[COLOR=DodgerBlue][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]Ω   M I L K Y   W A Y   G A L A X Y - O U T E R   R I M:[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][INDENT][INDENT]The void of space was suddenly illuminated by a blinding flurry of lightning as the fabric between time and space was ripped apart like a once clenched jaw. The bow of a ship slipped through the gaping maw as the Hive Ship exited slipstream and came to orbit around the remote M-Class planet. Behind the massive vessel came another like it and another after that as each of the ships entered into orbit around the planet. From the surface, the humanoid populace turned their eyes to the sky as even from orbit the Hive ships were visible to those upon the surface. A primitive culture, they could not possibly understand was was about to befall their societies but yet they knew enough to feel fear.

From within the Hive ships came a deafening humming noise as hundreds of small ships suddenly exited from the hexagonal patterning on the ships' underbelly. Diving through the planets atmosphere, the ships began to fire on those below. A man reached out to his child only to be struck down, a metal prong hooking into his back as his body was forcibly transformed. Crying out to his child one last time, the man's eyes went blank as he lost his individuality becoming nothing but a drone to the invading aliens. Turning to his crying child, he extended a spike from his wrist before reaching down and submitting her to the same fate as he. More and more of the natives began to fall to this fate as a voice echoed over the planet from the Hive ships above.

[COLOR=SLATEGRAY][B]"<We are the Reach. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.>"[/B][/COLOR][sup]1[/sup]

The message continued to play on a loop as the Reach began to bomb the planet from orbit. As they had done to the populace, the surface was transformed as the Reach penetrated the surface with pillars that unfolded to cocoon the planet. Drilling to the planet's core, the Reach were preparing the world for a metamorphosis, insuring it would survive the terraforming process. As the cocoon began to spread, the planet's resources were slowly absorbed as the Reach harvested each and everyone of them. Their new drones slowly awakening from the transformation process as they began to assist the cocooning process, their new implants allowing them total comprehension as they became one with the hive mind. Descending through the atmosphere, the first of the Hive ships prepared to land as the other two departed from orbit. This world, like many others now belonged to the Reach.[/INDENT][/INDENT]
[hr][INDENT][INDENT][SUB][SUP]1[/SUP]Translated from alien dialect[/SUB][/INDENT][/INDENT]