Deep in the void of space an alien spacecraft slid through the blackness; like a snake through grass. It looked like a super-sized version of the Hubble space telescope, only the bow (the front) was cone shaped, the wings were a right-angled triangle shape and tucked under these wings were what looked like warp nacelles from star trek; only red instead of blue. Its hull was mostly a shiny jet black colour, but in some places, giant patches of blood red organic material covered the craft's semi-metal body.

This wasn't really a spacecraft: It was a giant cybernetic life-form known as RED: Robotic Entity of Destruction. It was built (and grown) by an ancient alien race long ago, to function as a biological weapon of mass destruction. But it worked too well; yes RED easily over-powered the enemy species, but it wouldn't shut down after the war and destroyed its creators. Now it aimlessly roams the galaxy, looking for new inhabited worlds to infect and eventually consume the population to sustain its travels and assimilate the species technology.

RED then passed through the asteroid ring the native population calls: the Kuiper belt and came upon a large star system. Using its powerful scanners and sensors it detected 8 planets, a handful of planetoids, a second asteroid ring that cuts the system in half and a small yellow dwarf star. It also detected artificial satellites orbiting the 3rd planet from the sun. This planet was the largest of the inner worlds; RED's sensors indicated large volumes of crystal blue liquid water that covered two thirds of the planets surface. But on the continents were clusters of artificial structures, teeming with humanoid life: RED's favourite food.

"Feeeeeed…soooooooon" RED stated in a very slow and deep voice, it sounded a lot like the Beast from the Homeworld: cataclysm PC game, it seemed to deify the laws of nature and as RED spoke the organic patches on its hull seemed to glow brighter. The cone on the front of RED opened up into 4 petal-like doors, revealinga massive, black and red, tendril-covered, tongue-like appendage inside with four claws at the end of it, the inside walls were completely covered in dark red organic material and what looked like giant black sharp teeth.

One of the tendrils on RED's 'tongue' slithered out of the giant maw, suspended above the bottom of the enormous mouth. At the end of this tendril were 4 claws much like the larger main tentacle it was attached to. The tendril opened its claw and faced a small satellite that was about to float past it, red electricity sparked between the claws on the end of the tendril, the beams of energy converged and shot from the claw towards the satellite; hitting it in under a millisecond. The satellite remained intact; however something very strange was happening to it: It was a dirty grey colour before, now it was black with organic patches identical to the large ones on RED.

It then fired its thrusters to towards the planet below, it burned through the atmosphere, leaving a long trail of fire as it penetrated through the air, heading for a military installation. (A/N: Very cliché I know!)

11:00 PM The military installation, 10 miles from the city of Townsville.

Some soldiers were shooting targets on a range inside the base; they had been outside for an hour now and the earliness of their time awake was getting to them, so their aim was getting sloppy. "Damnit! I can't even see straight let alone fucking shoot! Can't I go back to the barracks and grab some shut-eye?" One of them, a lance corporal complained. "Stop your bitching and get back to shooting those targets soldier!" The drill sergeant yelled. The young lance corporal scoffed and aimed his rifle down range again.

As he was about to pull the trigger the course seemed to light up a little, he looked around and saw none of the spotlights had come on. He looked higher and saw a bright orange light in the sky. "Hey sarge! You see this shit?" The lance corporal asked. The older soldier followed his comrade's gaze and saw the same thing; the light was getting brighter by the second and he had to shield his eyes from the glare. By now every soldier could see the object the lance corporal was on about. "Yeah, what the hell is that?" He stated. He then could see the silhouette outline of a small satellite.

His eyes then went wide. "EVERYONE HIT THE DIRT!" He yelled. Every soldier, including the lance corporal jumped out of the objects path as it crashed through the firing range and ploughed up a good chunk of dirt as it cut through the ground. When it settled in the ground the soldiers got back on their feet and raised their guns at the burning foreign object. As the soldiers walked closer it started to crackle with red electricity. "What the fu-"

Before the lance corporal could finish he was hit by a white laser beam that crackled with red electricity fired from the crashed object. He collapsed on the ground and screamed as white hot pain ripped through his body, but unknown to him the beam was laced with bio-mechanical nanobots, which then began to assimilate the lance corporal's body; changing him from the inside out. The beam then somehow jumped from him to the soldiers next to him and then continued to jump until all the soldiers in the squad were laying on the ground screaming as their bodies were changed by the nanobots inside them.

Then they were still, at first it looked like the beam had killed them, as their skins started to lose their colours. But then on the lance corporal, lumps started growing under his now grey skin, a lump on his neck then shifted to his left cheek, it then grew and grew until eventually something that looked like a Borg implant burst from the lump. More metal devices started sprouting all over his body: a metal web-like device grew out of his right wrist and covered his hand and a small pen-laser light appeared on his left temple. Similar changes were happening to the other soldiers.

Suddenly the lance corporals eyes opened, but they looked very different now: They had no iris and no pupil: just a bright red colour. "Weeeeeee…liiiiiiiiive!" He stated in RED's voice.

So what do you think of this new story RED story? Review please!