Eon

Chapter 21

The morning sun washed out all the colors of the planet so that it was as if all things were simply footprints on canvas, with no redeemable aspects but that of the birthing represented by the artist. Defiant trees of the forests lifted their heads towards the sky and cried out with their branches full of bristles and needles. They are tipped with the light of the sun, and when they move the trees look as if they are on fire, reflecting the heat of the world effortlessly. There are mountains in the distance and they are white and sometimes they are not, red splotches of plants and animals moving along them like veins pulsating underneath thin skin. And then there are the plains, drifting underneath the wind which sung, calling out to the coming dawn.

In the midst of this dance are four ships, one silver like a bullet, the others gleaming gold underneath the rays of the sun. They sat transfixed, like patient priests waiting.

There was a quiet anxiety in the air. It drifted alongside the ships and the dawn, a seething knowing. This uneasy tranquility was disturbed by churning underneath one of the golden ships. From within the metallic technology came a creature, an alien, clothed in the same skin of its ship but lacking a helm in which to obscure its intentions.

The Cask was unarmed. It walked to the planet's surface, passing over the sleek ramp which punctured good soil. The Cask turned toward the dawn and sneered with its ugly face, a wrinkled hide with relentless ambition.

The wind picked up a peculiar momentum as the Cask marched over the grasses of the plains. The alien walked a few more paces and then turned towards the mountains and the forests before him. It itched its stubby, trunk-nose as it closed its black eyes. It opened its eyes and searched for something on the horizon but saw nothing and so it simply stood there.

The Cask was about to return to its ship when it spotted something in the distance. At first the alien believed it was nothing more than another strange animal. On closer inspection the Cask realized its mistake and hurried back up the ramp and then was consumed by the ship.

A siren pierced the shroud. At first it was no more than a mere hum, but soon it began to grow louder until it was screaming and nothing else can be heard but the siren. A minute passed and then hundreds of Cask aliens poured out of the ship, filtering out like ants, their heads terrible and gleaming. They unearthed strange machines that were similar to the cycles of the Insurgent humans, horrible things that bellowed fire when prompted. Other machines arrive, great mechanical armors that move by themselves with the heads of Cask soldiers poking out from behind the machine's encased insides.

The nearby Chinese ship opened itself as well. More metallic men revealed themselves, but these ones were smaller and had red eyes. In the midsts of the procession was Commander Zhou, who looked on at the mobilized Casks with a passive face. He clasped his hands behind his back as he approached the aliens who he had signed a agreement with and now hated himself for that decision for he was ever aware that nothing came without a price, not even planets.

A Cask commander with a horned helm approached Zhou. Zhou watched as the horrible, wrinkled mouth of the thing curved into a smile underneath metal.

"What's happening?" Zhou asked.

The Cask motioned towards the mountains. Down the ravine and into the plains was a black cloud, pressing ever forward. Upon closer inspection Zhou realized that the cloud was not a cloud at all, but a moving body of peoples marching towards their position.

Zhou remained pensive. "The natives?"

The Cask and his hollow eyes were horrible then for Zhou knew the creature's true intentions were hidden well.