It seems like years but thanks to advanced space travel technology, it was mere weeks. The mission seemed straightforward: pilot the team to the frozen planet of Krader in the Dormacian District, two days of searching for the signal that had pinged us hourly for months now, extract and return.

Having travelled the stars for approaching twelve years, I was a highly regarded member of Star Fleet, entrusted with the piloting our largest research and extraction teams on the most dangerous of missions. But this one wasn’t even a code amber, it was a simple flight path with no known enemy or galactic storms en route.

On approach to Krader, just as lower valves were jettisoned and landing beams engaged, everything failed. The team were ready to disembark, that’s how close we were to the surface. But we dropped like stones, almost as though a physical force were driving us downwards towards the surface. The ship immediately cracked in two, spilling already unconscious team members onto the subzero surface of Krader.

Dazed, I could just about view through the iced screen the first of the invaders. Neither human form nor alien, almost ghostly, snatching unconscious team members before disappearing into the hills at lightning speed. I counted at least ten of them but they were so powerful, so quick and determined that our numbers quickly dwindled.

The rest of us hid where we could as the life forms searched the ship. It was only when we were confident that the last of them had gone that we emerged, confused and petrified, to observe our broken wreck and the fate of our lives ahead.