This story was something I thought up after playing ALOT of Evolve. Fun stuff.
P.S. If you think you see similarities to THE-BEAST-WARDEN's We Have a Goliath story, you are not entirely wrong. The story supplied me with some inspiration while writing this. However, I assure you that both stories are completely different. The only attribute shared between the two that I'm using is the idea of a small monster being taken in by the hunters as a friend/pet/ally. More details are explained in the author's notes at the end.
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Update 05/15/15: Definitely not dead! Just took a break and am working on the next chapter and will be finished around the end of the weekend. And as a treat, I am proud to say that I finished the first piece of fanart for this fic. Just go to my profile to reach the Deviantart link.
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dialogue key:
"Hunter Talking"
"Hunter Thinking"
"Monster Thinking"
Disclaimer: I do not own Evolve (not as a franchise. Only a hardcopy) or any of its characters.
Enjoy.
(Present, forests of Shear)
He was never even given the chance to live.
The smallish form of the pale-skinned beast lay on the forest floor as the creature that smelled of burning oil made its way toward him. The last time the oily-smelling creature got close, he felt searing pain. The downed animal knew he was going to die.
(Flashback)
The scene is midafternoon at one of the colonist water treatment plants used to filter and decontaminate water for safe consumption. At the moment, though, calamity rained and death was rampant- human deaths for the most part. A Goliath had appeared and attacked the facility without abandon. Now, all of the humans were either dead or held up deep inside their safety bunkers. The Goliath did not care, it had work to do.
(One hour later- Inside the facility)
A man walked up a metal stairway slowly. He was one of the last workers still alive. The rest were down in the basement bunker, radioing for help- hopefully those planet-tamers that everyone on Shear had been gossiping about lately. Meanwhile he drew the short straw and was tasked with going up to the observation deck and see what was going on outside. He reached there shortly enough, sweating bullets from anxiety and exhaustion. He leaned against the protective railing and looked around until something caught his eye, and it made his blood run cold.
To his horror, the man saw the massive form of the Goliath devouring the carcasses of some of his now dead coworkers right down in the middle of the water plant's ground-level work yard. But it didn't stop there, oh no, because a little past the gorging beast he saw a glowing shape that somewhat resembled giant, rocky egg. For the colonist worker, he suddenly felt the bad feeling he had turn worse at the sight of the egg. The fearful man spun his head around, scanning the forests surrounding the facility and saw more similarly glowing shapes spaced sporadically throughout the landscape.
The man stumbled back inside to get back to the rest of the survivors and the radio. The hunters needed to hear about this!
Far off, but still in the general area, was a cave that was carved into the side of a mountain. It tunneled downward about 20 feet, leveled off, and stretched on for another 50 feet or so. At the end of this earthen passage was a single piece of pseudo-spherically rock that pulsed red. It was as if something was alive in there- and there was…
(View change to inside the egg)
With a start, the little body spasmed and the mind jolted to life. The newly awakened infant beast quickly took in everything around itself and began to try to comprehend- not like there was much yet. It could hardly see anything with its eyes shut. The beast tried to open its eyes, only to find it impossible. It was dark with only a dim red glow showing through its eyelids (the skin of the eyelids in infants of many animal species and humans are very thin before they mature, so just assume the monster can see a blurry image at the moment). None-the-less, everything was just so new: the pulsing of a heartbeat, the sensation of cerebral nodes sending out and receiving electrical signals from the brain, the cognitions of simple thought- it was very overwhelming. This new life had just gained a state of mind and found itself in a state barely being able to be deemed an organism by anyone as of yet and floating in the fluids filling an enclosed space- an egg.
At the moment the beast was barely more than a fetus about 2 feet long from tip of its nose to the tip of its tail if stretched out flat. The skin was still hadn't matured and was translucent for the most part with veins, muscles, and even some bones able to be seen clearly had there been someone that had been there to observe. This was a yet-to-be hatchling Goliath- one of the deadliest forms of life discovered by the human race to date. However, at the moment he was no threat to anyone. Teeth were just forming and claws were nowhere to speak of.
As he floated in incubation within the fleshy walls of the egg, the Goliathling heard muffled sounds of the outside world. At first it was mostly calm with only the occasional groan or growl of unknown origins. But then he heard loud sounds that broke through the calm: loud roars, sharp and sporadic percussions, and alarmed sounds from other things. The little monster felt slight vibrations along with crashing sounds impacting the ground. All of this went on for... Well, he wasn't sure- still being inside this egg, the very concept of time escaped something such as him. Anyways, the Goliath felt the instinctual fear of vulnerability. He had not even hatched yet and there may be a possibility that the poor creature would die to some predator that could smash through the egg's shell. The only consolation was that everything that the creature heard did not sound anywhere close to him. However, these feelings and sensations were all new and as a result, both curiosity and a sense of urgency rooted into the little guy's mind.
"Out…"The creature's mind 'spoke'."WANT OUT!" It would be the first thought he ever had.
The youngling struggled and tried to move around. He concentrated on directing several body parts at once and flailed around for a while mostly only managing to spiral aimlessly in place. This would have to take some getting used to- being alive- although there was nothing else to do, so the youngling continued to try.
(3 hours later- not that the monster knows that)
Success! Little Goliath had become accustomed to his body enough that he could now 'swim' around in the egg by using his proportionately large forelimbs to steer while using his tail and hips to propel forward. Making sense of this accomplishment, the beastie then took it a step further by placing his humaneque hands- now with small stub claws- on one side of the inside of the egg and pushed as hard as he could. Unfortunately for our little friend here, the attempt to escape his fleshy confines was only met with failure. Even while using the entirety of what little strength he possessed, the egg's shell showed to give no quarter and held strong. The Goliathling did not even manage to make a mark on the internal membrane. It would seem that he would not be leaving any time soon- not without help anyways.
Exhausted from exerting too much force at once, the little beast felt weak and dreary. He could not stop himself from losing consciousness, so he simply gave in. And as he drifted off to sleep the small theropod thought to himself.
"Soon." and then his mind slipped into quiet rest.
(Another 3 hours later)
The Goliath youngling's mind awakened once again to the sound of a loud roar.
He looked around myself only to see complete darkness. It would seem his eyelids were no longer translucent and now he was completely blind with the eyes still sealed shut. The beast tried to open his eyes once again, and again was unable to do it. He felt around himself to touch the egg's wall to keep himself coordinated, and noticed that he did not have to reach very far at all. The little monster felt around the entirety of his egg's interior and found that he now fill maybe a third of the space inside the egg. Long teeth could now be felt by his tongue and all five of his limbs had grown sharp claws or spikes. Thin, compact muscles were now all over the beasts frame. He has done some growing while asleep it would seem.
The Goliathling's self-check-over was suddenly interrupted by another roar. It was like the ones he heard earlier before going to sleep, except this time it was long and drawn out until it was abruptly cut off by a series of loud bursting noises that shook the ground. There were no more roars after that. It had just gotten very quiet. The only abnormality that the little beast could tell was that the strange percussive sounds were still heard somewhere in the distance. Other than that, it seemed that the outside had slipped back into a natural calmness like before. However, the egglings mind in contrast was only stirred up by the quiet.
"What…Happen?" he was genuinely curious to what had happened. What were all of those sounds? What did they mean? Was he in danger anymore?
That last notion sparked the creatures thoughts back to trying to get out of the egg. If there was something out there, he did not want to be stuck in this egg.
He began to frantically pound the side of the egg's interior. Unlike his previous attempt, this time the Goliath managed to tear the membrane. Progress, but that still left the protective outer layer that proved to be quite task to tried to get through. Never-the-less, the beast continued to claw at his prison's wall, determined leave his known world.
There! He felt it! The rough shell was starting to give way. The beast pressed its full mass against the weak point and caused it to crack even more.
"Again!" He pushed again and this time, he could feel a slight draft creeping in as the egg's liquid was drained out.
"Again!" With one final push, the young monster rammed into and then straight through the shell.
He tripped over himself, not expecting the sudden breaking of the shell and sprawled out in a heap on the ground. The Goliath didn't move for a more than a minute just breathing hard through his mouth and nostrils- his first actual breaths. When he finally leveled out his breathing, the hatchling pushed up on all fours and… lived. He felt the dirt and stone beneath his feet as he shifted his weight. He could feel the cool air on his back.
"Free…" The Goliath was now free…But what now?
The percussive sounds from earlier caught the beast's attention. They were closer this time
"Danger." He needed to get out of here. But how? He was still blind.
The Goliath unconsciously took in a big breath through his nose and his mind was flooded with information. He smelled everything: dirt, stone, plant, and more. He didn't know what even half the smells meant, but he could tell that there was only one way to go judging by the fact that only one direction had smells coming from it.
He didn't think long on it. The small Goliath took off on all fours while continuously breathing in and out through his nose. He got to where the smells led up, tentatively climbed the rock face, and finally fully exited the place of his birth.
However, now that the beast was out in the open, he was met with scents on all sides. He didn't know where to go. He heard the percussions yet again, and also yet again, closer. The Goliath directed his nose in that direction and inhaled deeply. What he got was a bit of the same as the times before, but this time there was a strong scent of something burnt and oily. His hearing also picked up faint calls that were different from the other wildlife. There was no similarity at all throughout. Just fluctuating growls and mewling.
Whatever they were, they were coming this way, so the Goliath picked a different direction sped and off. After he had put some distance between the egg and himself, he heard the strange calls again and notice that the oily burnt smell- now labeled 'bad' in the Goliath's mind -seemed to be following where he was previously. Could the 'oily' creature smell him? The blind monster pressed on, using his sense of smell to avoid anything that smelled alive- the 'oily' creature being first and foremost.
It seemed to the Goliath that he seemed to be losing the 'oily' as he could no longer smell it, and he hoped he would be able to get away… But it was for not.
Suddenly, the young hatchling's whole body seemed to be spontaneously constricted by something that it did not smell. Inertia carried the beast's body to the ground where he struggled to get free.
What happened? It didn't smell anything just plants, rocks, and dir-
"What?!... NO!"
The 'oily' smell appeared again, and it was right behind him with another smell that described itself as 'sneaky'- a leathery kind of smell. What just happened? Neither smell were there a second ago. It was if they appeared out of thin air! The 'oily' one started to growl gruffly like before. The Goliath didn't understand a lick of it.
"Thought you could just leave didn't'cha you bastard? Well it's my pleasure ta say your sorry hide is going to be bird food by morning." CA-CHICK!
That sound was strange. What was-?
The percussion sounds from earlier blared almost point blank in the Goliaths hearing, and pain exploded on his right flank- the side facing the 'oily' and 'sneaky' creatures. He jerked his muscles and managed to unbind himself from whatever did it. The monster took off as fast as he could, which was now fairly slow thanks to the pain he was now in. He felt liquid leaking from his body. Sounds came from the 'sneaky' one.
"Hahaha. Oh no you don't." CLICK. There was a swooshing noise of something flying through the air, followed by a pop.
Once again the Goliath's limbs constricted together, and he fell back to the ground. Both creatures slowly closed in huffing strangely.
"Hahaha. This one isn't even trying to put up a fight. Now that's just sad." The 'sneaky' one mewled.
"Yeah. Guess this one's just weird. Oh well. Just makes our jobs easier." The 'oily' one called back.
(Flashback has now caught up with present)
The smallish form of the pale-skinned beast lay on the forest floor as the creature that smelled of burning oil made its way toward him. The last time the oily-smelling creature got close, he felt searing pain. The downed monster knew he was going to die.
CA-CHICK! Here it comes…
But before that could happen, something impacted the ground between the Goliath and 'oily'. A new weird animal call sounded "Hold up! HOLD! UP! STOP!"
The new weird mewling sounded in the Goliath's hearing. It was a higher pitch than 'oily' and 'sneaky'. The monster breathed in through its nose. Sure enough, another smell had arrived. This one smelled… like nature. This creature smelled like earth and flowers along with slight 'clean' odors.
The Goliath didn't know what the 'clean' creature was trying to do, but whatever it was it didn't seem to help. A few of the percussions sounded again and he was sent into even more pain. This let out a short, pained howl. Seeming to disregard him, the creatures began to call at one another loudly.
"God dammit! Hank, put your gun down!" 'clean' growled
"Just what the Hell do you think you're doing, girly?!" 'oily' called back.
"Shut the fuck up for a moment and just stop, okay?"
The 'clean' one then started to get closer to the Goliath. His breath sped up, bracing for the moment of more pain. But something unexpected happened. There was indeed pain, but not the sharp, devastating feeling. It was a soft, tinder pain that was felt close to where liquid was leaking from his body. He heard the 'clean' one whine lowly.
"Damn. these are some serious holes."
"Caira, what you doing? Get away from it!" the 'sneaky' one cawed over from its spot.
"Didn't I tell you both to shut up?! Let me do my job!" 'clean' roared back.
The creature then turned back to the Goliath and mewled softly. He actually found it quite comforting for some reason.
"Sorry about those assholes, big guy. Hmmm. It looks like they certainly did a number on you, didn't they?... Wait. What's wrong with your eyes? Hold on. Let me get that."
He heard small shuffling sounds before he felt something soft with five digits on his head keeping him still. He then felt as a sharp, cold object cut into my right eyelid. The monster slightly panicked, but did not have nearly enough energy left to do anything about it. He just remained still and let out a low whine as the object repeated the process with his left eye. They now felt weird.
"There how's that?" 'clean' jabbered.
The Goliath gingerly commanded his eyes to open like he tried before. However, this time there was no resistance- merely a bit of soreness from a combination of being cut and having not been used before. His eyes opened and drank in the world for the first time. The monster shifted his gaze around. It was dark out, but he could still see much more than he could ever in his egg. The Goliath saw plants, animals, and the landscapes in his vision- it was very different than relying on his nose to perceive the its surroundings. He could even clearly see birds flying more than a mile away in the night sky- something impossible to achieve if he tried to smell or hear them.
"Better?"
The little Goliath stopped his wandering eyes and looked to the source of the sound. It was a creature with 4 legs crouching down on the back two and the other two hanging in the air from its upper body- one of which was still on his head and the other grasping a shiny, thin piece of rock (a knife) that it then put down on the ground at its feet. The creature was mostly hairless with the exception of its head on which there was quite a lot of long, black fur. Other than that- there was nothing. It had no scales, quills, feathers, or chitin. It was completely covered in a thin-looking brown hide that was mostly wrapped and covered by… some type of grey and blue leaves?
Goliath breathed in and smelled this creature. It smelled just like 'clean'. It occurred to him that this was 'clean'.
The small monster suddenly was very faint, and he felt the beating of his own heart begin to slow. It appears death had come for the Goliath- and so soon too. Still feeling the 'clean' one's soft limb on his head, he nuzzled into it. It felt nice.
The Goliath's heart stopped.
"Nice." That was the monster's last thought before cold darkness took him.
(Hunter's view- Caira centered)
"No. No. NONONONONO!"
Caira watched as the light faded from the Goliath's golden, glowing eyes. She checked around its body for a pulse but found none. The young woman cursed. Looking over the quickly cooling creature, she saw the large pool of black liquid that surrounded the body. It seemed that the wounds it had suffered were proven fatal and had caused the small Goliath to bleed out. The blood had spread far enough that Caira's boots were now standing in it. The sight gave birth to an ugly emotion in the medic's psyche- Disgust. However, she was not disgusted by the blood or the now-dead monster. No, she was disgusted with the failure- her failure to prevent this creature's death. "Damn it!" her thoughts shouted, but she remained outwardly calm and quiet with a frown.
Caira lifted against her knees and stood up from her crouch. She then turned around and glared her two fellow hunters with a scowl on her face. The facial expression certainly made her look less than pleased.
"Well I hope you're both are proud of yourselves... because not only did you just kill an animal that was both blind and scared, but there is a good chance you also just killed perhaps the only albino of its kind ever reportedly seen!" She spat at the men.
Abe looked a little awkward for drawing Caira's ire onto himself. Hank, however, did not look impressed in the slightest- not even batting an eye.
"You know what you signed up for when you joined this team, don't you missy? We're supposed to kill these things. Every. Last. One. That's our job. Just 'cuz this one's got a pretty pelt don't mean that it gets a free pass."
Caira looked absolutely pissed.
"Noooo. That's your job! Not mine. I for one didn't come all this way out on the Arm for shits and giggles." She retorted furiously. "I am a scientist, and the reason why I came here in the first place was to catalog the unprecedented wildlife of Shear. While you blast every monster and whatever else that moves into in the crosshairs of your damn orbital barrages, I'm trying to figure out what's behind the beast: what makes them tick. Maybe I can find what is driving the monsters to be so hostile to the colonists. How am I supposed to do that when everything you send me is in pieces or burnt to a crisp, huh?!"
Okay, so Caira is absolutely pissed. She continued- raising her voice louder by the second.
"And look at this." She said gesturing to the lifeless Goliath. "This one would have been the perfect specimen to actually try to capture alive:-" She started visibly counting the points on her fingers. "(1) Its size was manageable for transport and could be effectively restrained if needed. (2) It showed absolutely no hostilities toward either of you before you killed it. And to top it off, (3) it was a fucking albino! That 'pretty pelt' as you so called it means that its genetic makeup could be entirely different from that of a normal Goliath! It could very well hold the key to unlock innumerable mysteries that our employers- not to mention the scientific community as a whole- may have!" The team's healer listed off furiously. "And what did you do? YOU FUCKING KILLED IT! DO YOU SEE WHY I'M ANGRY NOW?!"
Hank tried to hide it, but he knew he was going to lose this argument. Honestly, he didn't think he got paid enough to deal with difficult people like this girl no matter how many zeroes are on his paycheck. He took a long drag from his ever-present cigar before letting out a smoke-filled sigh.
"Well there's nothin' to do about it now. So stop whining over spilt milk, and let's get back to the ship." He said, determined to push off the argument and move on. But before he could take even a single step, Caira walked right in front of the gruff man, raised her palm in a firm stopping gesture, and stared him straight in the eye.
"Ooooohh no. Not yet. Both of you are going to carry this guy all the way back to the ship after what you've done." She said pointing at the Goliath's lifeless form. The scientist then turned away and began walking off, still talking over her shoulder. "If we are fast enough, I may be able to get some info from it. Could even be useful. So you better make sure that its body doesn't get even more damaged, or else I may 'accidently' fry your adrenal glands while boosting on our next sortie."
And with that, Caira left the two men to openly curse at her retreating back as she made her way to the pick-up point with brows slightly furrowed and a frown set on her attractive face. Don't get her wrong. She loved her fellow hunters and trusted most of them with her life, but she was pissed at the two men she had just left- mostly for what she saw while she was with the fatally wounded monster. The look that that Goliath gave her when their eyes met just made her feel so sad when it died- not to mention when it was nuzzling into her palm. What was up with that?! Monsters have never shown this kind of behavior! It was just so... Different.
Caira doubled her pace. She had to get that thing's body onto the ship and in a stasis field before decomposition starts to set in. That shouldn't be too hard if those two jackasses took her seriously back there with her threat- a threat that she knew she was fully capable of pulling off... Yeah, they should be able to do the job. For the moment though, the scientist continued to speed off in the direction of the designated pick-up point. She wanted that stasis field ready when the other two arrived.
"I hope I can get it to Lazarus in time." Caira softly thought to herself.
Well there you have it. Chapter 1. Now just going to list a few things
Author's Notes:
-The Goliath appearance is different from a regular one (Not the picture I'm using at the moment. That is something I asked a deviantart user to use. I made fanart as I said above). On top of the fact that it is an albino (yes, the albino elite skin), this monster is much smaller than even a stage one Goliath. His back legs are shorter than they normally should be while his tail is noticeably longer. His musculature in general is more wiry than a regular goliath, but who's to say that isn't because of his size (or is it something else? Hmmm). His hide also only has spikes in areas different than usual- mostly on his tail, spine and head. To wrap it up, the dimensions are a three foot long tail, one and a half feet tall on all fours, two feet tall standing hunched over on his back legs, four and a half feet from tip of the nose to the end of the tail.
-Back on the topic of being similar to We Have a Goliath- yes, I used Caira as well, but honestly she is practically the only one that would care about a monster at all and also because of her reason for being on Shear in the first place- to finish a field guide of wildlife on the Arm (the galactic spiral arm we live in) that she had grew up reading and whose author she idolized. The chance of having a live monster to study would be a gold mine for her and I'm sure Lazarus can agreed (hint hint).
I chose a Goliath because: it is the most flexible of the monsters in most situations, it is the most pleasing to the eye (not that I don't my Cthulhu-faced Kraken), it is the easiest to believe could form a bond with humans (IMO), and finally, the Goliath has certain qualities listed on Evolves website that give me great inspiration to write about later on (either go on the site or wait because I'm not going to spoil it).
-I have not picked a name for the monster, yet. If you wish to try to give one, suggestions are welcome, although I do not promise that I will definitely use one give in the review.
So far I have:
+Darwin (from Charles Darwin)
+David (from the story of David and Goliath)
+Sig (from Frans Sigmund Luekhart- the author of the field guide that inspired Caira).
+Spike
+Ghost
+Grey
Please write a review if you liked it and want to see more.
Editted 04/22/15
Update 05/15/15 (SEE TOP)