The Arrivals

The strangers have reached the perimeter of our city, we have never seen such creatures before, well of course not we believed our sphere to be the only inhabitable one in the great sky, and that we are the only blessed ones, yet here in our midst this has happened. Our Praetor is with his council now, they have decided, they are going to offer welcome to these beings, and I for one do not know how they will react. But I am concerned; these creatures are not like us.

“We have arrived at our destination, temporarily to be known as Planet-X. After five days surveying, study and hard marching, we’ve arrived at what appears to be a giant hive like structure, we approach with caution, the men and I are all of the opinion that we have been watched for the last day or so. This is Sergeant Kiel Hansen, personal log, December 22nd 2250.”

One of the visitors is different; he takes the front position, his colouring and gestures are different, the others are subservient to his sounds, so this must be their Praetor. Our own Praetor will surely conduct direct greetings with this visitor.

“Corporal Raeder, take five men and veer left around the perimeter of the hive.”

“Yes Sergeant, I’ll take Muldoon, Fester, Gale, Patterson and Linwood.”

“Good, I’ll head the other way with the rest, stay in close formation and close communication, we have no idea what the inhabitants here are like, or how they will react to our intrusion.”

“Sergeant Hansen! Look up there!”

Our Praetor has begun the welcome ceremony, he will attempt to engage with and welcome these strange looking visitors to our planet. He and the council will display their welcoming colours and of course our Praetor will demonstrate the most dazzling array during this ceremony, I hope our guests are sophisticated enough to appreciate such a feast for the eyes.

“Flying bugs, I knew I was going to hate this planet, the day we landed! Raeder get your men into two lines, standing and kneeling formation, there’s about 200 of those things up there ready to swarm, be ready.”

“Sir Look at the colours they’re displaying, they ain’t happy to see us and no mistake, these dudes are mighty pissed.”

“Yeah, pretty ferocious huh? We’ll give them the chance to back off, but don’t hold your breath, I doubt these things have the intelligence to ascertain what death and life is. Just plain and simple predator bugs.”

Our Praetor will now treat the visitors to the visual feast of aerobatics and high speed flying; this is a privilege and unique opportunity not only for the visitors, but for the billions of us watching this is a rare special once in a life time event.
“The big one is coming straight for us Sarge!”

“Fire! Fire with all you have, blast those fucking cockroaches out of the sky.”

"YEAH, come and feast on this baby."

The visitors are responding with what appears their own formal primitive welcome, there is sound and there is a beautiful cacophony and kaleidoscope in the skies, maybe my own concerns were unfounded after all.

“Fuck me Sarge that was too easy. Was that some sort of suicide mission? Sarge you ok there?”

“What? Jesus if I know what went on there; it was like the charge of the light brigade all over again.”

“The what Sarge?”

Hansen didn’t reply, his confused grey eyes fixed on the corpses that lay before him, and then past those and into the leviathan sized hive, wondering what had just happened here. “What the hell have I just done here?”

The collective in the hive is stunned and bereft, the billions have gone silent, this loss is unbearable and cannot be recovered, this outrage cannot , will not be forgiven. These beings, these invaders have presented their own true colours in a blunt and brutal fashion. They know not of the immense folly of what they have committed today.