The inky black night—like a ravenous plague—swallowed the canyon and jungle whole.
Stars scattered across the sky like distant, cold pinpricks, while a dark, writhing shadow from the cosmos slithered between valleys and woods—an immense, terrifying single eye glowing faintly in the darkness.
A blazing arc streaked across the heavens like a meteor, and cutting through the stars, a supersonic fighter jet sliced the air with lethal purpose.
Inside the cockpit, the Commander locked onto the massive target looming in the mountains—missiles primed and hungry on their racks.
The missiles roared forward, streaking through the night like gleaming swords piercing shadow.
Then, the world exploded.
Flames engulfed the mountaintop, shrieking in a fiery wail as scalding air pressure tore through the valley like a brutal tempest, threatening to level all in its path.
Heat—fierce enough to melt steel—painted the night as bright as day.
The searing inferno briefly illuminated the colossal shadow lurking in the darkness—revealing a grotesque, star-shaped behemoth.
A giant starfish?
Indeed—a towering, alien starfish, dozens of meters tall.
Its five-pointed form was unsettling: two lower limbs planted firmly like legs, two side arms reaching out like grasping claws, and at its center, an immense eye tangled in eerie, fibrous veins that pulsed with a sinister intelligence.
To look into that eye was to stare into an abyss—an echoing void of alien shouts and nameless dread.
Missiles slammed against its flesh, barely warming it—an inconsequential bath that roused only its wrath.
Amidst the roaring sea of flames, the starfish stood tall, its monstrous eye blazing with fury, locking gaze on the sleek raptor darting through the sky.
---
Thousands of miles away, in the headquarters of the Advanced Research Group for Uniting Super-Humans—the covert Sky Eye Society—a short, formidable Black woman stood before a massive splicing screen.
Her sharp eyes scanned the live feed, calm but focused. This was Amanda Waller, supreme Commander of the Sky Eye Society—world-class operative, master strategist, and no-nonsense leader.
"Report, Commander. No effect."
"I know." Waller's voice was ice. "Continue as planned. Let's see if this five-pointed alien bastard still holds that arrogance when we hit it with white phosphorus."
The creature on the screen—codenamed Starro—was alien through and through. Its strength and abilities unknown, but conventional weaponry had so far failed to breach its defenses.
This was exactly the kind of threat Sky Eye Society was built to confront.
---
Before Waller could issue her next order, chaos erupted in the comm channel—shouts, gunfire, piercing screams.
"What's happening?" she barked. "Report!"
"The camp's under attack!"
The central control room's main display flipped to live surveillance footage of the frontline camp—and what greeted them was pure nightmare.
Countless small Starros had infiltrated the perimeter, swarming from the shadows like phantoms.
They leapt—facehugger-style—onto the soldiers, each latching on with unnatural precision.
Victims convulsed violently before going limp, their eyes vacant and hollow.
Then, the transformation: those possessed rose again, empty vessels controlled by the parasitic creatures, guns raised to fire upon their own comrades.
Within seconds, the camp was overwhelmed—engulfed in a tide of blank-eyed puppets and writhing Starros.
The terror was palpable even through the grainy surveillance feed.
Waller's jaw tightened.
She was seasoned, but this was a bitter lesson in underestimating an alien foe.
Starro didn't just have brute strength—it was cunning, reproducing countless minions that infiltrated the frontline and seized command from within.
---
"Connect me to Blackbird. I want the Commander on the line now."
The trembling operator scrambled to comply.
When the line clicked through, Waller's voice cut cold and sharp:
"This is Amanda Waller, Sky Eye Society Commander. The camp has been breached. I am ordering you to bomb and destroy the entire camp—leave no survivors."
"Commander—our people—"
"No time for debate. The enemy's mind control could spread beyond containment. You know the risks."
"Yes, Commander."
Before Waller could breathe, another voice interjected urgently:
"New development! Radar just picked up a high-energy signature—something broke through the atmosphere above Starro's location!"
Waller's heart skipped a beat.
One giant starfish was enough. Now this?
The feed shifted—shattering the night sky in a violent spectacle.
A deep black rift tore the heavens apart, stars scattering as if fleeing an approaching storm.
A burning red orb, blazing like a meteor off-orbit, crashed through the atmosphere.
Impact detonated with the force of thousands of explosives.
A pillar of fire carved a smoking crater into the earth, shockwaves pulverizing rock and splintering trees.
Even Starro flinched—recoiling two steps, its monstrous eye wide with terror.
From the dust and smoke, a colossal figure rose—a giant.
Slender yet towering, its humanoid torso and limbs shimmered with metallic sheen.
Large oval eyes glowed pale gold, and embedded in its chest, a crystal-like orb shimmered ocean-blue.
It stepped from the crater, commanding the battlefield.
---
Starro twisted away, sensing the inescapable danger.
Above the alien's head, a faint blood-red symbol flickered: "Danger!"
The giant raised its right arm, blue energy crackling faintly beneath the surface.
Its left hand swept a glowing arc over the right, forming a cross.
A flood of dazzling blue light erupted—surging like a dragon of thunder unleashed from a storm cloud.
Stars dimmed, the earth lost its color, and a brilliant beam sliced through night and mountain alike.
Starro howled—its flesh melting instantly where the beam struck—its enormous eye wide with disbelief and horror.
---
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The starfish shattered into dust and echoes.
Shockwaves tore through the mountains like a series of controlled demolitions, blasting peaks to rubble, trees to ash.
The unstoppable beam surged beyond the horizon, leaving nothing untouched.
The giant lowered its arms, standing amidst the devastation—a living deity of destruction and salvation intertwined.
Then, without warning, it rose.
Breaking the sound barrier, it vanished into the stars.
---
In Sky Eye Society's control room, silence lingered.
This was no routine extraterrestrial encounter—this was a reckoning.
"Ultra-high energy particle readings..." a voice broke the quiet.
"The air converted into plasma. The giant used some kind of heat beam—its power is off the charts."
"Target lost from radar, Commander."
Waller's face darkened—resolute and cold.
"All face-hugging Starros confirmed destroyed. The one just eliminated was the 'mother.' Without her, the rest collapsed."
"Crisis contained?"
Waller's eyes narrowed.
"This is just the beginning. Prepare for interstellar combat readiness."