Stardust
Five years.
The news broke two weeks ago. An asteroid, astronomers estimating it's size as comparable to the state of Texas, on a collision course with Earth. By their best calculations it will strike the planet in five years. At best, there may be a narrow miss. But hat will still cause cataclysmic tidal pulls and destroy most, if not all, life on Earth. At worst, well, just ask the dinosaurs how well their asteroid impact went.
Five years.
Life has almost gone back to normal. There was rioting and panic in the streets the first couple nights, as could be expected. A sort of dull resignation has begun to seep into the societal consciousness. The streets are calm, again, though the asteroid still graces the front of every newspaper. Governments have moved into action, devoting vast resources to solutions and options.
Five years.
Maybe it'll be long enough to save some fragment of mankind. Maybe there's hope.
Except it's all a ruse.
There are worse things in the universe than asteroids, hard as that may be to believe. In the depths of the black there are things, dark, shadowy, spidery things that spin their webs of entropy. Between distant stars their threads hang, ensnaring unsuspecting worlds. And they consume them. They feed on the fear and despair of entire worlds. They live among us, here on Earth. they have planted their mandibles in the minds of key scientists and governing bodies, spreading the news that the Earth is doomed. And, indeed, it is. In five years, their physical forms will mature beyond the confines of the humans they possess and they will move across the world, devouring any in their path.
But, there is still hope.
Other worlds have escaped complete destruction. Distant, alien, advanced worlds. Unable to physically breach the space between their world and ours, they have transmitted the news to a handful of humans. And power. Those touched by these aliens, by the stardust they sent to save Earth, can see the Spiders, they can harm their true forms. And, maybe, if they can find the final, missing conduit they just might save the world.
They have five years to do it in.
