Unfiltered golden and crimson light dwindled down the otherwise abandoned street. Cracks lined the unkempt pavement, sprawling all the way up and down Maple Drive. From these cracks, small weeds began to grow up from an unseen source. Dust had settled in this street, as it had seen very little in the ways of Human traffic for some years now. In truth, the entirety of the Planet matched the unsightly street.
Factor was once a colonized world far out in the reaches of Space, twice as far from Earth, Humanity's homeworld. It bustled with a healthy populace, and twice as much revenue due to it's almost limitless supply of Diamonium; a metallic alloy that was tougher than diamond, but had the consistency that shifted from liquid to solid and back, in but a matter of seconds.
How this change came about was an enigma to Kris. Who at the time, was scrambling up the sidewalk. Behind her, the concrete groaned and cracked further, the ground beneath it quaking under the weight of some massive object.
The mining empire world that was Factor, however, had crumbled in less than a week, however. Kris was only five at the time it had happened, but she recalled the chilling experience every single day of her life. Ducking into an alleyway, she dove behind an abandoned dumpster, red with rusting. Hurriedly, she took a silver can off of her belt and sprayed it liberally over herself.
Her heart thumped in her chest with the ferocity of a tribal drum, turning her gaze around the dumpster. It waited for her. Steel colored, leathery skin adorned the bipedal creature. Standing at a fearsome twenty feet, the beast clenched it's clawed hands into massive fists. The loose skin on it's neck swayed back and forth, much like the extra flesh on a reptile. This skin, unlike the rest, however, glowed a terrifying orange and red.
Suddenly, the beast crouched, adapting a pose on all fours. She could hear it's powerful lungs sucking in the local oxygen. It crept forward, animalistic growls forming in it's throat. Resting her back against the dumpster, Kris held her arms tightly to her torso. Her breathing slowed as she saw it's head, easily the size of her torso, poked around the dumpster.
She flinched as it exhaled suddenly, attempting to steal another breath. Kris held her breath, eyes staring with fear at the beast. A single beady eye, hidden well within the beast's armored skull, scanned for movement. It opened it's massive maw, a line of teeth showing themselves on both of it's monstrous sized detached mandibles.
Suddenly, it took to it's hind legs, it's attention took to the skies above it. With a snarl, the beast smashed it's left fist against the brick wall across from Kris. Dust and rubble settled beside her, as she cowered from the bits of brick. The Monster beat it's chest in a primal fashion, it's club like tail swinging like a spiked baseball bat behind it.
With a mighty roar, the hiss of a flamethrower filled the air just above Kris' head, the beast letting loose a stream of flame directly into the air above the creature. Grasping at it's own head, the Monster grabbed the dumpster behind her and threw it down the alley further. The chain link fence crumpled under the weight of the dumpster. Kris remained silent, as her head suddenly hit the concrete beneath her.
The Monster continued to roar in frustration, before sprinting out of the alleyway and back into the street. Kris sighed with relief at the can on her belt. Something she had brewed at home, it seemed to mask her scent from the Monsters. With a grimace, she sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
Standing, she looked at the opening the Monster had so kindly left for her. Dusting herself off, she gave one last look behind her, before quickly making her way over to the destroyed chain-link fence. Clambering over it, she thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't encountered one of the other species of Monsters.
Her parents had once told her of the time before Factor became overrun with these beasts. How they had been humble miners, harvesting the Diamonium for Ebonstar's interplanatary colonization procedure. It all started during the Darwin Meteor Shower, a blue meteor had crashed upon Factor.
At the far end of the alleyway, Kris quickly scanned the adjacent street in front of her. The sun was already on it's way down, and it was extremely dangerous for her to be out at night. Many of the predatory beasts that were native to Factor came out at night. Had this been before the fall of Factor, perhaps this wouldn't have been an issue, unfortunately for Kris, it was.
Her eyes fell to her right immediately, where a much larger variation of the Monster she had just escaped roared. It's hands clenched into fists, as fire erupted from it's mouth. Beating it's chest, the Monster roared as the Monster that she had just escaped, approached. Strangely enough to her, however, the beast exhibited an air of modesty in the presence of the bigger Monster.
It stood easily three times the height of the smaller Monster. The massive beast roared, before grabbing the smaller, easily younger Monster in it's massive clawed hands. With a terrifying growl, and shriek from the younger one, Kris watched as it was decapitated first, before the bigger creature consumed it.
Quickly and quietly, she stayed to the shadows the buildings offered, and made her way west. She had been a prisoner of this Monster infested world for some time. Fifteen years, to be precise. Her and her parents had been quick to adapt to the ways of avoiding Monsters.
Ebonstar had initiated a global evacuation campaign for Factor, but without the proper knowledge on these beasts, it fell rather short. Several thousand people had managed to get on the ship as it narrowly escaped, the other million or so, however, became food to these abominations.
One thing that Kris had noticed, when she was old enough to forage for herself, was that these Monsters evolved at an extremely rapid rate. The Monster she had just witnessed was at the end of it's evolutionary line, while the one that had harassed her in the alleyway was merely the first stage.
She had also learned that many other variations of Monsters existed on Factor now, beside the Goliath species. She had heard her father name the beasts, after the character within the Bible. She preferred them to the other, unnamed monstrosities that ran rampant across the world.
Once Kris was content that she was outside of the Goliath's earshot, she made a dead sprint for the forest's edge. It wasn't too far from her current position, as the sun had finally finished setting by the time she arrived. Her home wasn't very homely, in fact, it was a re -purposed cave at the outskirts of Elicia City.
She had lived there for five years now, following the visceral slaughter of her family. Once holed up within the Ebonstar mining facility, one of the other variations of Monsters had come. It's skin was a sickening purple and black, with scythes for arms. Her mother, Lucy, had been snatched by the Monster's smaller two arms, and dragged into the mines in a heartbeat.
Her father had resolved to pursue the beast, arming himself with some old Ebonstar Security weapons, and with a few others, descended into the mine. They never returned, and Kris had always assumed the worst.
Shaking the thought from her mind, Kris sat on the crudely made chair in front of her. When she had first discovered it, she had assumed that she would only last for a few nights at the most. To her surprise, however, none of the Monsters had bothered to check the cave.
It was one night, however, that one of the Goliath species was found sniffing outside of the cave. It had managed to get it's head inside the mouth of the cave, but had immediately retreated. Kris had deduced that the luminescent fungus growing inside of the cave seemed to mask her scent, or provided an unsavory scent that Goliath's didn't like.
Needless to say, Kris immediately took it for a test run. A local Trapjaw had been looming the area. She had designed a necklace of the fungus for the Trapjaw, and sent it towards the center of the city. To her amazement, the Goliaths, whom had claimed the center of Elisia City as their territory, did not bother the Trapjaw.
After that, she used her spare time to manufacture an aerosol version of the fungus. Holding her hand over the silver can, she placed it on her makeshift workbench. Running a hand through her messy red hair, she laid down on her hammock.
Usually, she did not dare venture to the center of the City for supplies. However, an Ebonstar broadcast searching for other survivors had appeared during her morning scavenge, and she had no way of contacting them. Well, with the exception of Harlowe Tower, located directly in the middle of the City.
It was an Ebonstar relay facility, where Ebonstar personnel would contact the outside world in case of an emergency. Instead of her usual foraging, she opted to make the nearly suicidal trip to the relay tower. She attempted to answer the message to the best of her ability, but received only static.
She cursed herself for not bringing the radio from the house she had been rummaging through, but remained faithful that her message would be found. She closed her eyes with a somber sigh, before drifting off to sleep.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Kris awoke with a start, she had no means of telling the time, besides the lack of light outside of her cave home. Reflexively, she reached out for her silver can. She heard thumping outside of the mouth of her cave.
It was one of the Monsters, there was no doubt about that. She reached up to one of the mushrooms, before plucking it and rubbing it quickly over her exposed skin, spraying her clothes liberally again.
Suddenly, a light filled the area outside of her cave, as a stream of fire erupted towards the almost unseen monster.
"I've got fire on this one!"
The voice was foreign to her, but it had been the first human voice she had heard in over five years that wasn't a recording. He had an exotic accent, one that she was certain she had never heard once before.
"Preparing healing field!"
A woman's voice echoed into her cave, crunching of leaves and sticks beneath her boots. The Goliath roared in pain, as the fire glanced across it's torso. It recoiled, fists clenched. Kris crept to the mouth of the cave to investigate.
A muscular man in crimson red armor stood before her, large cumbersome tubes of chemicals rested on his back. A majestic stream of fire erupted from above his left fist, licking at the Goliath's chest. She couldn't see much more beyond that, the fire of his flamethrower causing an eclipse effect around him.
A woman stood behind him, a grenade launcher resting in her hands. Every few seconds, when she wasn't reloading the weapon, she was firing at the Goliath's face. A man stood behind both of them, a glowing blue ball in his right hand.
He tossed it at the Goliath, the beast's movements became slow and lethargic as a result. To Kris' right, she heard a deceptively loud buzzing. Turning to face the source of the noise, a brilliant red stream of energy shot towards the Goliath's chest. The Goliath writhed in pain, before the first man's flamethrower broke through it's armor like hide, burning the beast alive.
The Goliath roared once, stumbling a few steps forward, before falling flat on it's face. Kris sighed with relief, as the four Humans turned to her, weapons drawn.
"AH!" Kris yelped, holding her hands up. "Don't shoot!"
"Hold your fire!" the man to her right barked, stepping forward.
He reached to his right shoulder, clicking on an ambient light mech. The small orb of light hovered in the air between the humans, illuminating all of them.
"Oye, she's just a pup." the man with the flamethrower said. "Ow'd you manage to stave off these hell beasts anyway?"
"Give her some space." the other man, who held a six shooter in his hand, replied. "After that bout of ass kickin', I'd say she's probably frightened."
The man to her right, however, shook his head with a sigh. His eyes were the first thing Kris focused on. Brown, they were filled with a level of sorrow she could relate to. Ruffling his yellow jacket off, he wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked, as he patted the jacket's shoulders, after helping her into it.
"Yes."
"Glad to hear. Are there others?"
"No."
"Damn." the man sighed. "Don't you worry, we'll get you out of here. Bucket, bring the Laurie-Anne."
Factor was once a colonized world far out in the reaches of Space, twice as far from Earth, Humanity's homeworld. It bustled with a healthy populace, and twice as much revenue due to it's almost limitless supply of Diamonium; a metallic alloy that was tougher than diamond, but had the consistency that shifted from liquid to solid and back, in but a matter of seconds.
How this change came about was an enigma to Kris. Who at the time, was scrambling up the sidewalk. Behind her, the concrete groaned and cracked further, the ground beneath it quaking under the weight of some massive object.
The mining empire world that was Factor, however, had crumbled in less than a week, however. Kris was only five at the time it had happened, but she recalled the chilling experience every single day of her life. Ducking into an alleyway, she dove behind an abandoned dumpster, red with rusting. Hurriedly, she took a silver can off of her belt and sprayed it liberally over herself.
Her heart thumped in her chest with the ferocity of a tribal drum, turning her gaze around the dumpster. It waited for her. Steel colored, leathery skin adorned the bipedal creature. Standing at a fearsome twenty feet, the beast clenched it's clawed hands into massive fists. The loose skin on it's neck swayed back and forth, much like the extra flesh on a reptile. This skin, unlike the rest, however, glowed a terrifying orange and red.
Suddenly, the beast crouched, adapting a pose on all fours. She could hear it's powerful lungs sucking in the local oxygen. It crept forward, animalistic growls forming in it's throat. Resting her back against the dumpster, Kris held her arms tightly to her torso. Her breathing slowed as she saw it's head, easily the size of her torso, poked around the dumpster.
She flinched as it exhaled suddenly, attempting to steal another breath. Kris held her breath, eyes staring with fear at the beast. A single beady eye, hidden well within the beast's armored skull, scanned for movement. It opened it's massive maw, a line of teeth showing themselves on both of it's monstrous sized detached mandibles.
Suddenly, it took to it's hind legs, it's attention took to the skies above it. With a snarl, the beast smashed it's left fist against the brick wall across from Kris. Dust and rubble settled beside her, as she cowered from the bits of brick. The Monster beat it's chest in a primal fashion, it's club like tail swinging like a spiked baseball bat behind it.
With a mighty roar, the hiss of a flamethrower filled the air just above Kris' head, the beast letting loose a stream of flame directly into the air above the creature. Grasping at it's own head, the Monster grabbed the dumpster behind her and threw it down the alley further. The chain link fence crumpled under the weight of the dumpster. Kris remained silent, as her head suddenly hit the concrete beneath her.
The Monster continued to roar in frustration, before sprinting out of the alleyway and back into the street. Kris sighed with relief at the can on her belt. Something she had brewed at home, it seemed to mask her scent from the Monsters. With a grimace, she sat up, rubbing the back of her head.
Standing, she looked at the opening the Monster had so kindly left for her. Dusting herself off, she gave one last look behind her, before quickly making her way over to the destroyed chain-link fence. Clambering over it, she thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't encountered one of the other species of Monsters.
Her parents had once told her of the time before Factor became overrun with these beasts. How they had been humble miners, harvesting the Diamonium for Ebonstar's interplanatary colonization procedure. It all started during the Darwin Meteor Shower, a blue meteor had crashed upon Factor.
At the far end of the alleyway, Kris quickly scanned the adjacent street in front of her. The sun was already on it's way down, and it was extremely dangerous for her to be out at night. Many of the predatory beasts that were native to Factor came out at night. Had this been before the fall of Factor, perhaps this wouldn't have been an issue, unfortunately for Kris, it was.
Her eyes fell to her right immediately, where a much larger variation of the Monster she had just escaped roared. It's hands clenched into fists, as fire erupted from it's mouth. Beating it's chest, the Monster roared as the Monster that she had just escaped, approached. Strangely enough to her, however, the beast exhibited an air of modesty in the presence of the bigger Monster.
It stood easily three times the height of the smaller Monster. The massive beast roared, before grabbing the smaller, easily younger Monster in it's massive clawed hands. With a terrifying growl, and shriek from the younger one, Kris watched as it was decapitated first, before the bigger creature consumed it.
Quickly and quietly, she stayed to the shadows the buildings offered, and made her way west. She had been a prisoner of this Monster infested world for some time. Fifteen years, to be precise. Her and her parents had been quick to adapt to the ways of avoiding Monsters.
Ebonstar had initiated a global evacuation campaign for Factor, but without the proper knowledge on these beasts, it fell rather short. Several thousand people had managed to get on the ship as it narrowly escaped, the other million or so, however, became food to these abominations.
One thing that Kris had noticed, when she was old enough to forage for herself, was that these Monsters evolved at an extremely rapid rate. The Monster she had just witnessed was at the end of it's evolutionary line, while the one that had harassed her in the alleyway was merely the first stage.
She had also learned that many other variations of Monsters existed on Factor now, beside the Goliath species. She had heard her father name the beasts, after the character within the Bible. She preferred them to the other, unnamed monstrosities that ran rampant across the world.
Once Kris was content that she was outside of the Goliath's earshot, she made a dead sprint for the forest's edge. It wasn't too far from her current position, as the sun had finally finished setting by the time she arrived. Her home wasn't very homely, in fact, it was a re -purposed cave at the outskirts of Elicia City.
She had lived there for five years now, following the visceral slaughter of her family. Once holed up within the Ebonstar mining facility, one of the other variations of Monsters had come. It's skin was a sickening purple and black, with scythes for arms. Her mother, Lucy, had been snatched by the Monster's smaller two arms, and dragged into the mines in a heartbeat.
Her father had resolved to pursue the beast, arming himself with some old Ebonstar Security weapons, and with a few others, descended into the mine. They never returned, and Kris had always assumed the worst.
Shaking the thought from her mind, Kris sat on the crudely made chair in front of her. When she had first discovered it, she had assumed that she would only last for a few nights at the most. To her surprise, however, none of the Monsters had bothered to check the cave.
It was one night, however, that one of the Goliath species was found sniffing outside of the cave. It had managed to get it's head inside the mouth of the cave, but had immediately retreated. Kris had deduced that the luminescent fungus growing inside of the cave seemed to mask her scent, or provided an unsavory scent that Goliath's didn't like.
Needless to say, Kris immediately took it for a test run. A local Trapjaw had been looming the area. She had designed a necklace of the fungus for the Trapjaw, and sent it towards the center of the city. To her amazement, the Goliaths, whom had claimed the center of Elisia City as their territory, did not bother the Trapjaw.
After that, she used her spare time to manufacture an aerosol version of the fungus. Holding her hand over the silver can, she placed it on her makeshift workbench. Running a hand through her messy red hair, she laid down on her hammock.
Usually, she did not dare venture to the center of the City for supplies. However, an Ebonstar broadcast searching for other survivors had appeared during her morning scavenge, and she had no way of contacting them. Well, with the exception of Harlowe Tower, located directly in the middle of the City.
It was an Ebonstar relay facility, where Ebonstar personnel would contact the outside world in case of an emergency. Instead of her usual foraging, she opted to make the nearly suicidal trip to the relay tower. She attempted to answer the message to the best of her ability, but received only static.
She cursed herself for not bringing the radio from the house she had been rummaging through, but remained faithful that her message would be found. She closed her eyes with a somber sigh, before drifting off to sleep.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Kris awoke with a start, she had no means of telling the time, besides the lack of light outside of her cave home. Reflexively, she reached out for her silver can. She heard thumping outside of the mouth of her cave.
It was one of the Monsters, there was no doubt about that. She reached up to one of the mushrooms, before plucking it and rubbing it quickly over her exposed skin, spraying her clothes liberally again.
Suddenly, a light filled the area outside of her cave, as a stream of fire erupted towards the almost unseen monster.
"I've got fire on this one!"
The voice was foreign to her, but it had been the first human voice she had heard in over five years that wasn't a recording. He had an exotic accent, one that she was certain she had never heard once before.
"Preparing healing field!"
A woman's voice echoed into her cave, crunching of leaves and sticks beneath her boots. The Goliath roared in pain, as the fire glanced across it's torso. It recoiled, fists clenched. Kris crept to the mouth of the cave to investigate.
A muscular man in crimson red armor stood before her, large cumbersome tubes of chemicals rested on his back. A majestic stream of fire erupted from above his left fist, licking at the Goliath's chest. She couldn't see much more beyond that, the fire of his flamethrower causing an eclipse effect around him.
A woman stood behind him, a grenade launcher resting in her hands. Every few seconds, when she wasn't reloading the weapon, she was firing at the Goliath's face. A man stood behind both of them, a glowing blue ball in his right hand.
He tossed it at the Goliath, the beast's movements became slow and lethargic as a result. To Kris' right, she heard a deceptively loud buzzing. Turning to face the source of the noise, a brilliant red stream of energy shot towards the Goliath's chest. The Goliath writhed in pain, before the first man's flamethrower broke through it's armor like hide, burning the beast alive.
The Goliath roared once, stumbling a few steps forward, before falling flat on it's face. Kris sighed with relief, as the four Humans turned to her, weapons drawn.
"AH!" Kris yelped, holding her hands up. "Don't shoot!"
"Hold your fire!" the man to her right barked, stepping forward.
He reached to his right shoulder, clicking on an ambient light mech. The small orb of light hovered in the air between the humans, illuminating all of them.
"Oye, she's just a pup." the man with the flamethrower said. "Ow'd you manage to stave off these hell beasts anyway?"
"Give her some space." the other man, who held a six shooter in his hand, replied. "After that bout of ass kickin', I'd say she's probably frightened."
The man to her right, however, shook his head with a sigh. His eyes were the first thing Kris focused on. Brown, they were filled with a level of sorrow she could relate to. Ruffling his yellow jacket off, he wrapped it around her shoulders.
"Are you okay?" he asked, as he patted the jacket's shoulders, after helping her into it.
"Yes."
"Glad to hear. Are there others?"
"No."
"Damn." the man sighed. "Don't you worry, we'll get you out of here. Bucket, bring the Laurie-Anne."
