Beat

Earth had become a legend of a legend, a consumption of time forgotten to the dementia of Humanity. On the last day of light, the Human Race left the Milky Way and with the crumble of its Galaxy, gave hope and chance into the abyssal void. The apocalypse of the Universe was silent, the Degenerate Era, the death of starlight. Refuge was not so easily offered by Mother Nature, only the strong survived what came, the uprising of the singularities took tribute from the old and young, trading passage and respite for those that did what needed to be done.

As the long years passed, Humanity evolved, it adapted to darkness, and worshipped the last gifts of light nature circled around the Event-Horizons of its new homelands. The slime white skin that scorned the new Human's rendered them unrecognisable to their Earthly primordials, veins pierced through the skin, retracted noses and elongated ears heightened their senses where vision had begun to lack. The Tenebrum suits came next, protecting the weakened humanoid frame from the malicious vassals of light; vicious rays of ultraviolet radiation turned from pleasantry to lethality. Humanity embraced the dark.

An airless world stages an invisible eclipse around the gravity glutton it's bound to, a tandem of cosmic bodies traversing the endless waves of a lightless era. From out of the black, three faint red glows blistered their own pockets of illuminated fury. A matching set of stygian starcraft blast the eternal night with the molten embers trailing from their engines. Dull mountains watch over the ancient fields of petrified forests, their historic fragments being torn to ash as the transports howl overhead. An intrusive quake grows from beyond the horizon, the crumbling plateau ahead raising into shards of rock and stone as another scream of unnerving sirens wreak havoc between the fissured canyons, collapsing their complexities into a ruin of rubble.

Across this planar, dust would throw itself into the anarchists' dance as the transports came to their eventual stop. The worn starships looked barely functional, their engines vomited an ashen bile as any defining elegance rid itself from this thundered landing. Each of the ship's bay doors then crashed open, digging into the fractured ground around it. Darkness cowered in the doorway, with no time to see inside, groups of humanoid figures, dressed in an array of customised Tenebrum suits rushed out. All of them would wield some form of armament, others holstering their small-arms to pull out less combative devices, another lept in front, crawling up to a protruding rock that surveyed over the land. The animalistic movements were accompanied by their squatted stance atop of this peak, their helmet's light source presenting us with a glimmer of their pale cheeks, the ‘evolved’ Human.

“300 meters!” The one above hissed down to the rest of the group as a more senior-looking officer briefly acknowledged their call. The platoon would soon head in the same direction as their scout, leaving a mix of footprints as they trudged through the soft stone. A few minutes passed before any conversed again, the same scout stopping ahead, he’d take a more cautious position; hiding just behind the ridge of a small mound, he’d lift his head to sniff through the voided air.

“What is it, Sams? What do you smell?” The officer questioned, following his example of caution as he ordered the rest to take a lower position.

“Mmph, I don’t know, shouldn’t be able to smell anything other than us on this rock Lieutenant.” Corporal Sams would respond.

“It’ll be the target. We need to move.” The Lieutenant, Kaelen, stated.

Once the whole platoon had gathered themselves along the ridge of the mound, Lieutenant Kaelen would signal his heavier armed personnel to take point. Tactically moving over, the five converged upon an unusual sight before them, the top of a building-like structure protruded from out of this seemingly desolate land. As the first squad secured their positions around the structure, the Lieutenant gave the order for the rest to move in.

“Alright, the target is in here. Sams, you go on ahead, but if you see anything, do not engage!” Kaelen instructed. Without much hesitation, the Corporal rushed ahead inside, jumping through one of the rectangular entrances. “Remember everyone, we’re looking for this.” The Lieutenant would explain, his suit’s wrist lighting up a holographic display of a small heart-shaped locket. “Burn it into your minds, and keep a lookout for the last platoon they sent...” He’d ominously conclude. Every one of the group then moved with purpose, knowing exactly what role they had to fill in.

As Kaelen entered the structure with his platoon, he felt his heart begin to throb, a painful thump as if it was beating to get out of his chest. He took a moment to catch his breath, propping himself up upon one of the walls when it would ring in response to his suits' metal plates colliding with it… It was metal? The look on Kaelen’s face spoke an untold story of disbelief and terror of what was waiting here, but the expression did not exert the expected surprise to come with such emotions, what was this place?

“Over here!” Shouted one of his men. In a loud effort, the whole group would rush down to the next level where they found him, and the Corporal.

“Ah fuck.” Kaelen spoke.

“His eyes, how’d it get into his suit? It wasn’t compromised? Shit!” Panicked the medical officer. Looking across his sprawled body, Corporal Sams appeared unharmed in every respect but for one. His suit had been left untouched, but through the fogged visor, a face riddled in horror echoed from his corpse; two bloodied holes in his face stared out into the darkness, his eyes were gone, they looked as if they had been ripped from out of his skull, strands of stringy flesh snapped around his socket in a gored mess left on his face.

“I told him not to look at it…” The Lieutenant said under his breath. “I fucking told him!” He’d almost repeat, not resisting to let his curse shout loudly for the others to hear.

“What the fuck is this sir? W-we just came here to get that shitting artifact!” One would stutter.

“What happened to the other crew? Where the fuck are their bodies?!” Another interrupted, soon joined by more and more of the group letting a chaotic panic begin to take hold and aim itself at Kaelen, his heart began to thump again, a build of stress and anxiety toying with his guts as his heartfelt heavier now, the pain exaggerating itself through his ribcage.

On the verge of a route, a clanging CRASH! Came from the other side of the hallway. Panic turned to stunned hysteria as a huge creature of the grotesque barged through the open doorway. One of its legs was shaped like a fleshy pincer, the other resembled something uncomfortably humanoid in design; it'd lead up to a mangled mess of a body, several holes blasted through the torso only held together by the braids of its viscera. Finally, the head elongated a tendril-like neck, swerving around its environment, scanning for its prey, but worst of all, the face, a stretched and disturbed attempt for something Human covered it, a failed sculpture of a God if there ever was one. It’d create a horrifying scream from its belly-belched roar, piercing into the platoon one would immediately shout. “Shit don’t look at it!” The fearful trooper would knock Kaelen from his introverted trance as he’d quickly snatch back up his rifle and command in correction. “No! Not that thing! Shoot that thing!” Another soldier all too eager to join him replying with “You gotta be fucking kidding!” And a hail of bullets.

The creature would be surprisingly easy to put down, being shredded by the group facing it as it roared into a dead defeat. Moving up to the monster, ensuring its confirmed kill, they noticed an off bit of material to the side of its torso, a resemblance to their Tenebrum suit, an insignia to match theirs. “Fuck! Don’t tell me… Fuck no!” A trooper beside Kaelen would express.

“Hmph, the other team.” Kaelen came to accept, explaining to the rest. Turning back around, Kaelen, and a few of the others would once again be forced to a frozen halt as more of their platoon would be seen rag-dolled across the floor. “It’s in here… They looked at it.” Kaelen would surprisingly calmly say. One of the group would let go a maddening scream, attempting to run ahead, never to be seen again. Above them, a wet and moist crackle would slither itself around the ceiling. “Nobody. Look. Up.” Kaelen ordered the rest of his men, as it was thought to have moved on, Kaelen would shout, “Go!”

Tearing themselves back up to the first level, the surviving four would make a break for the entrance they came in, a gargling ring screamed through the building as the squelching noise of the unknown force resumed its hunt. On the verge of the doorway out, Kaelen would be pushed back again, his heart pumped against him, it thumped in his ears, it beat his bones. As one of the other soldiers looked back, a CRUNCH echoed out as a splatter of bitty blood sprayed across his face. Wiping away the red, he’d see a suffocating Kaelen, his chest blown open… Like the creature they encountered before… Astounded by what he found, the trooper twitched one of his eyes as he saw a glimmering silver object dangling inside his Lieutenant's center.

“T-T-Tay... Tak...” Kaelen spewed. The trooper, knowing Kaelen was too far gone, hesitantly reached in to grab the silver-locket, as his hand wrapped around it, he’d snatch it out as he made a steady turn back around, running to catch up with the others.

As they ran their way back to the ships, an unruly roar echoed a terror around the land, its screech piercing their ears as another one of the monsters gave chase from out of nowhere. They sprinted as fast as they could to the transport, the first two made it safely, as the third, the locket in hand, felt a slimy paste wrapping its warped and gored mesh around him. As one tried to ignite the rustic engines, the other would try to grab their comrade's hand on the ramp, yet knowing they clambered in vain, with no other escape, the captured handed over the locket, pressing it into the other soldier's hand before letting the beast sucked him into a mutilated fury in its arms.

Escaping their torment, the transport blew itself from off of the ground, demolishing a variety of rock formations laid in a desperate departure. The two survivors rejoined each other at the cockpit, one taking a moment to pull out the locket from their pocket only to find it gone, the other looking, they’d both look at each other. “Heh, must have dropped it.” He said before they’d both laugh at the senselessness of their predicament, halted by one of them suddenly grabbing their chest, their heart beginning to throb, thumping against their chest.

As the ship would disappear into the clouds but never to leave, an airless world stages its invisible eclipse around the gravity glutton it's bound to, a tandem of cosmic bodies traversing the endless waves of a lightless era. From out of the black, three faint red glows blistered their own pockets of illuminated fury.