Boom-!
A silver-white streak of light suddenly tore through the night sky above the cowshed.
Allen, the farmer, had just raised his flashlight when a blinding fireball smashed through the roof.
Wooden beams snapped. Sheet metal flew. More than twenty dairy cows panicked at once, straining against their tethers and crashing wildly against the enclosure.
Allen fell into the mud, his ears filled with a piercing whine.
"Damn it..."
He lifted his head.
Half a spindle-shaped metal pod had lodged in the center of the cowshed, blue arcs still trailing from its rear. The surrounding hay had caught fire, and flames climbed the wooden walls.
A fallen beam pinned a calf's hind legs. It let out feeble cries as it struggled.
Allen grabbed a fire extinguisher and charged into the blaze.
Just as he stepped over the shattered fence, the spacecraft's hull split open.
Four masses of black fluid burst out, hit the ground, and sent muddy water splashing.
"Coordinates confirmed."
The first Symbiote to rise lifted its head.
Its body was far slimmer than Venom's, with two long, narrow black horns extending from its shoulders and back. Silver-blue markings lit up from its chest to its arms, as though lightning had been trapped inside black flesh.
"Atmospheric composition normal. Gravity normal. No immediate radioactive contamination detected."
It surveyed its surroundings, its voice steady.
"This is the third planet."
"The third planet smells like burnt grass."
A Symbiote crawled up beside the wreckage, its body bulky and its arms like two masses of flowing rock. It lowered its head to sniff the ground, and its mouth split into a grin.
"And meat."
Shriek spotted Allen inside the burning cowshed.
All four white eyes turned toward the farmer at once.
Allen had no idea he was being watched. He shouldered aside