PHANTASIA by R. Atlas

Author:R. Atlas [Atlas, R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2014-08-02T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6: A Memory of Hope

The village had gathered atop the highest glacier on Rockmire, a plateau made of thick rock and ice whose views extended into the mountains beyond the swamps. The slopes of the mountains reached so high up into the atmosphere that when he saw the army of Xenosite descending from their peaks, they looked as though they were running down from the skies. Thousands, millions, no, an infinite amount, Red thought to himself, fell from the cover of the clouds like an avalanche. The sides of the mountains were filled with other villages, from which Red saw flashes of energy and the fiery collateral of artillery. But the sounds and flashes of resistance lasted for only a few moments, seamlessly devoured by the black maw of the swarm as the avalanche descended towards the base of the mountain in relentless pursuit of oblivion.

The rumbling of the ground as the avalanche approached was suddenly drowned out by the same oppressive noise that Red had once heard in Professor Kep’s class, but this time a hundred fold louder — a piercing requiem that boded extermination. It sounded as though the mountains themselves had begun screaming. More flashes of energy burned, casts that filled the sky with thunder colored the planet, and the sound of heavy weaponry cut into the screaming of the mountains. But the avalanche never ceased for more than a few moments, continuing its tour de force straight through any points of resistance with sudden spasms of carnage that were so one-sided they reminded Red of the violence in an abattoir.

Then came the rain. They looked like meteorites from afar — pod shaped vessels of various sizes that flew through the sky in trails of fire and cosmic dust, crashing into the glacial swamps of Takis with deafening explosions that sent tidal waves in every direction. The creatures inside were the largest Xenosites Red had ever seen. Their most powerful breeds he guessed. They looked to be bred purposely for extravagant combinations of power and brutality. They roamed the swamps as soon as they had landed with such an uncouth level of ferocity that Red was sure they must have been tortured before they were sent down. Some had strange mixtures of limbs like wings to let them fly, fins to let them swim, and burrowing claws to let them traverse underground.

The screeching and howling of critters filled the swamps as the Xenosite took a liberal approach to infection. Red could not help but think of Avalonia in place of Takis. He imagined what it would be like if every living thing he had come to love and appreciate were suddenly converted into an unfamiliar strain of existence with its own purpose. Everywhere he looked, the writhing of creatures signaled a mass decay in the planet’s biosphere. Different species were infected one after the other with female hosts blending with each other to expand the limits of evolution while male hosts returned to their hive clusters to begin a rampant process of reproduction.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.