injected with flowing blue deltas and immeasurable stretches of vegetation, deserts and icy tundra. Such an incredible diversity of life and environments, brought about and held together by the faintest of chances. So different to her own dying world.
“Begin stabilizing procedure, slow us up, captains.” Together the pods’ free legs began to sprawl all about the ark, throwing colossal spouts of fire into the atmosphere in efforts to gain control of the structure’s descent. “Over Hermon, Tamiel, prepare to disengage.”
“Prepare team!” Samyaza heard her friend command her crew as their destination grew ever closer, surging an excitement and apprehension through Samyaza that she had not felt since first laying eyes upon Eden.
“Coordinates approach, commander.” High above the valleys and mountains of Eden the bronze shuttles roared with a controlled acceleration towards their destination, Mount Hermon, a tactical location rich in natural resources, and concealed enough to prevent the inhabitants of this world discovering that they were merely a project.
Tamiel commanded her crew to ready their craft, the ship’s limbs hastily surrounded the ark, ready to thunder away leaving the remaining ophanim to cradle the satellite down to Eden. In the final moments of slowing the ark’s pace down Tamiel’s probe’s legs burst with a bellow of firepower, ready to catapult her team across the globe. Just before the combined structures came to a complete halt above Hermon, Samyaza gave her final order to Tamiel.
“Release crafts, captain, report when you have touched down at your destination.”
“Fully engage.” A moment of silence passed before Tamiel spoke up once more. “Release contact.” A colossal judder abruptly wracked the vessel’s interior coursing an eruption through the ark and into Samyaza’s ophanim, the sound of cringing metal was heard even through the probe’s fortified exterior. Everything shuddered wildly. Samyaza’s crew ploughed violently into their consoles and against one another screaming in pain and confusion.
“Tam?” Without control the enormous tripod began spinning, plunging down towards Hermon’s rocky outcrops. “Tamiel!”
“Release failed -” A scrambled whimper entered Samyaza’s ears. She hectically tried to stabilise herself yet the trembling crafts span with such force she could not move. Gazing through her probe’s clear interior she could see Tamiel’s ophanim lodged to the ark’s bowels like some enormous gangly dying insect.
“Amazarak!” She could not hide the desperation in her voice for she knew they were careering towards Eden’s surface at a deathly rate. The captain did not reply.
“Prepare evac -” Her crew was thrust upwards crashing in a bundle into the ophanim’s small domed ceiling. With a thunderous screech of straining metal and quaking debris they were thrown back into the craft’s controls. Power hubs flickered briefly before the looming darkness of Eden consumed the vessel’s interior.
4.
Hulking black eyes surveyed the din lighting up Eden’s darkening sky, from amidst towering tree branches a deformed entity stared, drooling, its heavy breathing joined by a crowd of its kin. Masses of huge nostrils flared, sniffing wildly at the air, curious to understand what the anomaly was which now lay scattered, burning upon the mountainside.
Behemoth quivered at a sudden realisation. Another scent was in the air, the ghastly beast thrust branches aside, he roared, charging through the lush thickets tracing the foul stench of his prey. His troop followed, pushing through the flora clumsily causing wildlife to scatter in all directions until a deafening scream broke the night time calm. Each giant paused.
A scuffling in the nearby foliage and the sound of rapid footsteps confirmed the suspicions of Behemoth’s primitive mind. “Masters!” A slobbering mouth blurted out, only to be savagely stricken by the dominant male amongst them. The beast snarled and grunted, unable to prevent its kin rushing from their cover to chase the small bipedal beings fleeing from the tree line.
“Back!” The goliath barked, being forced into the chase, though not for the prey the others pursued, but for the one that had ignored the chain of command. Some of them were shorter and stockier than the others, some gangly and tall, all however towered over the other bipedal species of Eden. The earth trembled beneath their stampeding limbs.
Behemoth watched his target collide with the fleeing prey, their dread ridden screams pulsating an unfamiliar gush of emotions and reactions through his mind and body. The sounds of distress confused him. His primitive instincts overrode the sensation of guilt that he simply could not comprehend. The smallest of the masters was hit and thrown up into the air, another amongst the crowd made an effort to stop the slobbering giant but she was stricken aside.
The largest of them, though puny compared to Behemoth’s brethren, did not turn their back to watch, he fled towards the darkening horizon, running towards the light far away upon the mountain. The thunderous commotion made by the anomaly had since reduced to silence, yet a blazing inferno marked its place on the silent hills of Eden.
The beast that had broken the chain of command lunged upon the child, she screamed before being silenced by a violent shake. Excited the wild mass began to holler, he turned to face his kind, holding the body up to show Behemoth. Its face was a distorted construction of misplaced facial features, gruesome in appearance to those the giants chased. Slaver oozed from its slack jaw as bulging eyes shifted excitedly in efforts to focus upon its company, in a moment of realisation the being’s irises changed from wild excitement to a suppressed fear.
Before the rest of their prey could be captured Behemoth violently intervened with the pursuit. He ploughed head long into the male which held the young master. In the collision his target was thrown meters away crashing upon its back into the dusty ground causing the land to shake. His prey remained tightly gripped.
Behemoth leapt upon his rival without hesitance, a barrage of gargantuan fists sprayed back and forth between the beasts yet the dominant male was too strong. In a brief moment the struggle was over.
With a wail of dominance Behemoth slammed his victim’s skull into the ground. Despite his target’s sudden lack of life he continued pummelling away at the giant body, relentlessly rendering it unconscious. The horrific being slouched back, breathing heavily. After a number of deep huffs the nephilim pushed himself from the floor with his hands causing the sound of creaking joints to fill the air. With a final act the colossus stomped its foot down upon its competitor’s temple, demonstrating to all in his company the consequences that awaited them should they fail to abide by the dominant male’s rule.
The other enormous forms stood in silence, glaring at the corpse of their kin. Behemoth pulled the small body away from a still clenched fist by its long dark hair. The rest watched him, silently, curiously. He cradled the body, sniffing at the deceased being’s hair. He looked over her face but did not understand why she did not struggle.
“Master,” one of the enormous entities said under its breath. Behemoth looked up slowly, his giant black eyes then shifting to glare out into the darkness. Something was not right, but his primitive brain could not grasp what. He looked back at the girl and grunted quietly before beginning to huff, in a bizarre outburst he lifted the girl high by her ankle before slamming her into the floor. Repeatedly the giant hammered the tiny body into the dirt, all the while his troop grunted and hollered wildly around him.
Once their leader’s display was finished they ripped into the child’s flesh, tearing her apart to remove her limbs and innards. The bloodthirsty animals tussled amongst themselves in a frenzy to get at the body, yet they did not consume the flesh. With desperation the beings fought for possession of stripped bones which were wrenched away from the corpse and held close by those who had won them.
Amidst the turmoil Behemoth stepped back, he eyed a female as she hunched over competing and thrust himself upon her, pinning her face to the ground. She struggled, exciting the dominant male, as she flailed her spindly arms and screamed out at his abrupt movements
he thrust away with his endowed genitalia in an excited frenzy immediately capturing the attention of other males in the group. In a sudden twist a furious uproar burst amongst the lesser males. Heavy grunts filled the air as they began to test each other’s strength, pushing and lunging for one another in the excitement of the moment, in efforts to solidify their rank below Behemoth and possibly gain access to mating rights.
The female Behemoth mounted huffed furiously before bucking her hind legs in efforts to deter his actions yet with her violence so he returned the challenge. With a bellow he struck at her neck and head, driving her face into the dust. He began to grunt heavily before a pair of males in the midst of brawling fell into the beast. He immediately released the female and turned to strike out at the others before he flinched. From the mountainside a luminous light burst forth breaking the cover of night. Behemoth squatted, grunting to his companions causing the battling monstrosities to fall quiet and cower. Many of them struggled to deter the brightness from obscuring their vision as they held up deformed hands to cover their eyes.
Behemoth glanced awkwardly at the pulsating glow before it vanished leaving a dark spot in his vision where the light had been. Confused, the giant
Descent of The Watchers Page 6
