something was up. Kanesaki pointed upwards, Akio nodded and knew there was something coming from above them. He reached into his uniform and pulled out a shiny black metallic hilt. His fingers reached for a button but was quickly stopped when one of the shadows appeared directly behind him. Kanesaki went to kick the thing but Akio was quicker, twisting himself to backhand it. Both attacks were dodged and the shadow stood still before putting it's hands out, seemingly in surrender.

Kanesaki observed the shadow, his eyes could still see well despite the darkness. He suddenly saw the dark grey coat and white gloves of the person standing there. They reached into their pocket and then Kanesaki knew. 'Cl7-344, I'm here on the joint operation!' The Chimera revealed his badge to them and both Akio and Kanesaki calmed down as the second shadow jumped down. He had a uniform on and an officers badge. 'First-class officer Oki Tadashi, also on the joint operation.'

'Yes, my apologies for attacking your Chimera!' Akio bowed quickly. The other officer laughed a little. 'It's my fault, I ordered him to deal with possible intruders.' Kanesaki stared at the Chimera. He was a seventh generation, like him. The Chimera had short but spikey black hair and a scar on his cheek as well as a cut on his lip. His eyes were a piercing hazel and darkish yellow mix. 'This is Jyn Kanesaki, he's the Chimera assigned to this mission. Although he doesn't talk much.' Chuckling slightly, Akio patted Kanesaki's shoulder as he was still focused on the other Chimera. Oki looked on in slight confusion. 'He has a name?' Both Kanesaki and Akio suddenly grew confused too. 'What do you mean? They all have names they choose at birth.' The officer nodded but retorted quickly. 'True, but we're specifically ordered to use their code names when on missions.' Reluctantly, Akio nodded and looked at Kanesaki who appeared slightly saddened. 'This is-'

'CL7-287.'

Kanesaki looked over at the Chimera, Akio was stunned too. 'How do you know that?' The two stood, their joint confusion could be amusing to some. 'It was on the mission report. We read it on the way here.' Clicking his fingers in realisation, Akio nodded. 'Ah, I see, we forgot to read the report.' He glanced at Kanesaki who nodded back. 'Apologies.' bowing slightly, Kanesaki observed the Chimera. He wasn't like that Chimera, it was too closed off. He knew even just from a single interaction, it's brain hadn't awoken yet.

The group began to move to the entrance, the officers got out their flashlights. As they advanced into the facility, Kanesaki watched the other Chimera. He still hadn't fully grasped the fact that that there was another Chimera with him. The group made sure to stay close; they were unsure on whether there was just one Yatzul or multiple. Eventually, they made it to the main facility. It was a large hall full of machinery such as small refineries, furnaces, conveyor belts and multiple mining stations, each labelled. Multiple sets of old rusted pipes ran through the edges of the hall, some were broken. The biggest part of the hall was the mass of rubble in the middle, the site of the original collapse. The group knew that within this facility, a Yatzul awaited them.

Kanesaki split from the group to search on his own, they allowed him to go off. He hadn't found anything for a few minutes until finally he found claw marks in the ground and along some of the metal plating of the furnaces, that and what seemed to be a dry substance, trailing down behind the furnaces. He inspected the substance and quickly knew what it was.

Blood. Dry blood.

He called out to the others and they quickly came over. 'Must've been the Yatzul.' Oki stated calmly. The other Chimera walked over and inspected the blood closer before turning to face the group. 'It's fresh, roughly from a day or two ago.' Oki and Akio looked at each other before nodding. 'There were probably scavengers, the Yatzul killed them.' Akio spoke as he went further down to follow the blood before turning the corner behind the furnaces. He aimed the flashlight up to see a mangled body. The ribs and guts were exposed, a bloody mess with the lower half missing. The face was still intact but the man was very obviously deceased.

Watching the back of the group, Kanesaki heard a sound nearby; a scratching sound, like scraping against metal. He looked around but saw nothing. The sound had stopped shortly, but he remained cautious. Looking back to the group, he noticed the other Chimera glancing at him before looking back to the corpse. What's this guy's issue?, he thought. He knew that seventh generation Chimera were all like robots until they awaken, but this was less robotic and more cautious or suspicious. Then the question started to enter Kanesaki's mind, was this Chimera already awoken?

A sudden liquid fell on Kanesaki's shoulder. He wiped it off before feeling it's strange stickiness. His eyes widened and he looked up as a creature pounced onto him from the darkness. He yelled out as he held the Yatzul's mouth closed with his hands. Oki twisted his head and ran over to ram his shoulder into the Yatzul. It toppled over and quickly rolled back to recover. It had a strange appearance, like a massive, malnourished dog with sharp talons and a humanoid head shape but large talons as teeth with small horns protruding from each side of it's head.

The creature growled as from behind Oki, the Chimera swept past him and swung a massive axe at the creature. It jumped out of the way and the Chimera quickly yanked the massive axe head from the ground. Kanesaki took note of the weapon, it was bigger than the Chimera using it and the head was big enough to cleave through chunks of metal with ease. Getting up quickly, he drew his own blade from his body and got ready to fight when suddenly, the Yatzul let out a strange call. It didn't sound like a threatening roar, more like a form of communication. Akio, standing behind them all, looked up and saw multiple shadows moving in the darkness. 'Hey, There's more!' The three looked up too. Oki gritted his teeth in annoyance. 'Shit... We gotta retreat!' They all turned and ran from the Yatzul as four others leapt out to chase them, intending to feast on them together.

Chapter four- end