Prologue
240 Words
High above the planet Earth, a starship dropped out of warp. It wasn’t a new ship with all that fancy, military hardware. No, it was an old cargo hauler. The engines were going; don’t even ask about the shield emitters. And the sensors? Well, they hadn’t seen any maintenance for a good long while. That was why no one noticed the creature clinging to the ship’s belly.
Shaped almost like a starfish with long, grasping tentacles, it clung relentlessly to the hull. In the centre of its massive body was a throbbing, bulbous brain that projected hideous thoughts to each of its thralls. Sickly, red light emanated from its veiny flesh.
The creature detached itself from the ship, descending into the atmosphere, using a low-level SlipSpace field to hide itself from prying eyes. Down it went, past clouds and birds and the occasional human aircraft. There were fewer and fewer of those these days.
It landed in the Himalayan Mountains, crashing into the rock with devastating force. Had anyone witnessed that horrible impact, they would have assumed that it was dead. Especially when it failed to move for several minutes.
But then the creature rose.
Its tentacles dug into the rock as it crawled along the mountainside, each blow striking with a c***k of thunder. After a short search, it found a cave and slipped inside. That would do nicely for a base of operations.
Now, the work could begin.
- Writer
