[ WP ] A tattoo of earth suddenly appears on every living thing on earth . A rival planet declares war on earth and a voice is heard from the ground `` you have lived on me for a long time , now fight for your home '' .

At first, it was chaos. The booming Voice from beneath our feet shook our very core. Unfathomable was the message, like a knife into our very hearts. Fight for our home? From who? 
 
 The streets were filled with people, people who just yesterday handed out change to the homeless now slitting their throats for a couple of cans of beans. Before the unknown assailant even reached us, we were already losing. 
 
 Only a week later, the streets, no longer filled with people but with the decaying bodies of the unlucky, were now silent. Anyone who has survived this far has taken up arms and shelter wherever they can hoping to last the storm that has yet to come. Many people began to think it would never happen. Whom was this enemy that has yet to show itself? Was this all a ploy? That would have been easy to believe if the markings of the earth were n't embedded in the skin of every being around. Also, what was this Voice? Was this planet an actual being? Religions sprang up among the remaining few, praising the earth and begging for forgiveness for the atrocities of man. The Voice had yet to be heard from again. And so, we waited. 
 
 As sudden as the chill of a winter breeze, it began. Like a cloud blotting the sun on a hot afternoon, the shadow of our doom crept across the ground. Looking to the sky, a feeling of unknown origin brewed inside of mankind. A feeling that seemed to be a mixture of courage, fear, hope, and despair. 
 
 The vessels of the enemy could be seen on the horizon. Technology never before imagined by the most gifted among us just before our very eyes. All vessels seemed to spew from a larger vessel. The size of it is still unknown but e many believe it to be larger than the moon. 
 
 A craft flies overhead just before a deafening boom forces me to turn and clutch my ears. Before me now towers a being of seven or eight feet, draped in cloth made from a material not of this world. Its face covered in a hood and a weapon of unknown function rested on its shoulder. Clicks and cackles come from the abyss where a head should be. 
 
 I felt it again. This endless swirl of emotions in my gut. It welled inside me until I almost burst. Suddenly, one feeling washed away the others like a wave washes a way imprints on a sandy beach. This was a feeling I recognized. This was a feeling of calmness, of acceptance, not only of my own fate, but for the fate of my race. The intruder glares at me, still cackling like a grotesque bird. Swiftly, it lunged forward. 
 
 Suddenly, time seemed to stop. My forearm where the ink lies, began to burn. I sidestepped to my left and grabbed the attackers foremost arm and tossed it over my shoulder, as if it were a bag of sand, into a pile of rubbish against my makeshift shack. I quickly take in hand the hatchet that I had dangling from my belt and rush towards my enemy with superhuman speed. In a futile effort, the fiend tried to regain its composure. Before he could defend himself, the blade of my hatchet buried itself the center of its hood. Blue liquid oozed from the opening and the cloth split away revealing the head of my enemy. These creatures seem to be the stuff of nightmares. The head similar to that of a human, but hairless. Where eyes would normally be found, there is only skin. Two slits in the the skin just below form nostrils, but they are without the formation of a nose. The mouth is split into four segments, much like that of a squid, with dagger-like teeth lining the walls of the orifice. 
 
 The enemy crumpled beneath the weight of my weapon, slumped into a grotesque heap of flesh and bone. Somehow I moved faster than previously thought possible, was stronger than anyone I have ever known, and hyper aware of my surroundings like a cat on the hunt. I now know that I am not alone. This earth has given us a gift after we have taken so much from her, a gift that we do not deserve. 
 
 So here I stand, a visual representation of mankind conquering yet another obstacle to maintain our way of life. Nothing has ever stopped us and nothing ever will, not even the universe itself. These foul beasts can be killed. Together we can survive the onslaught. Together we can defeat the enemy and conquer their army. Unity is the backbone of liberty. Only together can we be free from this tyranny. With these weapons resting in our arms, together we wo n't only survive, we will win. 
 
 -O. Stanford 
 
 ( please be gentle haha this is a first )
