Alien: Covenant - Origins - The Official Movie Prequel

PROLOGUE

They were all dying, and there was nothing they could do.

Dying in their sleep would not have been so bad. Dying of old age, or an inability to reproduce, or even of disease would have been tolerable. But the cosmos was a cold, uncaring place, and did not care what would have been preferable. At that moment, at that time, it was colder than ever.

Bodies were ripped apart, exploded, sundered, until dismembered skeletons began to pile up against the sides of buildings like white foam from a wave. A tsunami of blood ran down first one street, then another. The inhabitants of the city tried to fight back, and the more they fought, the faster they died. The shapes—the things that roved and raged and ravaged among them—were imbued with an implacable urge to kill.

This they did with an efficiency and soulless resolution that knew no satisfaction. The proponents of the interminable slaughter could never be sated. They killed and would keep on killing until nothing remained that could be called a victim.

Throughout it all the Prophet slept, and screamed, while around him a select gathering of acolytes shared his visions and shuddered. Shared, and grew ever more resolute in the knowledge of what it was they must do. The fate, the visions the Prophet was unleashing among them, could not be allowed to come to Earth.

If they had to die to ensure that this was so, they would not hesitate. Nor would they hesitate to kill on behalf of the greater good.