Risen: Darklight

Chapter 1: Impact Crater

It continued its slow path over the exposed portion of the crashed fragment for a long moment.  Then, just as the animals were starting to return to their daily routine and fill the jungle with their calls and cries, the ball of light abruptly stopped.  A beam of brighter light then stabbed out from the sphere's bottom pole to cut into the metal beneath it, sparks flying as the beam sliced through with little resistance.  Then a circular portion of battered metal was being silently pulled up and out of the way to let another beam of light extend into the resulting hole.

This light was much softer, almost gentle as it descended into the darkness revealed by the plug of ragged metal being removed.  Inside it coalesced into a smaller version of the glowing ball of light outside and drifted through the bent and broken space cluttered with debris and crumpled alien bodies.

Those it paused by for a moment, an even smaller beam of light extending out to play over the broken armored forms of the dead giants it found there.  Some had marks on them, as if they had died in battle.  Others, however, were charred, twisted and crushed as if touched by great heat and force.  Whatever had created this piece of wreckage had left its mark on these creatures.

The light with its probing beam also lingered on the burnt and broken bodies of what appeared to be giant metallic insects, most of them also bearing the marks of battle.  As did a metal giant, its body rent by a great force, found lying in the midst of the dead giants and metal bugs.  As if that discovery made up its mind about something, the light withdrew its beam and resolutely moved even deeper into the treacherous space. 

Several more times it paused to probe at one thing or another with its small beam.  Until finally it stopped by the headless body of an exceptionally large giant, half buried in shattered machinery and shredded metal.  Its probing beam found it not only was missing the head, but several holes had been punched through its body as well.  The beam lingered on the holes, and on the truncated neck before it slowly began to cast about as if looking for something on the buckled floor.

It took several long minutes of determined searching before it spotted something that captured its interest.  It was a small box, no more than twenty or so centimetres across, ten deep and another ten wide.  In the light of the probing beam, it appeared to be made of the same durable metal the giant robot bugs and the metal giant were made of.  Despite that, it was dented and scratched as if it had seen considerable abuse.

in the illumination cast by the probing beam, small status lights winked on and off on what appeared to be an access panel of some sort.  The probe played over the panel for a moment.  Then, with the same suddenness displayed by the wreckage falling to ground, the light coalesced into a human shape.

It wasn't an ordinary human shape, though.  Most of it was in darkness, as if light refused to shine on it.  The rest, however, was nothing but brilliant light.  Lines and whorls and intricate shapes make beautiful, alien patterns against the absolute black of the background, each glowing a pale shade of the spectrum in complimentary arrays.  Pale violet combined with soft blue, faded yellow danced beside muted green, and weathered red unified with cool orange to make a slow, pulsing wave of color and motion in direct contrast to the darkness behind it.

A hand outlined by lines of light reached out to touch the access panel with fingers that were more inky shadow than anything else and a couple of the lights changed their patterns.  The hand quickly drew back and the creature of shadow and light studied the small container for a long moment.  Then a sound from outside captured its attention.

It twisted to look back along the way it came.  Then in a rush of motion and light it became the ball of illumination that it was when it initially entered the piece of wreckage.  The ball of light then faded into invisibility.