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Humanity’s arrogance has been a driving theme in story telling for as long as the medium has existed. They exist to humble the audience, forcing them to realize their place in the world; not as a conqueror, but as a humble resident of Earth.
Treat the planet kindly, and it will treat you kindly in return. It is a good moral to teach, and yet many turn a blind eye to it, continuing to extort the planet for their own good without a hint of remorse. They take, but do not give. They destroy, and pave over with their own designs.
The Earth is delicate, yet hardy. Its ecosystems can be ravaged by only a single invasive organism, and yet an equilibrium will always be reached. Humanity may have very well disappeared one day, and Mother Earth would have continued spinning without them, regardless of the permanent scars etched into her. However it seems our once benevolent mother had different plans in store…
On April 17th, 2076, rumors of an unidentified large animal terrorizing Eastern China began to spread across the world. Try as the government may to contain the information, there was no way something like that would stay hidden for long. Only a day later, it had reached Hong Kong, and footage spread worldwide.
Most assumed the videos to be some elaborate marketing scheme for a film, although that was pretty quickly disproven. In an attempt to quell the coming panic, world governments began a campaign to remove the videos and images wherever they were posted, but it was a futile effort of course. In the end many resorted to forcibly removing internet access to wide swaths of people, something they would quickly regret. Merely a day after, a similar creature emerged off the coast of California. There was a second one.
Crawling along the ground like a crab, it stood at twenty meters. While in general it was very crab-like, its outer shell seemed to resemble that of green tree bark. Atop its back was a massive coral reef that seemed to grow into its body. Rather than the claws you’d expect on a crab, it had large scythes made of rock.
The U.S. Navy countered with the only two ships at its disposal off the Californian coast, but it's said no amount of firepower so much as scratched the shell. Their attacks merely blew off chunks of the coral, which only made it angrier. The creature, at this point internally nicknamed ‘Crusercus’ sliced the USS Straughn in half, however this gave the USS Antonio the opportunity to strike at its unarmored underbelly. Crusercus attempted to swim out to sea, but with a sustained volley of missiles and torpedoes, it was dead within ten minutes.
By this time, China had also managed to quell the beast, but the victory, however, was short lived. Two more Crusercus’ stormed into the Fujian coast, and an additional two stormed the Californian coast. Reports also sprang up of Crusercus sightings in India, Russia, and Japan. At this point it seemed rather obvious what was happening: they were targeting the highest polluting countries.
The rest of what happened is pretty fuzzy beyond this point. The world descended into chaos as people evacuated and war broke out. Entire cities were leveled in bombings, but the advance of the Crusercus’ was halted once countries began digging into defensive lines. It was at this point, the second horror unveiled itself. From beneath the ground, a long serpentine beast emerged.
It was long like a snake, but was covered in thick fur like a musk ox, near its head, it had four powerful claws like that of an echidna, and its head looked like some kind of canine. In all, it measured 500 meters, but its full length was rarely ever seen above the surface. It was given the name ‘Hirsirepentes’
With the horrifying revelation that there were more than one type, they were eventually classified as a new type of organism; Behemoths. Named after the creature spoken about in the Bible, they certainly lived up to their namesake. Were it not for an abundance of powerful weaponry, humanity would have stood zero chance against them.
But alas, despite all our efforts, these two Behemoth types would eradicate over 70% of Earth’s population within a five year span. Each time a Behemoth was finally slain, several more would appear leading many to wonder if it ultimately would have been better to accept our fates at the hands of those few Crusercus’.
That, however, is all in the past now. Today, nearly fifty years later, humanity continues our struggle against the Behemoths. The year is 2125. In the decades following the initial assault, humanity had exhausted all options. Though they fought well, all of Earth’s militaries were eventually destroyed as stronger and stronger Behemoths were sent in to respond to our increasing threat level. Nuclear bombs were, of course, our final hope, despite the fact they were simultaneously just as destructive as the Behemoths themselves.
Regardless, they were launched, successfully taking out hundreds of Behemoths in the various nuclear campaigns of the 2100s. Curiously, no nuclear fallout was ever reported. Good news for us, and seemingly also the Behemoths, as some of them seemed to have absorbed the radiation into their bodies.
In the meantime, humanity has sought refuge wherever they could. Most major cities had been completely buried by the Hirsirepentes, and any place too conspicuous was sure to grab the eyes of some Behemoth. So humans took to living underground in segmented bunkers across the world. We who are left desperately attempt to conduct missions to take our planet back, and at long last a weapon has been developed to deal with our greatest foe thus far. I am of course talking about Tyranleo.
An alpha among all Behemoths, Tyranleo is by far the most dangerous threat humanity has ever faced. Its body and head greatly resembled that of a lion, but with gorilla-like arms and strong, stubby back legs. Its fur was all scorched away from a decade of brutal military assaults, but its scaly black skin remained completely unscratched. When fully stood up on its hind legs it stands at a terrifying fifty meters, and leaves nothing but destruction in its wake whenever it reaches a human settlement.
Tyranleo was first sighted in 2113 when it obliterated the entirety of Manhattan with a blue beam it spit from its maw. New York city was humanity’s last bastion, the largest and most well defended place on Earth for decades. And in a single night, this tyrant reduced it to nothing more than rubble, laying waste to most of the world’s remaining navy as the ships stationed there either attempted to avenge their comrades, or flee the scene.
Over the next several years, it would be humanity’s sole enemy, as all other Behemoths ceased hostility. Despite this, nothing could even put a dent in its hide, not nukes, avalanches, elaborate pit traps. Nothing. It seemed for a time as if humanity was finally finished after holding their ground for decades. That was, until it was revealed a group of scientists devised a weapon that could use Tyranleo’s own power against it.
Now, here I stand a few miles from the coast in what was once called Chennai, India. Tyranleo swims on the surface, making it relatively easy to track despite the fact it shot most of Earth’s satellites out of orbit.
On my back is a massive pack that contains the weapon that should be able to kill it. I don’t have much time, so I start setting it up. It’s too big to carry, so it was designed in a modular fashion so it can be taken apart. Each piece locks or screws into place and all together it resembles a large machine gun with three legs sticking out. There are three loud bangs as each leg shoots out a rod that anchors it into the ground.
The massive beast emerges from the sea and begins to make its trek on land to its destination. It doesn’t even notice I’m here. I stick my hand into a little compartment within the gun and grab a hold of the trigger deep inside it. A mechanism clamps down onto me, poking me with needles and draining my blood.
“Approved,” the machine announces, as the barrel starts spinning.
I take a deep breath. “It’s time for us to take our planet back.”
Tyranleo finally shifts its gaze to me.
“Humanity has lived in your shadow for too long! Humanity always has, and will continue to, make mistakes… But despite it all… WE. WILL. PREVAIL!”
The beast’s mouth begins to glow.
“Mother Earth… we have desecrated you for so long. Taken advantage of the kindness you have bestowed upon us for thousands of years. Perhaps you’re only doing this to protect yourself. And for that… I’m truly sorry. But we humans also have our own lives to protect. I only hope that in the future we can finally coexist in perfect harmony.”
A massive blue beam is unleashed from Tyranleo’s mouth, rocketing towards me in an instant. A horrible noise rings out, nearly deafening me as the beam collides with a force field produced by the weapon.
“Life Force shield successfully engaged.” It announces.
No doubt I’m being watched by dozens if not hundreds of people by now, all waiting to see if their weapon will truly work. All waiting to see if their hero can actually pull it off.
“Heh… That’s what I’ve been WAITING FOR!”
The force field pulses, and begins draining the energy from Tyranleo’s own beam, absorbing it into the main reactor. The ground in front and behind me is melted down into a fine liquid and blown away, yet I stand triumphantly on the edge of a new dawn.
“Energy absorption at fifty percent… seventy percent… ninety percent. Firing sequence initiated.” The gun tells me.
Tyranleo stops its assault, realizing it’s not working. One can’t help but wonder what thoughts (if it even can have thoughts) it’s thinking in this moment.
“Humanity has walked alongside the Earth in her shadow for so long. Try as we may, the one thing could never truly hope to conquer mother nature herself. But now in this very moment, everything is about to change!” I pull back on the trigger within the gun, and the barrel lights up with a vibrant azur glow. “This is for everyone you’ve killed, Tyranleo! This is for all the people the Behemoths ever hurt! This is for… ALL OF HUMANITY!”
A blinding light bursts forth from the tip of the gun, melting the barrel as it flies through it towards its target. All of the energy from the Behemoth’s beam, condensed down into a singular point no larger than an apple seed impacts the tyrant causing an explosion large enough to quite literally be felt all around the world.
And when the light fades, and the dust settles… All that remains of Tyranleo is a charred torso. The gun releases my hand, and I collapse onto the ground. A military helicopter will be here any minute to pick me and the gun up, but for now I just get to lay down and watch the sun set.
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The gentle coastal breeze is so soothing.
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The sunset is so beautiful.
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The crashing of the waves is a bit too violent for my tastes, but they’ll calm down in time.
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The earth begins to shake.
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The waves become stronger.
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I hear a distant, echoed roar.
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From the sea, I watch as Tyranleo reemerges.
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But its corpse is still there?
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Another one.
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Another Tyranleo emerges from the sea.
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And then another.
There were three of them all along?
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The ground trembles as the pair make their way onto shore, and curiously sniff at the corpse.
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One of them begins to charge up their energy beam. It seems I am going to die.
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Ah, but I completed my mission. The helicopter will be here soon.
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It should have been here by now, the base was only about five minutes out via helo. It should have picked me up long before these two even arrived.
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That is unless they never intended to pick me up in the first place.
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But that doesn’t seem right, I was the hero.
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My eyes glance over towards the Behemoth, it’s about to shoot.
The beam is finally released.
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Did I make a mistake?
Did we humans make a mistake?
Would the losses have been minimal if we had never fought back in the first place?
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I don’t know.
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Everything’s starting to fade.
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It’s so hot.
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The wind is so fierce…
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The waves won’t stop roaring…
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Ah, but the sunset.
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The sunset is so beautiful…
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