A shimmering golden portal opened in the desert outskirts of Lor Bardun, an outer rim planet that recently found itself within the borders of the ever expanding operations area of the HNTR organization. As the portal closed, moments after appearing, it left behind only a simple scorch mark in the ground as well as the two hunters who had been assigned to a mission on planet. Rose took a deep breath of the dry desert air as she took a few moments to scan the area. While there wasn’t much to see in her immediate vicinity, a shower of lights and small flying vehicles could be seen not too far off in the distance.
“Alright, let's get a move on.” Another voice said, as Rose’s partner Snow quickly began to stretch her arms and legs, eagerly preparing to get started with today’s mission. Rose shook her head. In the year or so that she had been an official member of HNTR, Rose had been assigned to missions with Snow several times, and she had quickly formed a close kinship with the other hunter. However, despite the fact that they were both dedicated and effective hunter’s Rose couldn’t help but feel a bit strange about Snow’s undeniable excitement for this particular brand of mission.
“Couldn’t you at least act like you weren’t loving this?” Rose asked with a heavy sigh. Snow turned and gave her partner a strange look before adjusting the hem of her pale blue skirt and tightening the straps on her bandolier.
“Do not mistake my enthusiasm for bloodlust. I was assigned to this mission just the same as you were. I won’t apologize for my lack of sympathy for these monsters.” Snow said, but her enthusiasm diminished slightly as she noticed that Rose was still having doubts. Snow sighed and walked over to her friend, gently rubbing her back. It was clear that despite the fact that their superiors had given them the all clear to remove all insurgents from the city, Rose still had some qualms about the idea of simply rampaging her way through a tiny city. “Look, we’ve had agents in the city for months now. Any civilians who were stuck here are long gone by now.”
Rose gave her friend and mentor a half hearted smile. In her mind, she knew that Snow was right. The current leadership in the city were a notorious cabal of inter-planetary criminals and if they did nothing to root them out now, the effects of their devastation would be felt far beyond the reaches of this planet. However, after her first interaction with tinies back on Parvus, Rose felt a certain amount of affection for the micro-sized humans and the effects of that affection were very clearly distracting her from the mission at hand. Snow furrowed her brow as she pondered how to pull her novice partner out of this gloomy mood and get her refocused on their task. Suddenly, she was struck with inspiration.
“Okay then, let’s see if you’re warmed up. Looks like it's about twenty kilometers to the target zone. Last one there has to eat a whole airship!” Snow shouted, dashing off in the directions of the city, creating a large crater and even more massive dust cloud as the sudden force from her departure ruptured the earth beneath her. In a matter of seconds, Snow was nearly a hundred yards away and despite her still lingering hesitations, Rose didn’t want to lose in a footrace to a woman wearing high heels. In a similarly remarkable burst of speed, Rose dashed across the face of the desert, tearing off after her comrade and their common destination.
“What the hell is that?” A gruff voice asked, as a large, muscular man walked towards the balcony window of his penthouse office. Delrok, one of the new five heads of the city of Kalpos, was busy trying to determine what the hell was happening outside the walls of the metropolitan capital city. A sudden flash of bright light somewhere out in the desert had captured everyone’s attention, but now there were two unidentified structures rapidly approaching the city, kicking up a massive dust storm as they moved.
“Tavin, go tell the pilot to get the ship ready for transport. Not about to sit here and find out.” Delrok ordered. One of his henchmen gave a curt nod and left the room to go and locate the hangar. Once in the hangar Tavin or as he was known to his associates in the HNTR association, Aiden, approached the crew of Delrok’s airship who were all relaxing in the crew quarters.
“Hey Tavin, what’s up?” The ships captain asked. However, Aiden did not respond, instead he simply removed a small grenade from his pack and tossed it into the room before pulling the door closed. The men gathered within did not have time to react before the device erupted in an explosion of arcing electricity, completely paralyzing everyone in the room. With the last of his former “associates” incapacitated, Aiden boarded the airship and departed from Delrok’s penthouse.
“Raptor to command. Come in command. Do you read me?” Aiden said into the headset as he adjusted the frequency of his radio to contact HNTR. There was a moment of static silence before a voice came over the radio.
“This is command. Go ahead Raptor.” The voice prompted.
“HNTR agents are confirmed on site. ETA three minutes. Requesting immediate evac.” Aiden anxiously awaited his removal from this veritable cesspool of criminal scum. His six month contract with HNTR was now coming to a close, having tirelessly worked to evacuate as many of the former citizens of Kalpos and now Aiden wanted out of this shit hole before HNTR’s clean up crew arrived to impart a lesson on the criminal’s of this universe.
“Negative Raptor. Remain within the sector. We need you to identify and tag any remaining civilians once the show begins.” Aiden clenched his fingers around the ship’s helm, gritting his teeth in anger.
“Command, all willing civilians have been evacuated. All remaining personnel on site are insurgents.” He argued. Unlike many of the beings here on the planet, Aiden had experienced the terrifying presence of the gargantuans and he didn’t relish the idea of remaining in the area of what was very soon to become a veritable playground for the immense giants. However, he also knew that if their intel was wrong, he would likely be the only available lifeline for anyone who found themselves in the wake of destruction. As honorable and upstanding as he knew his fellow hunters to be, it was impossible to deny the possibility of danger when beings this large were involved. But still, it was difficult to feel like a valuable member of the team when you were being compared to these veritable gods.
“Copy that command. Who are the hunters assigned to this mission?” He asked. It was rare that he ever interacted with his larger compatriots within the organization, but Aiden had on occasion been deployed on joint missions with gargantuans.
“Rose Cassidy…” The voice responded. Aiden didn’t know too much about this one. She had joined HNTR shortly before he was assigned to this mission and thus hadn't had the opportunity to learn much about her. “And Snow Vorrmier.” Aiden furrowed his brow as the operator read off the second name. Within the organization, Snow had a reputation for being overly focused on her objective, if not a bit cold as well. And while he hadn’t ever seen the prim and proper huntress in action before, he knew from her mission reports that she was terribly effective at her job, especially when it came to destroying enemy compounds.
“Jesus. Copy that command. Notify the hunters of my comms channel. I’ll await contact.” Aiden said, bringing his ship to a higher altitude where he could watch the much larger hunters approach the city.
“I won’t lie, I expected more of a challenge.” Snow taunted dryly, as she rapidly approached the outer wall of Kalpos. She looked back over her shoulder expecting to see Rose just a short distance behind her. However, as she allowed herself to become momentarily distracted, Snow found Rose had completely closed the gap and was now about to pass in front of her, just as they were about to cross the threshold into the city. The senior huntress wasn’t about to let this newbie beat her in a footrace, and so she decided to give Rose a lesson in preparedness.
“Think fast!” Snow shouted, pulling her gleaming silver rapier from her belt in a flash and swiping at the ground by Rose’s feet, aiming to trip her up. However, Rose was expecting Snow to pull something like this and was therefore prepared. As the white haired huntress slashed out at the ground, Rose leapt into the air, applying a gentle pressure to Snow’s shoulders as she crossed overhead and landed on the other side. With her balance now completely thrown off, Snow tumbled head over heels and came crashing down, slamming into the ground and sliding through the metal wall of the tiny city that she had been sent here to eradicate. By the time that the giantess came to a full stop, she had inadvertently carved a massive swath of carnage into the various buildings and roadways in her path.
Rose grimaced as she watched Snow slide into the tiny city. She hadn’t intended to knock over her friend nor had she intended to destroy so much of the landscape mere moments into her arrival here. Snow stood up, taking the time to scrape rocks, dust and various bits of debris off of her outfit. She furrowed her brow as she attempted to clean off her back and ensure that her skirt hadn’t been ruined by such a clumsy display on her part. And while she certainly couldn’t fault Rose for her fast reflexes and razor sharp instincts, it was still embarrassing to get dropped in sight of a city of millions.
“Impressive maneuver, I’ll admit. But I still won.” Snow said, shooting Rose a cocky smirk.
“What?! No way, I totally won!” Rose protested. However, Snow simply gestured to the destruction at her feet.
“Well, here I am standing in the city. And there you are outside the walls.” Snow asserted, raising one of her wedge high heels into the air and slamming it down onto a wide building. The giantess ground her foot into the building before quickly kicking her heel up towards her butt. The sudden motion caused a large portion of the building to be catapulted into the air where Snow was able to deftly slam it with her elbow and send it crashing into another section of the city. Rose was stunned, they had never clearly stipulated that the winner needed to be standing inside of the city, but she also didn’t want her hesitation to come off as refusal to complete her mission.
“And I believe that means you have to eat one whole airship.” Snow commented, looking over her shoulder into the city. Just as she expected, with their arrival and immediate destruction of a small section of the city, criminals were now attempting to flee. Snow surmised that the wealthiest and therefore the most culpable of villainous scum were going to be the ones taking to the skies to get out of danger. With a quick dash, the pale skinned huntress shot across miles of tiny city to snatch up a small airship. With her quarry in hand, Snow returned to her partner and gently placed the ship down after crushing one of its wings with two fingers. “Now, bottoms up!” She declared, using her lightning fast reflexes to snatch another three ships as they attempted to speed past the massive women.
“But, we don’t know who’s inside. It could be a civilian vessel just trying to get to safety.” Rose argued, looking down at the small metal vehicle with pity. Snow rolled her eyes. She enjoyed working with Rose, but it was turning out to be a real chore to get her past her hangups with tinies.
“Look everyone’s already been evacuated by now. The only ones left here in the city are the worst of the worst.” She argued. Just then, as if by divine happenstance, the lady hunters received a transmission from their home base.
“Command to strike team. Come in strike team.”
“We read you command” Snow said, placing a finger to her ear, her coy smile disappearing as her focus pulled back to the mission..
“Strike team. Please tune to channel 345.872 mhz. Our on the ground operative is in the city and will provide any assistance you need. Codename Raptor. He will identify and evac any remaining civilians if necessary. Please proceed without limit.” The transmission ended and Snow gave Rose a warm smile. Almost as if to say “See? Told you so.” The pair of young hunters tuned their communicators to the frequency they were given and reached out to this covert operative.
“Hello? Do you read me? This is Snow Vorrimier, contacting Raptor.” There was a beat of silence before Aiden’s voice came over the radio.
“I’m hearing you Snow. I’m broadcasting my ship’s identifier signal now. Make sure you don’t catch me in your warpath.” He said, causing Snow to produce a wide grin.
“Smart.” She thought to herself as she imprinted Aiden’s ship ID into her optical sensors. She had worked with tiny hunters before, although the circumstances were rare. Typically when dealing with full size threats, as hunters like Rose and Snow were most accustomed to dealing with, a tiny hunter was really only properly suited for intel gathering stealth operations. And any time a full size hunter was brought in to deal with a tiny threat, tiny hunters were typically assigned to the pre and post mission affairs, since a full size hunter in a tiny combat zone was akin to releasing a full nuclear arsenal. And while Snow would typically prefer to work on her own and avoid risking the safety of a tiny hunter, talented as they may be; she couldn’t fault him for the courage he showed by remaining in the field. Once both giantesses were keyed into the small agent’s ship, they were able to visibly see him flying around.
“Copy that Raptor. We’ll keep an eye on you.” Rose said, giving Aiden’s ship a smile and wave before opening her palm and holding out the broken ship so that Aiden could see it. “Can you confirm that there aren’t any civilians on board?” She asked. Aiden flew closer to the colossal woman and gave the ship a quick scan.
“Affirmative Ms. Cassidy. That vessel is the LBSS Skypiercer. Current ownership, Vassir Dominula of the Dominula crime family. They have a collective kill count in the hundreds of thousands and routinely participate in an elicit slave trade.” Rose and Snow shared a look as Snow gave her a subtle nod.
“Close your heart to their fear, Rose. We cannot forget the pain and suffering they have already wrought” Snow said, raising one of the other ships up between two fingers before crushing it into dust. “Do not let their size fool you. The harm that these things are capable of is incomprehensible.”
The dark haired huntress let out a heavy sigh and raised the ship up to her mouth. She understood the wisdom in her mentor’s words. And despite her trepidation, she intended to carry out her mission to the best of her ability.
“Fucking hell. What do we do?” A panicked crew member asked, as he cowered near the cockpit of the now immobile militia carrier vessel. Lobo Dominula stood by the torn open midsection of his father’s ship and tried to come up with a plan of escape. Lobo had felt remarkably smug as he loaded all of his men onto a ship as soon as the anomaly appeared out in the desert. His plan had been to fly into the center of the city to retrieve his father and sister before the chaos started to break out within the city limits, however the two giantesses had traveled much faster than he could have ever anticipated. Now here he was, trapped in the palm of the shorter, dark haired woman wielding a gargantuan scythe on her back.
Suddenly, the massive woman’s eyes were laser focused on the ship and an ever so slight sneer of pure malice appeared on her face. The same instincts that had led Lobo to take to the skies were now screaming at him to get the fuck out of here, by any means necessary. He looked to the side where a back mounted parachute pack was secured to the wall of the ship. At the exact moment that Lobo conceived of the plan to grab the pack and run, one of his crew began reaching for the bag.
“Fuck you!” Lobo shouted, pulling his blaster pistol from its holster and blasting the other man with a deadly bolt of energy. The other’s quickly started to panic as the shot rang out, but Lobo had already secured the parachute and jumped clear of the ship. He tried to equip the pack as he sprinted across the giant woman’s palm. Unfortunately for the tiny criminal magnate, his immense captor began to raise her hand into the air, the sudden change of elevation forcing everyone down towards her palm. The massive hand came to a stop near the woman’s face as she began to tilt her hand, opening her mouth wide as she did so.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Lobo screeched as he began to slide down the slope of flesh towards a bottomless abyss waiting between her plump lips. None of the Dominula crime family’s crew were able to escape as they plummeted down into her waiting mouth, their ship landing with a fiery crash on her enormous tongue. The survivors were all soon plunged into darkness as the woman began to slowly close her mouth around them as they struggled not to be sucked into a sea of saliva.
Snow watched with a giddy smile as Rose popped the tiny ship into her mouth and promptly swallowed its inhabitants alive. The look on her face was one of discomfort and disgust as she likely tasted the copious amounts of fuel from the ship. For Snow, eating tinies was far less about taste, as they were typically too small to even register on her tongue, and more about inducing true fear and humiliation in the hearts of her enemies. Especially when her targets were as vile as these pitiful creatures.
“Nice work. A decent start. Now for real fun.” Snow said after Rose finished gulping down her victims. She assumed Rose will still need a bit of periodic coaching as they continued their rampage through the tiny city, however, eating a ship full of living beings was a great way to really break the ice and coax the more novice hunter into the reality of their mission.
“Try to keep up.” Snow said, crouching down before she sprang up, high into the air. Rose simply watched as the white haired huntress descended back into the populated city like a meteor, landing upon a dozen buildings with the impact of her elbow and knees. A large cloud of dust and smoke rose up from the contact zone, but Snow took a deep inhale before releasing a bellowing gust from her lungs, forcing a cool, minty wind through the city like a hurricane. As the dust was instantly blown away, terrified onlookers in the buildings just beside the crater were suddenly able to make eye contact with the terrifying colossus.
Despite the remarkable size difference and the fact that they were certainly far too small, each of the tiny criminals in any of the buildings in front of Snow’s face all felt as though she were looking directly into their souls. And while she may not have been looking at any one of them specifically, Snow was certainly reveling in the fear that she knew she was imposing in the hearts of these despicable things. Without any indication of her next move, Snow leapt forward, crashing her head into the ground and kicking her heels up overhead. The giantess did a forward somersault, crushing numerous buildings as she did and landed once more on her feet. Once stable again, Snow removed her rapier with dazzling speed, spinning in a circle so fast that she was already standing straight up by the time that the path of destruction she had just carved into the ground could be visibly seen. A circular line of destroyed buildings and roads erupted around the remarkable warrior.
“Raptor, can you confirm that none of these ships are carrying civilian passengers.” Snow asked in a hushed whisper as she slowly knelt down in the center of the circle she had just carved.
“Roger that, Snow. No civilian vessels in the sky. You’re free to engage.” Aiden replied. “Aside from my ship, of course.”
Snow let out a slight chortle, but quickly refocused herself, tuning her reflexes to imperceptibly precise movements as she began her assault. With a speed that even made it difficult for Rose to follow along, Snow thrusted her rapier out in a direction, causing a shockwave to ripple through the air. Then, before anyone could register what had just happened, Snow spun on her heels, and thrust her rapier in a different direction, causing a similar effect. Then again. And again. In a span of only a few seconds, Snow had sent more than three dozen invisible attacks out from her position, never once leaving her circle.
Rose watched in awe as the various airships attempting to flee the city all began to explode as the shockwaves from Snow’s sword thrusts finally reached their targets. It was absolutely incredible to watch her fellow hunter wield her weapon with the strength and precision that it took to destroy each of the insect sized ships at range with nothing more than the force of her thrust. Snow smiled as she surveyed the area and found only one ship left in the sky, housing her tiny coworker. She then turned her attention to the ground beneath her, chuckling at the scars that her heels had carved into the ground beneath her. Where there had been a number of buildings only moments ago, the giantess was now standing in a bare circle of crushed debris
“Now, on to the main event.”
“Fucking hell Nia, what are we going to do?”
Nia Mestov stood at her desk, looking out at the pair of destructive giantesses in her city. She had been silently studying the immense women since the moment that they first stormed through the walls of the city. Her husband and children had tried to get her to try and flee the city with them, but Nia knew for a fact that no one was making it out of this city alive. And she was right, of course. The Nautilus had been airborne for less than ten minutes by the time that the pale one had eviscerated every ship in the sky in a matter of seconds. Now, Nia Mestov, prolific gun runner and cybernetic connoisseur was left alone in her penthouse to contemplate the end of her long and decorated criminal career at the hands of two impossibly powerful superbeings.
“Mam, we really should get moving. We can make it to the subway tunnels. If we’re quick we could-” The loyal henchmen was cut off as Nia suddenly threw her glass of scotch backwards, striking him in the face. And before the man could react to the unexpected assault, Nia gripped the underside of her enormous, six hundred pound wooden desk with one hand and flung it backwards in a fit of rage. The monstrous slab of hardwood slammed into the wall and became lodged there, crushing the unfortunate henchman instantly.
“AHHHHHHHHH FUCK!” Nia screamed in a deep, guttural shout as she dashed forward and slammed her fist into the window pane before her. The cybernetic enhancements in her arm produced a shockwave upon impact that shattered every window in the room as well as within the surrounding four floors of the building. Ever since she was a young girl, Nia had been forced to fight for survival. Now, having lived for sixty four years and ascended her way to the top of her own crime family, Nia was accustomed to imposing her will on those she considered to be beneath her. But now, staring down the face of true power as it was being wielded to destroy everything she had worked so hard to build up, Nia could do nothing to stop herself from succumbing to true rage.
Blinded by a white hot hatred for these two giantesses, Nia walked to the southern wall of her office and slammed a fist into the floor, shattering the floorboards and tearing up a massive steel safe. Nia’s right hand opened up to reveal a lens in the palm of her hand which she used to quickly melt through the electronic lock of the massive safe, despite the fact that she was the only person in the world who actually knew the combination.
“FUCKING DIE YOU MASSIVE CUNTS!” Nia shouted, as she removed her prized possession from the safe and aimed a Yakamoto Corp RAILGUN at the white haired giantess. She knew full well that this attack would certainly mean her demise, but it was a matter of pride at this point. She might not be making it out of this city alive, but she would add one final tally to her kill count. And for generations to come, Nia Mestov would be known as the woman who took down a god.
“Look out!” Rose shouted, as a beam of light began to arc across the sky towards where Snow was busy stomping her feet down on random buildings, skewering them with her heel. The white haired woman began to react, but Rose knew it was going to be too late. In a flash, the younger huntress extended her scythe and sent it spinning across the city. The whirling blade of steel carved a path across the ground as it curved in a wide arc around Snow’s back. As the bright blue beam raced across the sky, it came into contact with Rose’s spinning scythe just before it reached Snow’s back and was redirected in a different direction, carving a scorching trail across the city.
“Hm, nice throw.” Snow thought to herself as she glanced at the burnt scar that the laser left on the city. It was likely the impact of the attack would’ve been nothing more than a bee sting to her, but it was clear that she had found something that would motivate Rose. True to form, before Snow could react, Rose had dashed quickly across the city towards the source of the strange energy attack.
“CRIMINAL SCUM!” Rose shouted as she was momentarily overcome with anger that someone had attempted to harm her teammate. There was an explosion of force from where Rose started her dash, tossing countless smaller buildings and tons of rubble as she vanished in an instant, only to reappear in front of Yakamoto Plaza. “I”VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU!” The once timid huntress screeched, raising one foot far overhead and slamming it down into the ground, obliterating everything within several miles around the imprint of her boot. Snow had to shield her face as a mushroom cloud of dust exploded outwards, shrouding the entire area in smoke and ash. When the air finally cleared, Rose was left standing, breathing heavily as she forced her emotions back into check.
“Well done Rose. It’s clear that your desire to protect others is what drives you.” Snow said, walking over to her partner, stomping droves of fleeing criminals with her heels as she carelessly marched overtop of them. The frosty haired huntress placed a hand on Rose’s shoulder and squeezed gently. “Now just understand, that one was simply one of a million here in this cesspool. You’re not just protecting me here, you're protecting lifeforms all across this galaxy.”
“I understand.” Rose said, turning to look Snow in the eyes. There was now a fiery passion that the older huntress could see within her young partner’s face that had set Snow’s own spirit ablaze. “Let’s do this. For real this time!” Rose shouted, reaching out to reclaim her scythe. However, instead of using the weapon to begin tearing into the city, Rose simply stashed the weapon on her back. The dark haired giantess knelt down and began undoing the laces of her boots. As she stood back up, she shot Snow a playful grin before she removed her feet from the confines of her thick leather boots.