Chapter 12 Unbreakable Will

A searing pain tore through Aria as acid burned through her tactical armor, scalding her skin. She pressed the detonator to end it all, but it had melted in her hand. Then the real horror began. The acid, mingling with experimental drugs in her bloodstream, triggered a monstrous transformation. Her body spasmed violently, bones twisting and limbs warping into grotesque shapes. Her suit fused with her flesh, reshaping her arms and legs into mutated, hardened forms. Her skin darkened into a tough, unnatural texture, reflecting the monstrous mutants she hated so much. The agony was unbearable, yet the drugs kept her conscious, fueling a deep, burning rage.

Aria’s pulse thundered in her ears as she leaped from the ground, her newly mutated limbs propelling her up the colossal body of Raptor 01. She moved like a frenzied insect scaling a skyscraper, dodging massive swipes as the mutant’s claws carved through the air, each one narrowly missing her. Her muscles, now grotesquely enhanced, fueled her climb as she dug her sharpened, mutated claws into the mutant’s thick skin, tearing through its hardened flesh.

The Raptor howled in rage and annoyance, the guttural sound shaking loose debris from surrounding ruins. But Aria was relentless. She darted along his side, dragging her claws through his armored scales, leaving long, bleeding scratches that poured dark, steaming blood. The massive creature thrashed in response, whipping its body to dislodge her, but she clung on, gripping one of the raw, exposed wounds to pull herself up his back.

Raptor 01 reared up, slamming his back against a crumbling building in an attempt to crush her. Bricks and metal buckled under his weight, sending rubble raining down, but Aria leaped clear at the last second, landing deftly on his exposed shoulder. She used her momentum to plunge her claws into the gap between his neck and collarbone, shredding through flesh and muscle.

Raptor swung its tail, a colossal mass of muscle and bone, aiming to crush her beneath its weight. But Aria leaped into the air, narrowly avoiding the deadly strike, her body twisting mid-flight to land on the monster’s back. She climbed higher, her claws sinking deep into its flesh as she ascended. The beast bucked violently, trying to throw her off, but she held on.

She roared, a sound torn from deep within her, now more beast than human, each strike landing with a vicious yell. But even in this frenzied state, Raptor was still powerful, and it swatted her away, flinging her into the wreckage of a nearby building.

As she lay there, half-buried in debris, her drugged haze began to lift. She saw her arms - twisted, monstrous, a part of her yet alien. 

“No... no, no!” she gasped, "I… I can’t let this be it, I refuse to be one of them! I’m... I’m still me. I’m still Aria. No... no, this can’t be me. I'm not a mutant!"

She tried to move them, and the unnatural, mutated fingers stretched out, writhing in ways that felt sickeningly foreign. Horror and revulsion flooded her as she realized what she’d become, her heartbeat pounding painfully in her head.

"No, no, no! Please, no… I can’t… I can’t be like this!"

Raptor 01 turned, ready to deliver the killing blow. Its eyes glistened with sadistic pleasure as it raised its massive claw above her.

KAAAAA-BOOOOOMBYATCH!

 Before it could strike, an ear-splitting explosion erupted, blowing away a chunk of its head. One of its bulging, grotesque eyes burst, and chunks of flesh and bone rained down, leaving a cavernous, bleeding wound in its skull.

“Dodge this, you motherfucker! That might not have done a lot of damage but damn it felt good!” Ewan’s voice roared over the comm, his wrecked tank mech cannon smoking as it powered down.

Raptor 01 staggered, its balance faltering as it thrashed in pain. The creature let out an angry roar, one half of its face a mutilated ruin, and began to retreat. Limping and dripping blood, it backed away from the field, snarling and howling before it finally turned and fled.

The comms crackled, and Ewan’s faint, strained voice echoed in Aria’s earpiece.

“Aria… you still here? Still… alive?”

His tone wavered and the usual strength faded to something broken. She could hear him struggling to catch his breath, each word weighted by exhaustion.

“I did it… I hit the bastard…” He coughed, a wet, painful sound crackling through the channel.

 “Hehe... before I… kick the bucket myself…” He tried to laugh, but it came out as a strangled, gasping sound. 

“Heh… hurts to laugh, god damn it…”

Aria’s heart twisted as she listened, desperate to do anything to help him.

“I think… this… is… it for me.” His voice dropped to a whisper. 

“But… listen, Aria… don’t you give up. You hear me?”

There was a brief silence as if he were summoning every last ounce of his strength for his final words.

“Make it out… for both of us. And… remember… it was an honor, Command Sergeant Major Aria Lock… truly.”

Aria fought against the change ripping through her body, muscles twisting under her skin, her mind reeling from the drugs, and the violent surge of mutation. She activated her comm and shouted with every ounce of strength.

"I'm here! I'm still here! I'm still me!" She gritted her teeth, holding on to whatever shred of humanity she could. 

"Ewan, hold on! I’m getting you out of here, back to Beehive, back to base! Just hold on!"

But all she got back was static.

Desperation took over. She forced herself onto her feet, her limbs barely obeying as they writhed unnaturally, fighting her every movement. Each step felt foreign, her mutated arms and legs responding to her commands only half the time as they pulled and strained in directions she hadn’t asked for. She staggered toward Ewan’s tank mech. She shoved aside twisted metal, ripping at the wreckage. The broken plating came off in pieces until she finally pried open the broken cockpit.

Inside, Ewan lay slumped, a bloody mess, his head covered in blood, his arm and leg twisted, barely recognizable. He was drifting in and out of consciousness, his gaze distant, glazed - a clear concussion. Aria reached in, her mutated hands shaking, but somehow managed to wrap them around him, her monstrous fingers closing gently, carefully pulling him free from the wreck before the reactor could go critical.

She stumbled backward but she pressed on, forcing herself toward another tank mech she spotted, barely holding together but still functional. Clinging to what was left of her sanity, she opened the mech’s hatch and hauled Ewan inside. Carefully, she settled him against the seat, his breathing shallow but steady.

With her vision tunneling and her body on the edge of control, Aria squeezed herself into the cockpit, the mutated limbs crowding awkwardly against the controls. Her hands found the ignition, and with a low whir, the tank mech flickered to life, stuttering, it's systems were a mess but functional enough. She switched it into partial tank mode, the broken vehicle grumbling and grinding as it transformed enough to roll.

Her gaze settled on the cracked display, the blinking dot marking Beehive - The HQ, the only safe place left. She focused all her willpower on that single destination, eyes fixed as the world around her blurred and twisted. With each heartbeat, each agonizing breath, she forced herself forward, driving the broken mech one slow, painful mile at a time.