Descent of The Watchers

by D S S Atkinson

familiar voice despite knowing her troubles were far from over, though the sound of her friend instilled in her a renewed drive. She stood with trouble, setting off towards her fleet’s wreckage in hopes of reuniting with her crew.

  “Tamiel, where are you?” Samyaza whispered, surveying Hermon’s confined terrain. In her weakened state its rigid surfaces gave her trouble with each step.

  “We have returned to my vessel, Yaza, are you okay?”

  “How does your ophanim fair?”

  “It has fuel but the legs are shattered, flight is not possible, Yaza? What’s happened?”

  “There is no time to explain, captain, gather the fuel and meet me at the ark, please, hurry.” Coursing through a number of causeways and down an array of slopes Samyaza finally recognised the metallic remains of her wreck. Her vision was low and their structures blocked her view of the surroundings, still she felt a sudden sense of reassurance in the utter bleak reality of her situation.

  Passing along the icy floor around the ark, Samyaza froze in morbid terror. Just feet away she stared into the colossal black irises of a monstrous deformity. Her heart rate began to pulse, her legs felt limp yet had become stiff, her body was unable to react for the feeling of utter hysteria that flooded her.

  The giant beast she stared upon glared back at her. It was calm, inhaling deeply through an oddly shaped nose and open hanging mouth. It looked down at something in its enormous hand causing Samyaza to pulse with dread. The ghastly entity looked back, lifting the severed head of Amazarak up. Consumed by some deep confusion it seemed to compare the two. “No Master?” The words were humanoid, so clear and easily understood.

  “No,” Samyaza shook her head slowly before the great being turned its awkward body pointing back across Hermon at a small figure which lay face down on the ground.

  “Master.” He pointed again at Samyaza. “No Master.”

  “Commander!” Tamiel’s screeching call sounded into Samyaza’s head set. With it a large malakhim charged through the crash site with stillot ablaze.

  “Back!” He yelled, stumbling between his commander and the towering nephilim.

  “Master!” The giant huffed, staggering backwards at sight of Tamiel and her crew charging from the darkness armed with unlit shafts. In the commotion the hulking giant abruptly lashed out at the moving bronze bipedals.

  “Samyaza!” Tamiel’s serrated voice was quickly subdued by the beast who dropped Amazarak’s skull and grasped her around her throat and body.

  “Back!” The giant yelled himself as each watcher and malakhim present burst their stillots to flame.

  “Stop!” Samyaza screamed in panic causing the confused being’s eyes to return to her. “Stop.” She repeated the word, making effort to sound as calm as she could. Inside her heart drummed away. “No master.” Slowly she trod, carefully, Tamiel winced in pain at the nephilim’s grip. Its eyes darted unpredictably between Samyaza’s crew.

  “Yaza...” Tamiel whimpered to her commander.

  “No master.” Again Samyaza repeated the words, hoping to keep the giant calm. She shuffled lightly towards the entangled pair. “It’s okay, Tamiel,” she whispered, “if we do not act with hostility I believe he intends no harm.” In the light Samyaza stood before the giant nephilim. She reached up causing the entity to shift. Its breathing remained calm. she extended a hand, and with the lightest touch traced the scar upon its forehead. “Behemoth.” At this word the colossal entity released a low moan followed by a deep sigh. “He is a leader, marked by the humanoids to be made an example of.” The giant’s eyes fixated upon her intensely. “Do you understand me?” For a moment she thought the entity may speak, before her hopes could be answered a disturbance amidst the crash site stole Behemoth’s attention.

  “Commander!” Two glowing spheres bounded from the darkness startling the deformed giant. The being turned sharply about, Tamiel still clutched in his grip.

  “Back!” The nephilim snarled, its eyes suddenly widening upon seeing Heylel stagger towards the light. The colossal seraphim breathed heavily, he appeared bewildered, so too did Behemoth

  “Yaza,” Behemoth shifted once more as the seraphim stepped onwards.

  “Back!” The monstrosity yelled out thrusting a humongous deformed hand into Samyaza’s chest. She plummeted backwards landing upon her side with a yelp of pain. The nephilim released a ghastly roar into the night inciting Heylel’s advancement. Tamiel flailed her arms and legs in desperation provoking another bellow from Behemoth’s slobbering jaw. Samyaza watched helplessly as the beast made an erratic movement in preparation of Heylel’s approach. In the moment a gruesome snap resonated in the air. Tamiel’s writhing body fell limp.

  “No!” Samyaza yelled out to her friend. Her crew surrounded the deformed creature with stillots in flames. “Wait.” The giant fell still, dropping Tamiel.

  “Commander?” Aided by Heylel Samyaza stood. She held her chest where the nephilim had struck her wheezing inside her life suit. Stepping forward she dropped to her knees at the feet of the giant.

  “Tamiel?” The commander reached out a hand. Laying it upon Tamiel’s shoulder she shook the watcher lightly. “Tamiel?” Samyaza pressed at the captain’s thigh releasing her visor. Again she shook her, yet her eyes had already fallen dim. The entire mountainside was still but for the flickering embers engulfing her kin’s stillots. Samyaza pressed at her own thigh allowing her visor to fall away.

  She looked up at the giant, blinking away pearly streams falling from her eyes to no avail. “Why?” She whispered. The entity stared at her through enormous unblinking spheres. It breathed heavily through its nose, still its jaw hung open. Slowly the monster leaned towards Samyaza appearing entranced by the substance cascading from her eyes.

  He inhaled rigidly, appearing to shiver, his eyelids flickered before the giant released a bizarre whimper. From his eyes a small trickle of tears fell down the nephilim’s deformed face. “Please.” He murmured. She stared at the beast. The word cut a shiver through her. Its eyes were darker than the voids of outer space.

  “Commander,” Ertael whispered to his leader. “Return your visor. You will suffocate.” From the quiet night an almighty howl broke the morbid calm. Some of the crew flinched whilst all glanced about into the darkness. Behemoth’s attention became stuck on the disturbed crew and their burning weapons. He roared, suddenly advancing upon them. Samyaza lunged backwards returning her visor and withdrew a stillot. Her breathing became irregular, anticipating what horrors were about to course from the wilderness.

  She watched Heylel charge forward in anticipation of the nephilim’s movement. “Be wary!” Samyaza yelled to her kin, watching the seraphim collide with Behemoth amidst the ark’s wreckage in a desperate grapple. Samyaza had scarcely gathered her wits before a stream of gangly bodies began bounding out of the darkness.

  “Defend yourselves!” She screamed to her crew watching Heylel succumb to an overpowering strike at the hands of Behemoth. The enormous seraphim crumbled in a heap upon Hermon’s rocky surface. Samyaza lashed out with her blazing stillot at a drooling monstrosity which rushed through her crew screaming aloud with a horrific pitch.

  Masses of great bulging pale entities charged into the light crashing through Samyaza’s company and their own kind alike. “Protect each other!” She yelled whatever words came to her mind in hopes of inspiring a reaction from her crewmates. The commander huffed, slicing her blazing stillot through a beast’s abdomen as it collided with her striking her skull. A sharp pain jarred through her visor felling her.

  Just beyond the stillot light Samyaza watched Heylel rise to his knees before a crushing blow struck her ribs knocking her stillot from her grip. Another bloodthirsty scream joined the chorus of hollering monsters who churned through the endless night. Two ghastly forms began raking at her bronze suit, their powerful limbs constricted her abdomen convulsing gasps of terror ridden breaths from the commander.

  From her headset a commotion of horrific hollers and t
he fraught cries of her kin filled her head. “Heylel!” She screamed. In the same instance the entities which mauled her were stricken away. Samyaza crawled to her stillot. She leered back to see her leader pulling tight upon a nephilim’s neck. With a savage twist of the ghastly being’s skull a potent crunch echoed across Hermon and the hulking giant fell limp. Immediately Heylel turned about to aid Samyaza’s crew. Those who still stood fought with stillots ablaze, flailing and whipping their fiery weaponry at any charging beast which encroached.

  Corralling together the bronze encased bipedals formed a circle, through a commotion of violent swings and gargantuan falling fists, gurgling screams and enormous charging nephilim the crew gathered to Samyaza aiding her to her feet. Before her eyes malakhim and watchers were snatched away into the darkness or mounded upon by the endless stream of monstrous brutes.

  Their towering seraphim struck the hostiles away with as vicious strikes as he received, yet for the smaller watchers their set could not resist. Encircled, her crew could only huddle and watch the wild beasts charge about without apparent aim, taking wild strikes and lunges, attempting to separate what was left of her dwindling kind.

  Samyaza breathed feverishly beneath her visor, all about her the whirlwind of stampeding limbs and curdling shrieks mixed amongst