Fracture

Logan was mowing his modest backyard. Lost in his own thoughts and reminiscing on days gone by. It was a simple kind of therapy. Some normalcy after having lived military life. His newly acquired normalcy was about to be shattered, and he never saw it coming.

A rock, the size of a cheap foam football that had traveled the expanse of universe for millions of years, landed eerily silent and gentle near Logan's back fence. On board this makeshift spaceship, a dark-crimson sentient ooze. Having already adjusted it's biology to adapt to this planet's unusual atmospheric composition and gravity, it's next order of business was to find a suitable host. Whatever organism is closest would make due. With the ability to mold and form a host, this particular parasite could turn a chinchilla into an ecological catastrophe. Due to the parasite's advanced age and experiences, it wanted a creature that could truly control a planet. It started speeding along the ground searching for something intelligent, something driven to conquer. As the earth around it began to shake, it finally found what it was looking for.