Lets try something new - Collaborative Crowdfunded Bountied Flash Stories. 5 SBD+ to win. Winner of last week inside!

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Text to speech here ^^^ :) Thanks stitch!!

Contributors to last week and winners!
@mikepm74 - 5 SBD
@topkpop - 5 SBD
@sammosk excluded from prize.

It Begins.

The air shivered like a thousand tiny crystals as the roar broke across the plain. Dust stirring from the soundless vibration, reality shimmered, and tore as the horde poured through.

Tens of thousands of minuscule rifts gaped through the entire nation and millions died in the first few moments. The Invasion Had Begun.

It was the worst of all the horrors that humans had ever dreamed of in Science Fiction. Self Aware nanotechnology had brought war to the nations of humanity. The horde worked as a singular element, a cloud of tiny death, seeking out any organic material to consume, breaking down to it's carbon base. Carbon that could be used to increase the horde.

It was relentless, never slept, never paused in its haste to consume every last piece thing it could attach itself to. Fortunately, it didn't have any staying power and would constantly require nourishment.

Unfortunately, we were the food, so soft, so squishy, like a peach ripe for the plucking.

When the time came to choose who got to leap into space before the cloud of death came for us all, the culling.. it was.. horrific.

The old sea time adage of women and children first went out the window. No, future propagation of the species would depend on the scientists and the military. Those who could figure out how to battle the horde.

Children wept as parents were pulled away to the ship. The high pitched buzz of the oncoming horde growing louder by the moment, until it even overwhelmed the screams of parent and child being torn from each other.

The lucky ones were the ones who died when the rockets lit and they were consumed by fire.

As the lucky passengers stared down at the bodies of their loved ones being consumed by the rocket’s flames, there was an overwhelming sigh of heartbreak, yet also of relief…for a moment. As they barreled into space, the horde that had been progressing on their position seemed to have sped up. The fire seemed to excite them, almost feed them.

As they watched, the horde nearly double in size in a fraction of a second.

All that he could hear was the pulsating of his heart in his veins, almost as if time were slowly ticking along, as he stared down at the madness he could not yet register.

Timothy turned away from the window, now filled with blackness and the small blue orb which was no longer home to him. The trauma of the whole situation gave his eyes a glazed over look as he gazed up the corridor of the ship which was all that was left of humanity.

Five Thousand Souls. That was all that remained of the billions of people who had populated the planet falling behind them. Oh, some were still alive, but not for long with the horde moving over the planet.

Timothy began to walk down the hallway toward the commissary. A small black speck, what could generously be called a speck of dust, sat in the corner of his eye. A speck that bides it time, resisting the urge to eat and consume, knowing that it has to wait, to rebuild.

As Timothy headed down the hallway, someone shouted behind him. He was barely paying attention and although the voice stood out a bit it sounded muffled & faint. A hand touched his shoulder from behind. "Sir".

Timothy turned around to see Keith, one of the most promising Attack pilots, and one of the only ones that made it on the ship. "Sir, they need you in the boardroom." Keith said. "Yes of course", Timothy said while he followed quickly behind, shrugging his mentally distraught feelings that were consuming him just a moment ago.

They approached the boardroom. Entering confidently Timothy said "Alright, let's get to it". As the hours passed, different plans were formulated and discussed. Whilst they conferred with each other, unsuspecting and very tiny sensors were not only hearing but sharing their discussions with each other across vast distances.

The Horde was small when it came to it's presence on the ship. But it was mighty. It sat in the corner of Timothy's eye, consuming only enough to survive as it watched and waited.

Over time it created replicants, only a few, and none stayed. As each was created, it worked it's way out of Timothy's body, and to a surface where it could latch onto a new host.

Soon dozens of people were walking around the ship, each with a small black speck hovering in the corner of an eye.

The horde continued to grow it's unsuspecting power in numbers. Dozens turned into hundreds, turned into thousands, until each and every person on board had very tiny little black specks hovering in the corner of each eye.

That's when it happened.

Once all of the people aboard the ship had one speck in their eye, the one speck became two, two became four, and eyes became black.

The Horde was aware that lost in space was not a place they were prepared to be. Rather than consume their human hosts, they entwined themselves with the neurons of the brain. Until the host was no longer in control. The Horde had become the humans, and the humans became the horde. A symbiosis was formed, one relying on the other.

Eons passed, children born with black eyes, and weaves of nano wrapped into their brains. And the horde persisted, adapted, and moved on, looking for the next species to inhabit and consume.

The cube of their vessel traversed the galaxy, replicating itself over and over. When it came across a new species, an offer was made:

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

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Contest rules.

I never saw this coming.. Just wow..

This was the winning thread from the previous game, congrats to you all, I will be excluding myself from the prize and sending it now.

You have to reply to this post with a sentence or two telling a story that is leading on from the previous comment.

The next entry should be a to reply to that comment. The winning thread will be one chosen by me and my secret panel of judges.

Remember there could be multiple stories going on at any time, so refresh often and take a look! <3

Lets start those threads people!

The winner will be announced in 1 week when this post matures and 5 SBD will be used as the prize to award to all participants of the winning chain so feel free to spread the word.

I will publish the winner(s) each week here.

One thing I'd like to see if we can make participating in the comments section to be valued as much as the post itself, this would be interesting to me so lets see if we can pull it off!! Make participation it's own reward! Upvote one anothers comments!

Thanks for participating in this week long experiment!

I had a Wow moment at the last one. Lets see if we can write an even better short story this time! Looking forward to your feedback as well. Just.. Wow.

Much love.
@sammosk <3

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The rewards from this post I pledge towards supporting the contest itself, the minnows at @minnowsupport and it's surrounding and supporting services such as @msp-creativebot and @msp-makeaminnow so please vote generously. <3