They were myth, a campfire story, something that went bump in the night. Reavers were something that parents told their kids to get them into bed, “Go to sleep or the Reavers will get you.” My own parents used to use them as a threat when I was misbehaving. They were the boogey man, Bigfoot, the Easter bunny….but things are different now. My childhood fears have come to light on my last tour of the outer rim. I was originally dispatched to do a story on Bodwen’s malady, an affliction that effect miners in Paradiso. I was more afraid of catching that debilitating disease than I was of some made-up monsters. We were just finishing dinner, my host family and I, when we heard the ships overhead. We had originally thought it was Alliance…but the sound, there was something different, not the smooth sound of high tech, but rather something grating, something savage. It set my teeth on edge. Like the rest of the folk we went outside to see what was going on….and this is where things get a little blurry, it happened so fast and seems so impossible. Harpoons fell from the sky, burying themselves in the hard packed dirt. What came down from those wires were shaped like men, but they weren’t. They couldn’t be…..Thank god for Ted, the father of the family I was staying with. He seemed to understand what was going on. “Reavers” he whispered hot in my ear, as he clasped an iron grip on my arm and began dragging me to the storm cellar. The attack was quick, but thorough. If you were in sight, you were annihilated. I’m not really sure where to start in trying to convey what unfolded, what would make you understand…the sounds of screaming, and tearing flesh? The smell of burning hair and vomit? Or the sight of one of those creatures draping its self in a woman’s intestines like they were a strand of pearls. I have to stop writing, it’s time for my medication now, I black out sometimes….They’ll take away the pen too, apparently I stabbed an orderly with it once after being dosed. It’s a nice pen though, it will probably look great hooked through my cheek…..