“Still nothing here, sarge’, the place is a wasteland.” called Aranha, surveying the vast, smooth area where the team were performing yet another jittery recon mission, staring hard into the ether that seemed perpetual. It was true, these grounds were usually the hunting grounds of an enemy that the team had affectionately dubbed; Goliath. But now, not so much as a single movement on the deep blue expanse. “In any case, keep your eyes peeled,” replied sergeant Roderug, “You know what happened when we thought Goliath was gone last time?” a shiver ran through the entire team as they remembered the feeling of complete security, then Goliath leaping from the underside of the great monument. They lost four members that day.

 Vedova Nera, the team’s tactical expert, roved out further toward an area they called The Graveyard. This was a place that had accumulated a vast amount of corpses from Goliath, Mammoth, Titan and all their predecessor’s various meals. Vedova stopped suddenly at the furthermost point of the graveyard and uttered “Aw mon…dat ain‘t no way to go…”.
“What’s up Vedova?” Ragno De Salto roved over to him, cautiously monitoring the grounds around the team and the sides of the monument, as they were now searching around it’s polished white sides, with still no sign of the enemy they feared. He reached the graveyard and recoiled just as Vedova had “Aye subroso…” he coughed. “De Salto, what’s going on over there?” Roderug and Aranha dashed over to the place their comrades stood, Aranha against the wall, the sarge’s eyes in eight directions at once. Goliath had been hidden before, and he still showed no sign of making an appearance. Yet.

“Well, at least we can take them back to HQ for a proper disposal” The sarge always tried to remain detached from these sorts of situations, but the choke in his unsteady voice gave away his involvement. In a dank and dusty crevice beneath a vast pipe set into the powder blue wall, were the hollow casks of the four members they had lost recently. There was no doubt in any of the teams minds about the identity of the bodies. The legs were contorted and pushed up against the middles, the eyes were hard and dusty, the mouths agape and filled with all the dryness of a desert. As the wave of nausea washed over them, the silence was shattered by an ear splitting hiss. “Everybody find cover!” yelled the sarge, “It’s Goliath!” all of them made for the pipes, Aranha and Roderug slid beneath the metal structures, De Salto leapt high into the air and clung to the wall before turning and racing down behind the top pipe, leaving Vedova to cling on and shoot along until he hid in the shadow of the monument. Time seemed to melt away as they lay, motionless, listening to their own heartbeats and increased breathing rate. A tremor ran through the ground, almost shaking Vedova from where he clung, subsiding to stillness, but then…nothing.

After a long period of time, sarge’s call rang out, destroying the silence “All right team, we know he’s here, but we don’t know what he‘s up to. If he were going to attack, he’d have done it by now. Let’s see what the hell’s going on” the team moved slowly and warily toward the source of the hiss. Heading toward what may be a trap, fumbling through the ether, blind to what they may be approaching, each of them feeling isolated and alone even though each member of their squad were only a few inches away from them. A fearful eternity passed. Accompanied only by their own heartbeats, the team pushed further out into the undiscovered region, the primal force of flight commanding them to turn back but all the while clashing with the urge to discover the truth. And the truth revealed itself. “Break!” came the call from the sergeant, the team stopped and fanned out in accordance. “Alright team. We’re in unfamiliar territory now. Keep all eyes open, all the time.” and as he spoke, the ether cleared. Vedova, De Salto and Aranha froze. Sergeant Roderug saw the terror and turned slowly around, coming to fang level of a colossal creature. The sergeant leapt back, legs motoring, the rest of the team scrabbling left and right. But suddenly he stopped. He heard no hissing, he felt no scratching footsteps shake the slippery ground. Turning, he moved to the spot he had seen the monster.
“SARGE! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!” screamed Aranha, made desperate by her leader’s deranged actions. “C’mon guys, he’s lost it, we have to help” barked De Salto, taking active command of the recon team. The three dashed back toward the clearing and saw exactly what Roderug saw. Eight blank eyes, mandibles agape, legs contorted inwards on themselves, thorax crushed. Goliath was dead.
“What on god’s earth…” said Roderug, thinking out loud. The others just stood in disbelief.

They couldn’t stand around much longer. “Did anyone feel dat?” said Vedova, snapping out of the air of shock. They had. The tail end of a huge tremor. The same kind that had killed Goliath.

A blinding light illuminated the world.
Another tremor shook the ground.
A shadow blocked the light.
A massive clear cylinder covered Goliath’s corpse.
A sheet of  pristine white slid beneath the cylinder and lifted the body into the air.
The team scurried away from the light.
De Salto jumped behind the pipes.
Roderug ran back into the corner next to the monument.
Vedova and Aranha hurtled back into the ether.
The giants had killed Goliath.