Enter Erebos

Post date: Feb 18, 2014 8:32:13 AM

The sun sparkled on the water as it began to dip lower into the western sky. The ocean was impossibly blue, gentle waves rocking a yacht as it set out from shore on a dinner cruise. The clink of champagne glasses could be heard amid laughter from the passengers. Meanwhile, on shore, a beachside barbeque was beginning, large speakers piping in dance music from their perch along the nearby boardwalk. Tropical birds dipped and soared through the air, their cries blending with the revelry below.

It took several minutes before anyone noticed the dark spot in the air. It hovered some distance away, up toward the eastern hills, very slowly growing bigger. After a while, people began to stop dancing, to lower their drinks and point, murmuring curiously.

The dark spot became a void in the air, like a tear in reality, growing wider and wider. It grew to ten feet wide, then twenty, then continued to grow, hanging there in the air with the diameter of several city blocks. The breeze began to change direction, pulling toward the gaping darkness, then blowing rapidly away from it again. A strange, dark mist seemed to swirl and eddy within the hole, and then it bulged outward, vomiting out strange shapes that fell from the sky to land with a thud on the sand, rolling awkwardly. Five shapes lay on the sand, two of them remaining stunned for a moment, while the other three scrambled to their feet, staggering wildly.

They were humanoid, but no human had ever had such long legs, such spindly arms, or such a strangely long torso. The faces were pointed and elongated, with widely set eyes, and their skins ranged from pale green to lavender to mocha brown. As the swirling dark portal began to bulge again, they ran, in awkward, galloping steps, making their way toward the beach.

The barbeque, at a standstill, now erupted into chaos. The dance music reverberated merrily from the sound system as margaritas and martinis spilled on the sand, sandaled feet beating a hasty retreat as the party scattered in all directions – except, of course, the direction of the huge void and the alien creatures running towards them.

The bulging disc spun outward into a cold, strange-smelling wind, filled with dust and debris. Oddly glowing sand and rocks blew outward, rattling their way down the boardwalk and along the beach, occasionally striking a fleeing vacationer. Bright, multi-colored flashes exploded outward, blindingly brilliant, and a wave of force rippled through the air. More humanoid creatures flew through the air, flailing wildly – some alive, some not. A whirling storm of dust and rocks and soundless lightning and flying alien bodies and roaring wind blanketed the entire beach – all the while a low rumbling was growing louder and louder, rattling the teeth in the heads of those still trying to escape.

The stormy void bulged again, and dark, purple-black spikes began to emerge. Something sharp, round, and massive was coming out, pushing its way as if being forced through. Lightning crackled around it, grounding into the beach in bright, chartreuse arcs.

The thing was round, about two hundred feet in diameter, like a monstrous sea urchin. Its spines dripped with oily smoke, and dark blues and purples rippled along its black surface. It undulated slightly, pushing its way through the swirling void. The wind shifted again, blowing outward from the portal and carrying with it more debris and bodies. Limp forms struck the spiny monstrosity and were impaled upon it. Others tumbled to the ground and began to crawl away. Meanwhile, the shower of rocks became a rain, some of them glinting like crystal.

Slowly, the void began to close, the bright flashes of light coming more rapidly as it did so. A final explosion of force pushed outward as the rift closed, knocking anyone still upright to the ground.

Those who were closest saw the black thing drift forward, toward the nearest struggling humanoid. It tried to push itself up on clearly broken legs, but it couldn't escape. As the spiky orb approached the alien, its body began to warp. It screamed, spikes exploding from its skin, its neck twisting horribly and its abdomen distending, then appearing to wind itself into a spiral, as if reality itself were rippling. The creature seemed to disintegrate into wisps of light and matter and lumps of distorted flesh. The orb continued to move, approaching a nearby palm tree that bent toward it, stretching as thin as twine and spiraling into the black thing's spines, then shattering upon them.

The beach rapidly emptied of anyone who could still walk, a frenzied stampede making its way along the shore to the north and south, some desperately trying to wade into the water and swim for the dinner yacht, but the yacht was making its way out to sea as fast as possible. The humanoid creatures who were still alive began to collect their companions, attempting to help those who could not walk flee towards the water, where they dove in and began to swim.

***

Miles away, the first clue that something was wrong came in the form of a strange wind that washed over the mountains, rolling down into the eastern river valleys and pushing forward toward Carpeia, capital of Elysia. The wind was swirling and strangely dark, filled with rocky debris. Nearby towns were pelted with stones, and an unsettling smell filled the streets. A tropical storm off to the northeast was swirling toward land, and the two systems were set to collide. When they did, flashes of odd lightning lit the sky, and a chain reaction of storms began its trek around the globe. Nearby nations would experience unseasonal storms of a bizarre nature, the ocean would begin to churn up strange objects and the bodies of alien creatures – some of them alive. Meanwhile, the black, spiked monstrosity turned and headed toward the nearest town.

***

Later reports would show that city buildings were left standing, though pelted and damaged by the strange storms now spreading across the globe. However, any living thing in its path would be warped, twisted, or completely destroyed. Bushes disintegrated into dust, animals turned inside out, human beings smeared across the pavement – the aftermath was horrible. The thing began to be called Erebos, and it continued to make its way slowly across the continent of Elysia, moving between population centers. Its target did not seem to be humans in particular, but anything alive. Nothing could stop it. Weapons had no effect, walls and barriers could not hold it, and no substance seemed to be able to damage it. When it reached Troli, it began to drift across the ocean to the east, moving inexorably toward Messembria and leaving dead sea life in its wake.

***

All the while, the hastily formed Global Defense Force toiled away in a bunker in northern Messembria, desperately trying to put together something, anything, that might stop Erebos. Day and night, the lab was always filled with shifts of scientists and engineers and bio-technicians – and with the strange, humanoid creatures now known as Xenians, trying to help the humans defeat the thing that they had been unable to destroy, and had now unwittingly unleashed upon Hemera.