05 - Starlighters

In the stillness of eternal night on the dark side of the moon Aegis 3, a herd of starlighters fed. They were called starlighters by men, but men only knew Aegis 3 for a short time. The starlighters were far older.

Starlighters fed on star light. In the clear night sky, they collected energy from the cosmos to feed themselves and their young. The waste energy was disposed of and left in the dusty soil. One night, a data pod shot across the sky of Aegis 3 and touched down on the surface. The pod collected soil samples and transmitted the results back to its mothership, a refinery operation orbiting a nearby planet. The data pod found the soil was rich with energy deposits ripe for harvest. Soon, men from the mothership flooded onto the moon to gather the energy-rich soil and process it for transport. They created refineries that pumped clouds of dust into the air day and night.

Dust obscured the sky, and soon the starlighters were unable to feed themselves and their young. They withered and vanished. Millions of years of fertilized soil was removed from Aegis 3, and without starlighters to re-energize it, the refineries were soon closed. The men retreated with the last of their plunder and abandoned their refineries to decay.

Millennia passed, and the dust settled. Out of the ruins of the refineries sprang long-dormant starlighter larvae. They were fragile at first, but as the skies cleared they grew in strength and numbers. The refinery was gone, but the starlighters continued—roaming Aegis 3 in peace once more.