(Read the Chapter Notes)

Jane's POV:

Start of the story starts 3 and a half month before Chapter one, and 5 months before Chapter two. This can sound complicated but don't let all the dates distract you too much.

"It took a while for you to come. I sent my messenger over three hours ago."

“I had some things to do. Why did you summon me?”

Jane had been summoned by Sweyn this morning. The messenger told her to follow him. Jane, however, had no intentions of following the man that woke her up. She climbed down her window to avoid him. A meeting with 'a very important man', as the messenger had said, didn't sound like much good.

After the garage shop had told her that they weren't looking for work, Jane had to live with the scraps the food bank provided her. Looking for other work isn't an option for her. The only thing is skilled at, is repairing machinery. It is the only thing the Vault taught her, and it is the only thing she can do.

With almost no money, she had made two attempts to steal some gold from the treasury. The first time was a success. Jane managed to steal enough to survive the winter. No traces were left behind, and it was as if the money had just vanished. The second attempt, however, went south. The alarm went of and she just managed to escape before the guards arrived. After two hours of blending in with the crowd, she had arrived home.

But apparently they figured out who had done it. The messenger had finally manager to take her with him after the guards had captured her after a two-hour search. Now she had to await her trial.

“First of all, miss Somer, I want to compliment you. You managed to stay clear of the local police for weeks. Only when the best investigators were put on the case, we managed to unravel who the thief was.”

*Damn*. I really am on trial, goes through Jane's mind.

“I can explain why I did it, really. See, after I couldn't f...”

“Silence!” The old man yells. He stands up as he says it, and the threatening look on his face scares her enough to step back. But she stumbles onto one of his personal guards. She turns around, and sees all the guards have made a circle around her, giving her little room to move.

“My men had ordered you to be executed last night.”

Jane starts to panic now. The men surrounding her had now drawn their rifles at her. Was this the end then? Survived the travels from Holland all the way to Denmark, only to be executed over some thievery.

“However.” The man calmly says, as he sits relaxed in his chair again.

“H-however what?” Jane surprises herself by the fact that she has managed to keep her tears of fear in. By now, her entire body was shaking.

“...However, I told them that you would be more useful to us alive then dead.”

Sweyn made a sign with his left hand and his men backed of. They went back to their original posts.

“What are you talking about?” Jane asks, confusion now stronger than the anxiety.

“You managed to avoid my best investigators for weeks. That's a talent we need.”

“What talent? What do you mean?”

“I am offering you a job in our spy-network. With your skills to move through the crowds, as unseen as a bug, we could use you for eavesdropping. Of course, should you refuse, you'll be executed in a sound proof room, and you'll be just another probable victim of the Giantess kidnapping.”

Jane slowly nodded. Jane thought she'd be dead by now. Instead she is asked to join the famous network that keeps this city as safe as it it.

“My top researcher mister Christiansen will tell you all about it. I am a busy man, so let me work.”

Sweyn points at the door right next to him. Still shaking, Jane opens the door. Just before she walks in, she turns around and asks Sweyn why he had to scare her so much. He replied with:

“Let an old man have his fun.” Sweyn said with a smile on his face.

“Miss Somer, I presume?”

The researcher hands her a cup of coffee, and points to a chair that stands on the other side of his desk. They both sit down, and face each other. He asks her how she's doing, and they talk on for another ten minutes. The researcher seems like a pleasant man to her. He is in his mid-sixties and has a long white beard. The man is short and quite heavy.

“Let's get to the business.” The researcher hands her a newspaper from four years ago.

“Please read the headlines for me.” The researcher gently orders her.

“Several merchants gone missing in the past two weeks.”

Jane reads out loud. The old man hands her another newspaper, dated two years later.

“Read the first lines as well.” The man says.

“Four outposts attacked. After the outposts had gone silent, several scouting groups were sent to investigate the sudden silence. What they found were traces of violence. Blood and the weapons from the guards were found. There have been several rumors about what the cause is, and most lead to a Giantess attack. The only fact that raises doubts is that there are no corpses to be found. The Giantess' usually don't take all the bodies with them.”

“You can stop now.” The old man said

He shows her the newspaper from two days later. The headlines say that the rumors of Giantess involvement has been confirmed by the authorities.

“Why are you showing me these? There is nothing to be found out about this. Giantess' do this all the time, right?”

Jane has calmed down now. Her cup is empty, and she can finally speak without a clear fear in her voice.

“Eighteen people have gone missing without a trace again. Two weeks ago. Most of them merchants that came from tribes and Vienna to trade their wears on the market. We tell the people that the Giantess' are behind this, but after a lot of research, we came to the conclusion that this might very well not be true.”

“And I'm assuming you need me to figure out what the cause is?”

“Let me finish. The people in this city are suspecting that we have been lying to them. You see, there is a new legend. About thirty years ago, the top researcher of the Empire, Benan Belik, failed to develop a new version of the Forced Evolution Virus. All the failed subjects were released into the wild. They believed they would die quickly, but they might have created a new sort of mutant. We call them 'witches'. It has never been confirmed that the women who were released survived, and so people started to make storied. 'Eye-witnesses' claimed they saw them, and other claimed they fought against them.”

“I have heard about them. They say they live in colonies, and feed upon unlucky souls. They colonize outside cities to capture the ones who are refused entrance, and kidnap humans and even Giantess' at the frontiers. They attack small tribal camps and scout camps of both humans and Giantess'.”

“That's how the legend goes. And the fact that our camps and travelers were attacked rose this city's suspicion. They say that the tribal camps have all been eaten out in the east and that they now seek to eat the entire western-European populace. The fact is we can't have this suspicion. It raises unrest, and we can't use that in times when the Empire can attack at any given moment.”

The man stands up, walks toward the window and looks outside.

“Sweyn wants you to proof yourself. You will be assigned to a team and investigate a cave just a few miles from the city. The people will be informed about the mission.”

Jane feels much better now. There is no chance they would have her killed now.

“The man you came in town with, mister Mitchellson, will join you on your mission.

“What does Timmy have to do with this? He is the assistant of some unimportant researcher.”

“Timmy will be promoted to my personal assistant. After that, you'll be promoted to become his assistant. We need you to keep a low profile for further missions. An unimportant job will cover you just perfect. You will join him on 'his' mission to research the cave for any traces of Giantess'. And the one we choose is Timmy because the rest of the researchers know too much to join you on this mission. He is new in this town, and yet to be tainted by the suspicion. We doubt he'll do anything wrong if you happen to find anything of interest.”

Eight days later, July 28th 2257

“Listen up men. Stand up straight when I lecture you!” Sweyn’s top researcher had created a small team to investigate the cave. Timmy was given the leadership of the team as the head-researcher. His assistant was Jane. Timmy had no idea Jane got summoned by Sweyn. That entire day had to remain secret for everyone, even her friends. Not even the other leaders of the city could know.

Jane and Timmy are the only researchers in the team. The force that would accompany them was made out of fifteen soldiers. Including Melissa, who had joined the Byzantine force almost immediately after their arrival. She would lead the small force into the cave.

The researcher wanted to meet us just outside the walls. From up, the snipers were looking at us, hoping to hear something. The entire city knew that they were going to proof that all the disappearances were caused by the Giantess'. Though somewhere, Jane knew that wasn't case.

“What ever you see in that cave, do not tell anyone before telling me every single detail about it. A bus will take you there, and stay there until you return.”

“You are sending us there to proof that there is no such thing as a witch.” Timmy starts.

“Tell us what they are able to do, or what the legend says they can do.”

The researcher looks darkly at him. This was surely not the man who I spoke to in his office. The old man in the office was a friendly gray man. This seemed like a tyrant who would censure all our words.

“Fine then. It won't matter what I say when you come back with no evidence about them. Here's what the legend tells us.”

The old man calls someone, and that someone comes running towards him.

“Rick, I need you to tell them all you 'know about them'.”

The old man looks annoyed, as if insulted. He sure is acting good. Last week he told Jane that he wasn't sure himself, now he seems to hate everyone that even things about the myth could possibly be true.

“Hay, I'm Rick. I have traveled a lot and heard a lot of stories about these creatures. Here's what I've pieced together. First, we have the Chedipe. She has the size of a normal person, and looks just like any other woman. But when you fall for her tricks, she'll bite you and inject a poison into you. All witches carry this poison. It'll make all your muscles and bones flexible as rubber. Just like any other witch, she'll swallow her victim like a snake, and carry her victim inside of her. She'll then take you to her colony. There she'll pull you out of her again and hand you over to the queen. They are allowed to eat her victim only rarely. Usually one a year, which is enough food for her.”

“Then, there is the Lythande. Often confused with an Amazon, she has a height of about nine feet. However, she is as strong as a Behemoth, and what makes her even more deadly, is that she can turn mostly invisible. Her stealth is professional, and she won't make a noise when sneaking upon you. So look out for her. Just like the Chedipe, she'll numb you by biting you. After that she swallows you whole for the queen. But another point. This witch can keep two people inside of her at once. Not only can she swallow you with her mouth, but also... well. From what I heard from an eye-witness who managed to hide himself from the attack, she pushed the head of a numbed victim into her vagina. After that she sucked him inside of her without the use of her hands. As if some one pulled him from inside of her into her.”

As if that was nothing, he continues his story.

“And lastly, there is the queen. The queen of the colony. She receives all the victims, and will digest a two persons every week. One in her stomach, one all the in her vaginal walls. Somehow, that has become a digestion progress. Whenever there are too many dinners for her, she distributes it to her colony. From what I've heard, she is about fifteen feet tall, weighs about four hundred KG. Her witches often bring her Amazons and Behemoths as well. “

The bus was nearing the entrance. There hadn't been any talking in those few minutes, only silence. The soldiers didn't looked shocked. They were used to these kind of happenings. But I can definitely see some fear in their eyes. If the rumors were true, and if that madman Rick was right, we'd be going for a suicide mission.

Suddenly the bus stopped. The driver drove back into the bushes.

“What are you doing, we're almost there!” Melissa said to the driver, who looks back at us with a signal on his face that we have to be quiet. The bus was almost fully covered by the bushes, and the bus driver opened the back door by clicking on a button.

“Be quiet. I spotted two Behemoths at the entrance.” The driver said.

Me and the men heave a sigh of relief, as the entrance was indeed inhabited by Giantess'. They may be brutal beasts and hard to kill, but at least we didn't have another problem. All those disappearances were indeed caused by the Giantess'. Melissa signals me and Timmy to take cover behind a tree. They move stealthily toward the two naked and muscled Behemoths who are discussing something. They are too distracted to notice the fifteen soldiers who are taking spots to shoot them with their auto rifles.

They are all in place now. Five men for each Behemoth. Melissa slowly raises her hand, and with a finger snap, the shooting begins.

It was a short fight. The Behemoths were killed almost immediately. They may have bodies like tanks, but even they couldn't survive fifty shots per second at her head. After only four seconds, the two Giantess' laid dead.

“Should we clear out the cave?” One of the soldiers asked Timmy when he had walked back.

“No. We have all the proof we needed. We'll go back and tell them what we saw. We'll come back with forty soldiers and clear this cave out.”

Timmy stands up to step in the bus, when we suddenly hear someone screaming for help. A woman ran out of the cave. She was highly in anxiety, and the soldier that held her couldn't understand what she said.

I rushed to the woman. She had buried her head in the soldiers chest who was comforting her. Out of the muffled noises that came out of his chest I heard her say:

“Please don't let them get me. Please don't please don't please don't oh God please don't.”

“Who are you?” I ask the woman.

“I... I am Rosa. I was part of a caravan that was going to Byzantium. But then the Amazons attacked us, and took us with them. They raped and killed the men, and most women were sent to their FEV facility in Constantinople. I just managed to sneak out before they could send me away. We have to stop their caravan to save those people!”

“She must be part of that caravan that got hit two weeks ago. We can still catch up to themif we send the...”

Suddenly a spear comes right at me. I only just managed to duck away. From behind me, I hear a soldier screaming in pain. The spear thrust right through his stomach. Then three more follow. Two miss their target by inches, one goes right through the head of another soldier. She dies instantly, as she is shot back. Out of the bushes, a group of Giantess' appear. Nine Amazons and three Behemoths dash out of the bushes.

The men take there positions, and start to shoot. One unlucky soul stood too close to the bushed. A Behemoth took him down with one hand. The mutant that was as tall as a house lifted him up in the air, and strangled him. After a few second his neck broke, and she let go of him. He plunged to the ground.

Another Behemoth carried a long medieval broadsword. The white steel alone was a foot longer than I am. With one hit she thrust it through a soldier's skull. It went down so hard, that his entire body split in halve when the sword had gone through the man's body and hit the ground.

But the soldiers are getting their feet on the ground. From behind my hiding sport I see Melissa barking orders. Whatever she is yelling, it is working. After a minute of fighting, seven amazons lay dead and the Behemoth that carries the sword is now gasping for air after she got hit in her throat.

The remaining Giantess' waver and flee.

Me and Timmy come out of our hiding place. Liters of blood on the floor. The girl that came running out of the cave is back in the soldier's arms. Hugging him. Crying in his chest. I can see the man with a spear through his stomach no longer squirming. He is dead. The Behemoth, how ever, is still alive. Her longs are filling with blood, but she manages to say something.

“Why... *cough*... why did you stop us? We would stop these *cough* degenerates... We wanted to stop them *cough*.” And with that, she died.

We all looked surprised at each other. Were they here to attack?

“You'll make a nice meal, my soldier boy.”

“What the... Aaaah!” The soldier yelled.

The young woman had bitten him in his shoulder. The man plummets to the ground. The girl has a big smile on her face. A pair of tusks now showing, the size of the top of my middle finger. Immediately after that, three women appear out of nothing. This must be the witch cave. The woman that cried in the soldiers arms was a Chedipe, and these women are Lythande's. They were suddenly visible, and managed to bite two soldiers instantly. The third woman had appeared next to Melissa, who was quick enough to duck away and plunge a knife in her side. The witch screamed in agony. The blood came out of her body, and she fell to the ground.

Melissa took her gun out and with two shots, she killed the other two witches. Two clean headshots in only two shots. Rosa now found herself surrounded by her enemies. The ambush had failed, and she expected her death to come quickly.

“Wait!” Timmy yelled.

He took a taser from his back, and shot her with it. Rosa fell to the ground, unconscious, not moving. Not a threat anymore.

“This is perfect! We'll take her with us and show her to Christiansen. This is the evidence we came for.”

“No.” Melissa now interrupting his short period of happiness.

“We end this now. Get the numbed men in the bus. You, you and you. Carry them to the bus.”

“ 'I' am calling the shots here. We leave when I say so.” Timmy steps in front of Melissa, who looks pissed off at her former squad member. Her former friend.

“Have you forgotten that I am the one who lead the unit? That I am in charge of the bus?”

“Three men died, and three more are numbed! We have to go before we all get wiped out.”

“Think about it Timmy. When we clear out this cave, you will have it all for yourself. You can take with you whatever samples, whatever bodies you want. Your position as your boss' will be secured.”