The Union of Intelligent Life had grown dramatically in all directions for hundreds of thousands of years.

How old it truly was, no one could say. All that could be known was that it existed for as long as anyone could remember, and there was plenty of proof it had been around quite a long time before that. Existing for a span of time that had been enough to see its founders evolve, diverge, and become different species entirely, as they spread out among the galaxy. Those lines tracing back and diverging as life spread out towards new frontiers, held distant by countless light years.

Ancient as it was, though, the Union was not alive in any true sense. It was still nothing more than a simple collection. Bureaucracy, with tools and systems to manage it. The means and ends left behind by endless generations seeking progress, and handed down to the next in line. Yet, in a way, even if it was not alive, from ten thousand light years away, viewed from above, one might say the Union had become an emulation of life.

Expanding, growing: the Union was a symbolic torch in the infinity that had been passed through the ages by those who had come to warm in it's light. Standing the tests of time was one thing, but standing through the rise and fall of its founders and those that came after, was another entirely. For those who lived within its confines, The Union was considered to be immortal.

But, all things have an end.

That is one simple truth in a universe which offers no true explanations. Moons will leave their orbits, stars will die, light will fade off into the unknown. Despite their prosperity and strengths, even the greatest empires will fall. The Union is no different in this. Even something as powerful as this, can one day falter: should the danger it faces be great enough.

Of such, so far, there has been only one.

The first true threat to the Union of Intelligent Life came from outside the known galaxy. Nothing more than a simple rock that eons ago had left it's own system in search of another. There is no telling how long it took for the rock to come into contact with another occupied section of space, only that eventually it did: as a simple asteroid, acting as the carrier of destruction.

Perhaps, this tiny fragment had finished it's purpose from where it once came, and had finally reached it's new challenge. Or, perhaps, this was simply a fluke in chance, formed by impossibly unlikely circumstances. It is not known for certain, for no known intelligent life can go beyond the galaxy and safely reach another. The void is too vast and unpredictable for FTL travel.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

What we know, is thus inferred.

The asteroid landed, and spread in a simple fashion. Not dangerous, or even alive. It simply replicated with efficiency, in a seemingly benign manner. The races that encountered this treated it as an oddity, and not a threat. Some collected samples, others simply observed. Watching as it slowly spread. Yet, none fully grasped the scope of what it was truly doing.

By a thin line, as if mining with a thread of wire, it sent itself downward in secret. Down, deep below the surface of it's new home. That one, unfortunate, planetary body, undeserving of its fate. Analysis showed that it continued until it was capable of replication of logarithmic scale.

There, like a plague, it spread unnoticed. Remaining until conditions were met and the entire inner core had been consumed. Until the only portions of the planet not yet devoured, was the thin layer of crust. Like skin, hiding endless tumors. Then, and only then, did it reveal it's true colors.

The trigger was pulled seemingly at random to those who inhabited the surface of the planet, and they stood no chance. Life was but a tool for it to wield in it's goals, and not a well treated one.

Consume, destroy, continue.

Simple luck was all that held it in place. AI were in place, and their analysis provided adequate understandings of the situation in a matter of a single cycle. By sheer circumstance, the Union had time to react, managing to erect a quarantine zone to slow the spread towards the nearest inhabited planets. Buying time as additional fleets arrived.

Entire systems were wasted in this effort, and the Union had been forced to glass and encase hundreds of primitive planets. Reduce the surface to magma, encapsulate by a massive sky-net, and then irradiate for hundreds of cycles. This process was soon perfected by necessity, as several of the first planetary bodies had almost breached through their ever growing lines in secondary outbursts. Those had almost pieced into the center of life itself and ended it all.

It was a war like none other.

Not of ships waging battle, but of nature. Of planets threatening to detonate, throwing endless shrapnel, of which each and every tiny piece could bring another catastrophe.

Intelligent life had never been encountered in the sections of the infected zone, and primitive organic life was considered to be an acceptable loss when compared to the whole of the Union. Of course, as they continued to push the spread back and away, they explored far past their boundaries. It was only a matter of time until the their scouts reached system 849.

For the good of many, at the cost of few. The containment held.