Invaders descend from the stars above.The salty tang of seawater in her mouth was refreshing, compared to the dusty lifelessness of her former cell. Black chitin hands scraped through soft sand, seeking purchase to hoist Chiro up until she sat upon the beach. Gentle waves brushed against her biomechanical armoured legs, her living suit giving stimuli while protecting her at the same time. Ptoo! Chiro spat out the saltwater from her mouth. Her body curled once more as her feet planted in the sand and forced the slender woman up to her full height. Dark eyes gazed at the night sky, admiring how the red glow of the descending Château du Sang bounced from the smoky clouds that lined the horizon. Unsteady feet pushed Chiro the Disgraced along the beach, heavy bootprints left behind. She slogged on away from the red lights of that sordid invader, towards the hospitable glow of a nearby settlement.
Far away from there, far away from then.
<ORST - PORT SOLT - DOCKYARDS>There are places on Orst comparable to jewels, precious stones and metals whose rarity was only outdone by their sheer lustre; Solt was not such a place. Solt’s mineral companion was the substance that gave the port its name, whose value is comparable to gold only through the sheer usefulness of its existence. Salt and Solt were both valuable through their ability to keep the body and world of Orst going. Barges floated down long winding canals, capillaries connected to the docks where their mineral goods could be loaded onto sleek white ships, ready to make the long journey through the inner sea to beacons such as Hōm, Knō, and Solaria. A whole smorgasbord of different species and races worked together to load these ships with goods. From humans and those who looked like them, to less common forms such as the turtle-shaped Tortan and the three-legged Gops.
Chiro stared at the sight from the shadows, her chitinous faceplate obscuring the upper half of her face while her lower half pursed into a pensive frown. The organic-looking technicolour buildings balanced upon their root-like stilts, the bridges connecting between them forming a layer of commuters above the workers in the canals. Even the blue sky felt so alien, compared to what she remembered. But maybe alien was what she needed? The complete opposite of the iron bars, pseudo-bone walls, and the cold empty blackness.
“Comin’ through!” A voice broke Chiro’s thoughts. One of the three-legged Gops, their body radially symmetrical like a starfish — save for the two limbs evolved to form grasping hands, and the five eyes merged together on top of the Gops’ bulging trunk in a single radial eyestalk. They were carrying a box, a clever bit of shimmying allowing them to walk through the gap Chiro made as she turned her body around to slim down her profile.
”Ah, sorry—”
The Gops carried on without missing a beat, leaving Chiro alone once again. Hands clinging to her forearms, Chiro looked down into the water. She saw herself, and how her dusky lips turned into a smile. Yes. She could get used to this.
<ORST – THE INNER SEA – THE MOVING ISLAND>”Why do they call it the moving island, anyway?”
“Because it moves, duh.”
“Yeah but has anybody seen it move? We’re naming it based on an assumption hidden in a book in some vault in a place called Know. Y’sure they didn’t call it that as a joke? Or because they got high?”
Trudge, trudge, trudge. Ramble, ramble, ramble. Two explorers with backpacks bigger than themselves argued as their boots gained mud and their vision gained height. Officially they were here to make a deal with the local Skogatti — brutal and cunning yet wise and powerful catfolk — to get them to stop harassing the company’s trade-ships. But more than just that, the two wanted an opportunity to just look at the island. It was rare that people managers to reach there, and the bountiful purple forests were the thing of legend.
Were.
Crossing over the top of the hill, the young blond boy was the first to set his eyes upon the trees. Crimson, just as the stories said. Surrounded by water that gleamed like mirrors, the trees had colourful fruits so laden that they bent the branches that held them. The lad splashed through the crystalline water, bringing his gloved hands towards the branch to pull it down that little bit lower and — snap! The branch broke, dropping the fruit in his hands. Large enough that it required both arms for him to carry it, he turned around to his sister and jostled the thing in an attempt to wave.
“I think I could get used to this!”
The unseen moon casts madness with its loathsome stare—”Chiro, Chiro of...” The woman’s voice trailed off. That house was no longer hers, that title was no longer hers. ”… Just call me Chiro.” Black chitinous fingers held onto a cup filled with some alcoholic drink. No matter what it was, consuming it did nothing — it was an act of pure habit. She took a sip from the clay cup, before looking over to the sharp-eared stranger beside her.
”Chiro, huh. I’m Donnel,” he replied. He took some of his own drink, wiping his beard afterwards in a single swift motion. ”You said you were looking for work? They’re always looking for more hands down the mines. ‘course looking at your armour I guess you might be better at the whole ‘monster hunting’ business.” There was a pause, then a chuckle as the elf mused to himself. ”There’s work all over. Can’t guarantee any of it safe, but.”
It was as if his words had summoned the devil himself, how imminent the rattling began. Chiro’s alarmed reaction was counteracted by Donnel’s nonchalant response. ”Ah, earthquake. It’s normal, don’t worry about it.” The corresponding BWOOM that rolled from some unholy horn, however, was not normal. Donnel’s reaction now matched Chiro’s, and they were joined by the pub’s many denizens that went to the edge to try and peek out — to try and see whatever had caused it. Chiro’s nocturnal senses could detect the unusual floating thing in the sky, and when the few other nocturnal denizens spotted it, panic arose from the crowd.
“It’s an Oblin!” “What are they doing here?” “This is meant to be a safe zone-!” A thousand other mutterings that turned into shouting and running and hiding as the peaceful attitude turned into chaos. Chiro gazed up at the ‘Oblin’, the warped being of a hundred hands, bringing her hands ready to form a biological blade in order to battle this beast. Not that she would get the chance. The Oblin let loose another BWEOOOO, a crying howl before the dark figure became a light in the sky with the corona of an unseen sun—
—and for a few minutes and thousands of miles around, night became day.
—and the titan rose once more.The night turning into day should have been the most catastrophic thing the two explorers should have ever experienced. The source came right from Port Solt — their home — and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that such a brightness did not bode well. Already the sister was taking out her comms unit from her backpack, matching wavelengths in an attempt to establish communications with home base. The static spoke for itself, but still she tried and still her voice got more desperate and frustrated. It ended with a single screaming ”Fuck!” The sister smacking the device before throwing it away.
“Look, maybe it’s just an EM disturbance?” The brother spoke, crouching by his sister. But his hands worked to pack his things, his actions singing a clear story for which she didn’t even need to hear to acknowledge and respond. This mission could wait. They needed to go back and find out what the hell happened, and they needed to do it now. For once they stopped bickering, working together to do a twenty-minute job in the span of five. They were already trekking down towards the beach and their boat, before the shockwave finally reached them. It did little more than jostle their hair and shift the leaves, but they were also over three hundred miles away in the middle of the sea. Their quickened pace might have been the only thing that saved them.
For the very island boomed in response.
The hurried march turned into a full-on panicked sprint, as the very earth beneath them began to shift. Down the jungle hills they ran, further and further down towards the sand and the water. The very sand sank beneath them as they finally sprinted towards their vessel, heaving together to unbeach it and clamber aboard right before the ground gave way for good.
Maybe on a better day, one of them would have commented on being the first in thousands of years to see this hundred-mile monstrosity rise and move. To see the stony skin of such a massive being shifting once more. Save for brief moment of awe that any living being would have, the only thing the two could think of was home.
<ORST – PORT SOLT – RUINS>A gasping crash returned Chiro to reality. Her body seized without hesitation, feeling the weight of the rubble covering her before surging until she broke through. A growl lurched from her lungs, her body crashing out of the debris until she fell down the impromptu mound. Running on her biosuit’s cocktail of drugs, she rose to her feet with a flip, ready to face off against the adversary — that was no longer there. Without an enemy to fight, Chiro could only lower her blade and look at the devastation. Port Solt had been undone, and it looked like nothing had survived the encounter unchanged. The lucky buildings were still standing in one way or another, while the unlucky were little more than suggestions within the rubble.
Stepping forward and withdrawing her blade, Chiro’s next response was to look for other survivors. The quiet howl of the wind was drowned out by subsequent aftershocks, but those came from far away and were thus at the back of Chiro’s mind. At the front were her vampiric senses, once used to locate prey and now used to find survivors. Chiro sniffed, tasting the carbon-dioxide from panicked breaths deep within a pile of rubble. Taking long steps, her lithe armoured form went to work. Claws grabbed at the boulders, broken pieces of wall, support beams. Anything and everything that got in the way of her finding her target — a Tortan huddled within his protective shell. But rather than steal his essence as she should, Chiro extended a hand to the cowering figure. ”Take my hand.” A pause came, before the head of the figure left the shell, looking towards Chiro. When their hands came together, Chiro used her supernatural strength to pull the Tortan free.
”Stay put, I’m going to find other survivors.” And so Chiro strode off, ready to find other survivors of this tragedy.
abel
