Blood In The Desert:

Terrifying New Force Unleashed On Atlas Haven!

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We have just had a report from an anonymous miner regarding the incursions.

It indicates that horrifying new forces are being sent against us.

 

I shouldn’t have been out there alone, but I like my own company.

I mean, I used to.

Now I only feel safe in a crowd.

[Pause]

It was dusk.

I was out mining between Hadesheim and Atlas Haven.

There’s only sand dunes out there.

But the night creatures were out that night, clicking and chirping away in the long grass.

I could see the White Needle pointing up over a dune. Beautiful and ghostly, like a shard of moonlight. Who would have thought something so beautiful could cause such trouble?

[Pause]

Anyway.  

I was busy priming a probe when I had a weird feeling.

Something wasn’t right.

I stood still and listened.

Nothing. Not a peep.

Those bloody night creatures usually babble to each other all night long.

Now they were silent.  

It was like they were all holding their breath. Afraid to draw attention to themselves.

And suddenly I didn’t want to be alone out there.

In the gathering darkness.

I started running back.

Jumped in my Sleipnir and started fumbling with the controls.

But they didn’t respond.

Then a movement caught my eye.

Multitudes of search lights were piercing the night sky. And then a mass of deep, heavy crunching sounds. All synchronised. All getting closer

Marching?

It made the earth shake.

I started panicking. Frantically tried to dig a hole in the sand.

Anything to get away.  

Just then it crested the dune.

The first I saw of it was the great hook coming out of its back, twitching angrily back and forth and pulsing in the darkness with a strange, red glow. Despite the imminent danger a strange thought jumped into my brain. I remember thinking that the light in its ‘hook’ had a special, vital quality to it. Like light filtered through living blood. The kind of light you get when you cover a lamp with your hand.

Then up came the long, articulated neck and the bulbous growth of a head, dipping and swaying like a cobra about to strike.

And of course its one eye, shining through the darkness like a headlamp.
 
That eye saw me.

And it knew I was afraid.

[Pause]

After a few strides it stood barely 3 metres away.

At four times my height, it towered above me.

Beyond its huge bulk I could dimly make out the shapes of hordes of others.

They were slowly positioning themselves along the ridge of the dune.

It seemed as though a theatre had been formed.

And I was the show.

[Pause]

I snatched my pistol from my pocket and levelled it at the bastard.

It let me fire off a few rounds. For amusement, probably.  

Then it stretched out its long, thin talons towards me and picked me up by the ankle.

It let me dangle a while, like a fish on a hook.

Then it stretched out its other ‘hand’.

[Long Pause]

I heard somewhere that there are three bones in the human thumb. The first and second phalanx, and the metacarpal bone.

[Pause]

It broke all three in both my thumbs.

Slowly.

One after the other.

Then as I was screaming it tore them clean off.

While I was wailing it held them close to its eye, like it was studying them.

Like a human would examine an insect’s wing under a microscope...

[Pause]

 

Finally, it dropped me.

I stumbled over to the Sleipnir. By this time I was blubbering like a baby.

I tried to wrestle with the controls but my hands were wet and slippery with bright blood. I was losing consciousness. Every contact with the controls shot waves of pain into my broken, mutilated hands.

The controls remained unresponsive.

Then suddenly it stretched up his neck towards the sky. The rest of them followed suit.

The red pulse inside them began to change to a searing, white light. It grew in intensity till it was so powerful it was like being in the centre of a nuclear explosion.

I shut my eyes against it as best I could.

When I opened them I was half blind.

I started punching the controls again.

And suddenly they responded.

I somehow managed to rev her up, feeling the craft lift as I switched her into auto.

I glanced back.

They were marching again. In formation. Following behind the one that tortured me.

[Long Pause]

I’ve thought about it a long time. I can only think of one explanation.

He had his bit of fun with me.

But then he thought better of it.

Instead, he wanted to send me back with a message.

They’re coming.

And this time, they’ve got a Warlock Commander.

=========

The interviewee asked us to implore colonists to be on the defensive in the Atlas Haven Area this weekend.

Once again, it seems it is up to the colonists to defend our beloved Calypso.