knelt by the male, placing her slender hand upon his bony shoulder. She looked beyond the humanoid, out into the darkness as he fell quiet, sniffing phlegm through his nose, he looked at the watcher, into the reflective visor that covered her face.
“What comes?” She said softly.
Wiping his nose the startled being looked up at the others of her crew, “the giants.” Azazel’s words immediately poured through Samyaza’s thoughts, she shuddered feeling a searing lick of heat engulf her bodysuit.
“What are these giants, commander?”
“I don’t know, but I believe Azazel did. What state are the ophanim in?”
“There are fuel reserves in zero, possibly enough to exit Eden’s orbit, but it is severely damaged.”
“Two’s legs are shattered, it is not capable of flight. Its fuel lay all about us. Perhaps, if we can locate Tamiel’s craft, commander...” Her peer trailed off as he relayed the news to his leader. She only nodded, making no sound to give away her growing concerns.
“Somebody keep check on the ark, the sooner we know more about Azazel’s fate the sooner we can understand our situation.”
“Why couldn’t the data be extracted above Eden, commander?”
“The ark was in severe negative orbit when we returned,” she replied, “Yahweh ordered we lower it in case it burned up in the atmosphere before we could gather all of Azazel’s data.” Some of her crew nodded. In silence they each stood, even the humanoid had stopped whimpering, he had merely began to watch the towering bronze entities move about in silence with an ever growing curiosity. Samyaza touched the humanoid’s shoulder once more causing his frail body to jump turning stiff. He looked at her in stricken fear. “Do you have a name?”
“A name?” He murmured.
“What do your people call you?” He shook his head causing her to sigh in frustration. “Then tell me, what do you know of these giants?”
“They hunt us at night,” a sudden gush of water began down the being’s thin face, “they chased me here, they killed my family.” Again he turned, looking out towards the black wilderness. The commander too glanced out at the darkness, she felt her heart rate increasing and a sudden fear grip her. “They will come, they will come.” Hunching hands to knees the being curled up, whimpering quietly.
“Commander,” Ertael’s voice filtered through her headset. “I think Azazel’s data has been stored.”
“Bring it to us, malakhim.” After some moments the bipedal emerged with the cube in his hands. He rest it down upon Hermon in front of Samyaza. She frantically configured the device until pausing for a brief moment. She breathed steadily inside her bronze body suit, anticipating the sound of her leader’s calming voice. “These events took place upon Azazel’s final day here, they are his final messages to the ark.” She pressed a last digit upon the cube, surging the seraphim’s message from so long ago through their headsets.
I have watched over the Garden to the east of Hermon for as long as I can, but it is no longer safe to stay here. As the seraphim’s words filtered into the crew’s ears they each stood motionless. Samyaza struggled to listen to Azazel’s words without feeling hopeless, he sounded so desperate, so dearly in need of his kind, yet there was nothing he could do so long ago, nor she in this moment. Her mind grew more anxious with each new detail he revealed.
He died here alone, but why? Samyaza looked down at the humanoid, he gazed nervously beyond the burning streaks of fuel, away from Mount Hermon’s base into the darkness. Her crew listened carefully as Azazel’s messages came to a close.
Heaven when do you return?.. The nephilim are free, I could not stop them. The message faded, once more his final words began repeating through the watcher’s headsets.
“Turn it off.” A large malakhim nodded, immediately kneeling and terminating the device’s activity. “We will travel to his last spoken coordinates, it is not far from here. Bring the device, we will need to learn everything we can from his logs, and bring the subject with us.” The crew reacted to her orders yet all froze in their tracks as a haunting call bellowed out far away in the darkness.
“It’s them.” The frail humanoid whimpered, falling back upon his knees he began to weep aloud. Samyaza shivered, she glanced briefly about at her crew, relieved her face was hidden by a visor for she knew not if the terror she felt would have been visible.
“Let’s go, the co-ordinates lay a short distance west of here, I will calculate them as we walk, carry the subject if necessary, keep him quiet.” They nodded to her and hastily followed their commander. Samyaza paced quickly across the dark rocky ground, careful to avoid the burning streaks of fuel still raging. Her gaze briefly fell upon her deceased kin laying beneath Amazarak’s ophanim causing another delving feeling of guilt to flood her, joining the building tension that gripped her for dread of what lurked in the wilderness. “Stay close,” she spoke again to her team, inside her visor information lay upon the transparent screen. It kept her route true to the destination she sought. “We are not far.” All about them the mountain’s ever looming presence caused a feeling of imprisonment to trouble the commander. They were exposed with no direction to flee, how she dearly sought to be back in the safety of Heaven.
Away from the heat of her ophanim’s blazing fuel the chilly grip of Eden’s nights could truly be felt, yet the physical strain of traversing the mountainous region kept her pulse strong and her body warm. For several hundred more feet the crew traced entwining walkways and ridges, climbing higher and higher up Hermon’s unforgiving slopes until at last, in a secluded rocky causeway the commander laid eyes upon a natural looking entry into the mountainside.
“Here,” she spoke with excitement, it had been some time since the wail from the darkness had startled her, the sight of the coordinates calmed her, bringing some promise into a situation she could not help but believe to be hopeless.
The moonlight’s chilling grip resided as Samyaza’s crew stepped into the cave entrance. A narrow corridor was immediately illuminated by her crew’s stillots, thrusting light through the passage deep down a gently declining shaft way. “Zavebe, Ertael, remain inside the cave’s entrance, keep your stillot’s extinguished, and contact me if there is any signs of life outside.” They nodded to their leader, she returned the gesture before leading the remains of her team deeper into the cavern. As its walls grew narrower a rising paranoia enveloped her. What if it’s a trap, Samyaza? She peered back towards the cave’s entrance though she could scarcely see anything for the glare each stillot tip produced.
“Is there anything ahead, commander?” She did not reply, moving onwards through the black corridor with cautious steps until abruptly halting her tracks. Her crew came to a clumsy pause behind her stumbling for her sudden stop. Far down the narrow walkway Samyaza focused intently upon a disturbing sight.
“There are bones,” she whispered into her headset. “I think it’s a doorway.” She knelt, attempting to gain a better view of the skeletal remains. Each entity behind imitated her actions, glimpsing themselves at what the commander saw.
“It is void of organic material, commander, it must be old.” She nodded. You must go on, Samyaza. With hesitance the watcher began to hobble forward, remaining low to the ground the crew made its way towards an apparent entry into the cave’s interior. Something upon the stone seal’s surface caught Samyaza’s attention as the watchers approached, she paused once more before the skeleton, its outstretched arm appeared as though it was attempting to crawl away from something, yet had failed to escape its fate.
“Look,” their commander rose to her feet, staring curiously at the stone doorway. Engraved at its centre was depicted a being, stood upholding a shaft, from its back sprawled a number of limbs. It looked to Samyaza as though the figure was being consumed by flame. “Such crude imagery, it appears to be... us, it may be the work of the subjects.”
“Then perhaps this is the remains of one, commander.” After a brief moment she nodded before each of them who stood i
n the cave’s tunnel hastily crouched back down upon the floor. From within the enclosed way a faint light lit up the blackness.
“Shhh.” She whispered into her headset.
“I can hear you.” Something spoke to the commander, a voice she knew was not one of her company. It sounded lifeless. Turning to her crew she raised a hand, signalling them to hold their actions. “Enter, watchers, it is safe.”
“Who speaks?”
“I believed you would never return, I thought Heaven had deserted us.” Samyaza rose hastily, she squeezed herself between the stone doorway and the cave wall, stepping over the humanoid skeleton into the lit chamber.
It cannot be, “Azazel?” The commander stood before a bronze being, it was one of her kind, inside her suit she welled with a great excitement as the entity before her kneeled holding its frail arms high in the air.
“No, no, commander.” The being’s arms fell to the floor, it began to moan through its headset, “I am Rafaela,” in her excitement she had not recognised the being’s feminine voice or small frame. “A malakhim under the command of Yahweh.” Samyaza rushed to the female and knelt with her, she held her up as a new hope grew inside. Her crew followed their leader into the open space, their stillots lighting up the vast stone hall, the walls were
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