In the far reaches of the Andromeda galaxy, a large, black pod, thousands of feet in length, sailed silently through the inky blackness of space. Its body, hardened by thousands of years of space travel, glistened as the light from stars millions of miles away washed over its surface. On the outside the pod looked about as dead and lifeless as an asteroid, but inside, chaos was brewing. The pod itself was merely a vessel. Inside, nightmare creatures stirred. Sensing that there time was coming to feed, they clawed and bit at the inside of the pod, fighting desperately to escape. But for them, there would be no escape. Not yet. Soon they would be set free on a new and unsuspecting world. And nothing in their path of destruction would be left alive…

Toshi’ko checked the gauges on her spaceship for the thirtieth time that day. Everything was in order and working as efficiently as it had when the spaceship was first constructed. The ship could run, without error, for hundreds of years without even having a pilot in the driver’s seat. But she went through the ritual of making sure everything was working properly anyway. It was something she had done for years and would continue to do for as long as she had to.
Looking through the one inch thick plate of stretched material that made up the cockpit window, she stared at the black pod that she had been following for the past three years. It was there, as it always had been, as she knew it always would be. Until it happened upon another planet full of life that the creatures inside could feast upon. The thought of the blood thirsty, murderous creatures that crawled inside the pod sent a wave of anger through her body. Even after three long years of isolation and loneliness inside her spaceship, she still held on to the anger that drove her on. She knew that she always would. There was nothing else to live for now. Her anger for the creatures and her mission to kill every single one of them would forever be her course in life.
As she sat there, sipping at the juice coming from the long cord attached to the food processing machine aboard her ship, her eyes caught a tiny blue speck of light sparkle in the distance. She had seen thousands of these lights along her journey and knew that they were planets with water and an atmosphere. But few had enough life on them to draw the attention of the pod. There were so many of the creatures inside the pod that a planet had to contain a vast amount of life for them to even waste the time and energy it took to land. But this time, something strange was happening with the pod, something she had never seen it do before. It was hard to see, she may not have caught it if she hadn’t been watching this giant, black thing for years, but there it was: the pod was changing direction and it was heading straight for the little blue spec of light.
Toshi’ko sat straight up in her seat, the juice forgotten. This was it, this was what she was waiting for. In a few quick moves, she threw off her coveralls and slid her into her life support suit. The suit, made of a material almost as thin as paper, conformed to her body like a glove. Moving her hand across the control panel in front of her she flipped a couple of switches, engaging manual control of the ship. Grabbing the control stick firmly in her hands, she gave the engines a little thrust and the tiny, silver ship burst forward with incredible speed.