Found

Part Three

From the Secret Files of Derrick Jackson

Editor in Chief: Skywatch Monthly

You've reached the final phase of my report. Which means that you've met Neile. You've read my depiction of the footage she'd taken on the night the Kress invaded, how they'd appeared over the skies of her neighborhood, abducted her, and drew her up into the belly of their mothership. You've also read my depiction of what awaited her inside, the weird chambers and the walls with tentacles that pulled you in for... well, let's not think about that right now.

Instead, let's focus on the rest of the footage that Neile had shot with her head-strapped GoPro. In many ways, it's the strangest, and most fascinating piece of all. You'll recall that she'd met up with four members of the military who'd speculated that the ship itself was some kind of living organism with its own version of a blood stream. You may also recall how they'd managed to breach one of its arteries and gotten sucked up into the ships circulatory system.

Which means that now you are ready to hear about what came next, and how Neile managed to save us all.

- - - -

Found Footage Taken by Neile Grace Adam

Inside the Kress ship's central command chamber - July 2, 2024

8:52 PM EST

The liquid rush ceases as Neile is shoved through a tight orifice that leads into another chamber. Only this one is unlike any we have seen yet.

The lens is blurry at first. Neile, ever mindful of her duty to record the facts, wipes it clear with her fingers. The first thing we see in the feed is the four soldiers, covered in goo, staggering to get to their feet. Then Neile pans the camera to the rest of the room.

The footage taken is...unimaginable.

In the center of the room, a large, hulking figure sits above a pulsating green orb. The figure somewhat resembles the same attacking Kress invaders that we saw on the ground: bug eyes, antenna, scales. But this one is three times the size they were. And instead of arms, it has tentacles that are reaching into the pulsating orb. At the moment, it doesn't seem to notice that Neile or the soldiers are in the room.

SARGENT GUSTING: Juno. Theory. Where are we?

PRIVATE JUNO: I don't know, sir. Maybe the system managed to recognize us as a foreign object in the blood stream and deposited us here, like a kidney flushing out waste.

Corporal Heller points in the direction of the Kress giant.

CORPORAL HELLER: Look at that!

Neile turns in the monster's direction. Above it is a screen containing a map of all the continents of Earth. Superimposed over it, we see an oval-shaped object that is reaching out over a large portion of North America. From the shape, a line is drawn that runs throughout the map, as if to serve as a track for the object to follow. The line leads to South America next, then across the Pacific to Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa...

SARGENT GUSTING: It's a plan of attack.

PRIVATE LOPEZ: What is this place, Sargent?

SARGENT GUSTING: I'd say it's a command center of some sort. It's like the ship itself is a living organism being manned by individual beings. That pulsating orb thing. Could that be the ship's brain?

Neile, still keeping the feed focused on the Kress giant, breaks her silence and speaks up.

NEILE: But that doesn't make sense. Why would it dump us here? If it thought we were a threat in its blood stream, why send us to a room containing its freaking brain?!