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Benjamin-Kale — Shellshock
#alien #death #despair #grief #kymera #machine #male #mecha #ptsd #scifi #screaming #sorrow #tragedy #war #science_fiction #original_species #character_development #colored_sketch #story_in_description
Published: 2022-03-08 01:24:14 +0000 UTC; Views: 3489; Favourites: 7; Downloads: 0
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Description
First, they blocked out the sun.Within the course of 24 hours, all of Zyrses XII was plunged into darkness. Normally this wouldn’t be cause for alarm. Eclipses were common as the planet had more than one moon to its orbit. Those who were outside to see it happen, however, were the first to know this was no normal occurrence.
Not even the kymera currently orbiting the planet in their ships saw what caused it, but they watched it as it happened.
Dark clouds, black as ink, slithered over the planet. They roiled like serpents then coalesced into a single thick blanket. From the ground, the clouds stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction. Absolutely no light touched its surface. Neither moon, star, or sun could be seen.
Information of this development spread fast, as kymera didn’t need to communicate with words. Their fear was infectious and it spread with those ominous clouds like a plague.
They relied upon the sky for everything. Looking at the moons they could tell the tides and the sun powered every aspect of their technology. There were power reserves, of course, and dams, but they would not last forever nor were they strong enough to keep everything within the cities powered. Despite this, cities lit up all over the planet, their lights the only thing left to penetrate the cloying darkness.
Not knowing when the high tide would roll in, everyone in the costal cities stayed inside, just in case.
A day passed in dead silence and darkness, before all at once, they heard the voice.
“We have come for the one called (Gerra), give him to us and you will all be spared.”
It was comply or die, and whatever this voice was, it meant as much with a cold finality that froze their hearts to the core.
Gerra was a guardian of his city. Like the rest of the guardians, he was armored and armed with a spear, waiting within the barracks for something, anything, to happen, when he heard that demand along with the rest of his company. They all looked right at him, and he stared back in shocked silence. They were equally floored, their ears raised and antennae forward, held high in alarm.
Immediately Gerra rose to his feet like a good soldier, an aura of determination rolling off of him. He took one step before he was stopped by Dyad. The other kymera looked at him with immense determination.
“I will not let you do this.”
“If I do not, you will die.”
Gerra grabbed Dyad’s spear and pushed it back.
“Do not stop me.”
But the others joined in to stop him as well. They wouldn’t let one of their own go alone out there into the unknown to face whatever horrors lurked there.
The monsters were inside the city. They had somehow gotten in without setting off any of the alarms armed around the perimeter. They were massive, made of metal and covered in black tentacles which draped down their backs and covered their arms like capes. Their eyes were round red lights and their faces were like blades.
Upon seeing more than one kymera approach, the beasts changed their stances and raised their heads. Their eyes were like spotlights, blinding the kymera as they regarded them. Steam rose from the nearest beast’s closed mouth with a hiss.
“Give him to us and your planet will be spared.”
The thunder of the thing’s inner voice was paralyzing.
Gerra stepped forward despite his terror, and dropped his weapon.
“What will you do with him?” Dyad asked suddenly, projecting loud enough for everyone around to hear him.
Dyad had been with Gerra his whole life, having bonded upon hatching on these very shores. The thought of being without him for any length of time was enough to make him quake with a fear he’d never known.
“We are to contain him, far away, where he cannot harm this universe or any other.”
Dyad didn’t understand. None of them did. How could this young kymera possibly harm the entire universe?
His antennae laid back and he bared his teeth, disbelieving.
The monster before him ignored the threat display and instead outstretched a skeletal, metal hand toward Gerra. The young kymera was looking more petrified by the moment, not by the monster, but by his dear “brother’s” possible actions.
“I’ll g-” he tried to say, but Dyad’s mind was louder.
“We won’t let you take him!” Dyad said at last.
A wave of energy rolled off of the group, one of anger and agreement.
Gerra's stomach dropped.
“Please, do not fight them.” Gerra begged Dyad, loud enough for all of them to perceive. “I refuse to let any of you die because of me!”
Dyad wasn’t having any of it.
“Arm the canons,” he told the others.
“No!” Gerra cried.
The others were already on the move. Gerra couldn’t stop them, and while he was distracted, Dyad lunged at the nearest beast with a psionic roar, his spear aimed for the beast’s chest.
The monster hardly reacted to the psionic attack. The spear hit its metal carapace and skidded off with a rain of sparks. Dyad had severely misjudged his enemy’s power, and now… he was in its reach. That skeletal hand grabbed his arms and Gerra heard the armor crack beneath its vicious grip. Dyad tried not to scream, but Gerra felt his pain. He leapt forth on instinct, but was swept away by the beast’s tentacles before he could make contact.
He didn’t see what happened next, but he felt it. Sympathy pains shooting through him enough to make him writhe. He looked. He knew he shouldn’t have, but he did anyway. Dyad was lifted off his feet. He kicked at the beast with his powerful legs, his claws catching on the metal as he tried to find purchase, no longer fighting back but instead trying to escape.
The black-cloaked monstrosity produced a long sharp needle from one of its tentacles and jammed it into Dyad’s neck. Then, it simply dropped him to the ground.
Gerra stumbled over and dropped to his knees before his “brother”, just as he began to convulse. Whatever the beast had drugged him with, it worked fast. He was foaming at the mouth, his eyes rolling as his body seized violently. During this, Gerra couldn’t feel his mind, all he could feel was malfunctioning thrashing energy hitting him in waves.
He screamed out his brother's name, but he did not react. His agony seemed to last for ages before finally he lie still once more, his mind silent.
Gerra couldn’t move. He was paralyzed by the loss, by the prolonged terror of this endless night, by the fact this was his fault. He didn’t see the monsters closing in on him from behind until it was too late.
As black tendrils struck him, the first canon fired and shattered the deathly silence of the night.
