probe’s seal, watching the craft’s legs move awkwardly, mechanically, cringing and straining to grasp a footing upon Eden’s surface. To her grand relief the vessel balanced itself, finding an even footing on its limbs.“Perhaps we can make it to Mount Hermon, Tamiel and her crew await my return.” She pushed forward upon a lever, holding onto it as the probe’s legs began to vibrate with a wild intensity.
Before the encroaching ophanims’ lights blocked out the final stars in the early morning hours Samyaza grimaced, feeling perhaps the last hope for her kind combust. The death probe shook at an inferno bursting from its legs beneath, the craft strained, blowing a shockwave of debris outwards beneath it before juddering to a stall. Her heart sank. The probe’s engines fell dead. “It is depleted.” She whispered, “we must go by foot.” There was no reaction from her leader. “Get up, Heylel!” She blubbered her words in fear, pushing at the seraphim’s lifeless body. His eyes opened yet they had faded once more.
Outside the probe Samyaza heard the encroaching vessels touchdown causing yet more debris to join the already dusty air all about them. Each ophanim’s seal hatch opened up releasing a crowd of bronze entities down to Eden’s surface. The commander knew it was hopeless to remain within her craft, it was no different to waiting for death. Without hesitance she withdrew a stillot from her back, and opening the probe’s seal let herself down between its stout legs.
Those who had touched down froze before Samyaza. “We do not wish to hurt you, commander, we seek only the seraphim.” She recognised the voice of Gabriel, one of Yahweh’s hands.
“For what reason, malakhim? Yahweh has cast us out of Heaven, what possible threat could we be to him?” Samyaza stepped towards Gabriel and his crew, through the smog left by whatever had shaken Eden’s landscapes. She gripped the metallic shaft she wielded causing it sear violently.
“Stop, commander. You are pardoned, do not change that. We come only for seraphim Heylel, please, where is he?”
“I am here, malakhim.” A great voice boomed from behind causing Samyaza to turn about. A giant entity loomed beneath the death probe, scarcely visible for the thick dusty winds still billowing across Eden’s wilds, yet two spheres glared onwards, clearly, appearing brighter than the stars in Eden’s night sky.
“Heylel?”
“A seraphim breathes upon Eden -” Samyaza heard the confusion of unknown voices fill her headset yet all was discarded by the voice of Gabriel which retook command.
“Come forth, Heylel. You will be brought to justice for your crime.” The malakhim sounded uneasy.
“What crime might that be, malakhim?” Heylel paced forth from beneath the death probe, his size appearing to grow tremendously with each step. Samyaza stared at his torn bronze life suit and the enormous scar which marked the entirety of his abdomen, she traced the wound up to his thick neck and broad jaw, up past his flat nose, to his long flowing silver hair, and amidst it all his glowing eyes which burned brighter than she had ever known. His set was truly glorious to look upon.
“You made an attempt on the life of a seraphim, Heylel.” The seraphim looked all about the crowd which stood before him.
“And you do not see the flaw in your pursuit for justice?”
“I am merely acting upon the word of seraphim Yahweh, Heylel. It would be unfair to leave to you to perish upon this hell.”
“Look at me, Gabriel,” Heylel’s burning sphere’s shifted, he glared down at the bronze encased entity, “I breathe Eden’s air. We all can breathe this air. You must persuade Yahweh, Gabriel, our kind can live on this world that we once thought to be a hell to us. Our sets can survive in harmony, if it is the experiments Yahweh finds so disappointing, he may now know, that such things are not necessary, that we can take this world as our own.”
“It is not my place to decide, Heylel. Yahweh has given his orders.”
“You need not decide a thing, malakhim. Merely return us to Heaven, and we can show Yahweh, together, that our species may have a home upon this world. I give my word to you, your life is at no risk, but the stake of our kind’s future is. Do what is right, malakhim.” Gabriel began to nod. Samyaza breathed uneasily, she felt a sudden patter begin striking her bronze suit and noticed that Eden’s sky had closed, giving way to thick black clouds that recycled the world’s waters. “What will it be?” For some moments all present stood silent.
“Kneel,” Samyaza heard Gabriel utter causing her to turn back about, stillot still searing with heat, each droplet from above which touched the rod simmered with a hiss at contact.
“Don’t do this, Gabriel,” she pleaded with the malakhim.
“Do not resist, Samyaza.” Heylel’s calming voice troubled her more than it soothed as she watched the enormous being lower himself.
“You are a seraphim!” She staggered to him and fell by his side.
“Be calm, watcher.” Heylel’s voice was hushed, he looked to the floor listening to Gabriel and his men approach.
“His words are true.” Samyaza’s headset picked up an unknown voice amongst Gabriel’s crew. “If we kill him now, Gabriel, then all hope for our kind is lost.”
“Listen to him,” Samyaza pleaded. Gabriel paused throughout another silence. The rain continued to thud away upon Eden’s barren grounds becoming thicker and thicker. Samyaza’s stillot no longer glowed, the materiel had fallen cold beneath the drenching waters. She felt a sudden shiver cut through her skin beneath her life suit.
“A new home, Gabriel.” Heylel looked up at the crew, his eyes still burning bright. “This is what we set out for in the beginning, what Heaven was destined for. We have found it. Whatever has happened to me upon Heaven, we can duplicate it.”
“The poison.” Again the voice sounded into Samyaza’s ears.
“Silence, Uriel!” The commander stood, her grip tightened reigniting her stillot.
“Poison? What poison?” Gabriel’s crew was quiet. “Speak!”
“Upon Yahweh’s order, and under Michael’s supervision, we poisoned the seraphim’s respiratory system with Eden’s atmosphere, to make it appear as though the visiting humanoid had been his cause of death, and that we could eradicate the humanoids.”
“And then simply leave? It does not make sense.” Samyaza’s mind whirred with confusion. “What could he possibly achieve?”
“It no longer matters, commander.” The seraphim interrupted her, “it is true, the subjects are violent, and they are no longer needed. Return me to Heaven, malakhim, we will be rid of these experiments, our own species can inherit this world.”
“Look around you, seraphim Yahweh takes care of the matter as we speak.”
“No, they live underground. These lands must be flooded if it is to be completely purged, using the grand lenses we will melt the caps of this world.”
“Heylel? You would destroy all that Azazel gave his life for? The humanoids are a living species, no matter their origins, they should not suffer because you... You see yourself more important than them. Still we can learn from them, teach them, our species can grow together.”
“No, commander. We seraphim will herald a new age of existence on this world. Our destination, our purpose. We have found it! Take me, Gabriel, let us show Heaven what our sets, united, can come to be upon this star.” Samyaza stood lost, staring into the unending smog, they seek only dominance over all things. Michael’s words echoed in her mind. She trembled at the realisation before making a wild lunge to move behind Heylel. The commander grasped an arm around his chest holding her stillot across his neck.
“Back away!”
“Commander! If you kill him we will never convince Yahweh to stay,” Gabriel pleaded his words, only causing her frustrations to grow.
“Be still, all of you. How many remain within the ophanim?”
“Just the pilots, Samyaza.”
“Then hear me, I will board with the seraphim. Take us to Hermon.” The crowd stood on edge.
“We will escort you, commander.” A desperation clinche
d Gabriel’s voice.
“Do what you please, malakhim. I will be reunited with my crew.” She rose with Heylel held securely in her clinch. “Do not try to stop me!”
“Let her through.” The bronze entities parted. Samyaza dragged the seraphim with her, beneath the closest vessel, and with trouble dragged herself up into its interior, Heylel still pinned in her grip.
“Go.” Within she gave her order. It was obeyed without question. The ophanim burst to life, its legs exploding to give thrust to the stationary craft. A cloud of debris swirled in the ophanim’s wake as it burst into Eden’s sky.
“I would never hurt you, Yaza.” The seraphim struggled to talk for the force Samyaza held her stillot to his gullet inside the small vessel.
“I fear you would, Heylel, that you would do anything to dominate our sets, to keep us slaves beneath your authority.” She pressed at her thigh releasing her protective visor. Pearly streams fell from her glowing irises. She looked upon Heylel with disdain. “It was all a lie, you... you used us all.”
“I could never have known that these things would occur, Yaza, I believed the experiments were our only hope, but now I know different.”
“Then why must you destroy the humanoids? They still harbour our DNA, the experiments were a success, to destroy them is to destroy the work and memory of all who gave their lives to see our kind’s future secured.”
“They are intelligent, Yaza, and