_ _ _ _3rd Person Pov_ _ _ _
They had arrived thinking they could overwhelm, that they could slaughter all in their way; they believed, with suicidal devotion, that the family was absolute and that they would win no matter the cost. Their broken and twisted minds didn't even register that they were running into a meat grinder they could not possibly win. No; instead they simply charged forward, uncaring about the horrors that lay ahead.
And the now warped residents of Rapture hadn't even realised that they had been completely left to their fate by their own kin. Their reinforcements had stopped arriving all together and one by one their means of escape were being systematically cut off. Not just by their enemies encircling them; in fact, even their leaders were beginning to make moves that inadvertently cut them off from any form of escape. Simply put, Lamb had abandoned them.
Either way, though, deep within the heart of the fighting, where the carnage was most excessive, the mangled corpses of three big daddies lay torn apart along with dozens upon dozens of splicers. Despite the heaps of their dead, more and more of Lamb's so‑called family poured into this area one after the other, their weapons trained on the figure in the centre of the chaos.
Carmen was currently dealing with an elite bouncer as a rumbler launched grenades at her from a distance; the explosions cracking her armoured chitin caused small trickles of acidic green blood to leak out as she fought on. Still, it was clear who was on the back foot. The bouncer was clearly outmatched, Carmen's claws easily tearing through the tough fabric of its armoured diving suit, leaving massive and bloody gashes in its mutated flesh.
The most annoying thing for her right now, though, was actually the constant attacks from the splicers. While they were overall inconsequential in terms of actually doing damage to her, the fact that some of the insane psychopaths were actually trying to climb up and get on her back was quite the irritation. Add in the grenades from the rumbler and this fight was becoming a real pain in the ass.
"Get the hell off of me!" Carmen hissed as she grabbed a splicer that had managed to scramble up onto her, crushing it in her hand while violently shaking off another.
(I can't concentrate with all these little bastards climbing on me like a damn jungle gym.) she thought with a grumble before noticing something big and fast moving toward her. (And of course you come running the second I turn my back.)
The bouncer was charging her and she didn't exactly have time to dodge, not that she intended to to begin with. No; instead of moving out of the way she met the charge head on. One hand snapped out to grab the wrist of the bouncer's drill arm, pulling it away from her central mass, while the other hand reached out and gripped a hold of the bouncer's faceplate.
The armoured guardian didn't slow down though, pushing forward with intense ferocity, fully committing to the assault. Sadly for it, Carmen was both smarter and, at a weight of around ten tons, she weighed a hell of a lot more in comparison to its relatively single‑minded self. And she was rather quick to use said weight advantage as well, digging her feet into the ground and not only stopping the brute in its tracks but also pushing forward to topple it onto its back.
She pinned it down, digging her claws into its form to hold it in place beneath her. Of course it struggled, thrashing violently in an attempt to break free of her grip; however, she wasn't going to give it the chance. She opened her mouth and spewed acid bile down onto it, the green fluid rapidly eating through the beast's body and suit, seeping into its still‑open wounds and breaking down its armour.
Just then, though, she was interrupted rather suddenly as her instincts flared to life; unfortunately she didn't react fast enough to get out of the way. A beam, one of crackling blue electricity, slammed into her side, causing the muscles in that area to stiffen and spasm violently. Carmen hissed in pain, her tail whipping out to cleave the offending splicer in two while also batting away several others with the simple motion.
And yet, despite literally cutting one of them in half, they didn't let up; in fact it seemed to have only caused the rambling lunatics to become even more aggressive in response. Their persistence was honestly starting to get on Carmen's nerves at this point.
"Why won't these idiots screw off alread-FUCK!" she tried to say, but her words were cut off when several grenades exploded around her. "Damn it! That bloody hurts!" she growled in mounting frustration.
(You know what? To hell with this shit.) She muttered internally, as she quickly put some distance between herself and her attackers.
She then took action to have someone else deal with the annoyance scurrying around her feet. With a simple thought a portal in space tore open; the unintelligible ranting and laughter of the splicers quieted for a moment as their faces were reflected in the massive, shimmering scythe‑like blades of a towering ravager. Additionally, emerging from between the giant xeno's legs were two very eager predaliens, their attention immediately locking onto the splicers standing before them with the intensity of a battle starved maniac.
Leaving the annoyance to her offspring, Carmen turned her attention to the rumbler that was still continuing to pelt her with grenades. It was even occasionally throwing down small mini‑turrets that opened up on her; however, their bullets had little to no effect on her carapace and so they were easily ignored.
In fact, now that the splicers were being dealt with by Beta and Gamma, taking down the rumbler was far easier done. Without the cannon fodder to run diversion for it, what happened next was almost completely predictable.
Carmen sprinted forward, moving with surprising speed for something of her size, all while avoiding the attacks the rumbler was launching at her. Once she picked up enough speed, she lowered her head and rammed into the former human‑turned mutated giant. The force of the collision would have been enough to shatter every bone in a normal person's body before sending them flying into the air. The rumbler, to its credit, didn't immediately fold like a wet paper towel; instead it rose up its free arm and took it like a completely unflinching statue.
The impact sent the rumbler skidding backwards several metres, its arm clearly broken beyond repair. It was honestly kind of impressive that the guardian was still standing at that point. Still, even if the charge hadn't done as much as Carmen had anticipated, it was still more than enough for what came next. And so, as the rumbler was disoriented, a flash of violet came up in an arc. The rumbler had barely the time to register what was coming, let alone actually have time to properly defend against the incoming threat.
Either way, though, it didn't matter; Carmen's tail pierced through the rumbler's torso, easily tearing right through everything in its path before exploding out of the rumbler's back. Carmen, of course, didn't hesitate to rip it back out, leaving a gaping wound where the rumbler's rib cage and organs used to be. And yet, despite the now massive opening in its chest and the staggering amount of blood loss, the guardian still had a bit of fight left in it.
So, with its final act of defiance, the rumbler weakly reached up, grabbing hold of the trigger for its weapon once more, before firing one last shot directly at Carmen's face. The xenomorph queen flinched as the following explosion cracked the smooth part of her head, the spike of agony that erupted throughout her skull causing her to lash out violently. She slammed the guardian into the ground hard, before then stomping its head into a mass of broken metal and flesh with her foot.
"God damn it!" Carmen cursed openly without restraint. "Was shooting me at point‑blank range at the end there really necessary?"
She breathed out before sighing in irritation. "At least that's done. Still though, that stung like a hell of a bitch." she growled while shaking her head somewhat in hope of getting rid of some of the pain.
(I should head back and recover, at least until I can find out where I'm most needed next.) she thought but paused when she noticed something approaching.
It was a splicer, one of the far rarer, less‑mutated versions. "Huh? What the heck... are... they...?" Carmen trailed off as they seemed to throw something at her.
(Oh... oh crap.) Was the only thing that came to mind as the realisation hit her a moment before the thing they threw connected with her form.
The moment the object collided with her it burst like a water balloon, releasing a cloud of emerald that flowed across her eyeless head. Immediately Carmen began to panic. She knew what this was after all; she knew exactly what they had thrown, what had hit her. It definitely wasn't hard for her to figure out; she had played the games, she had even replayed them again before coming here to fully remind herself about the plot and dangers lurking in this sunken city.
Unfortunately it was far too late for regrets now, though, as her senses were momentarily blinded. Her vision had completely become a blur tinted with a green haze, all while her body began to systematically lock up. So when a voice called out to her, when her body screamed to obey, she resisted; she fought to keep control of herself.
Unbeknownst to Carmen, though, something that had laid dormant in the back of her mind began to stir in response to this attack on her consciousness. Something that she had forgotten was even there to begin with.