[Nightfall Phase 1]: The Face of the Enemy

First came the Blackout, sowing chaos and undermining the fabric of interstellar operations, but that was nothing compared to what was to follow. Now, the Vaadwaur have arrived, flooding out the Underspace in an all-out assault on the powers of the Alpha and Beta quadrants. Their tactics are varied and their ultimate objective is a mystery, but one thing is clear: the very fate of everything we know is at risk.

A good story needs a good hook, and that is the focus of this competition. In a story written on your command, describe the opening moments of Nightfall as your crew comes face-to-face with the Vaadwaur for the first time. This is not a story of victory. Even if your crew manages to defend their area of responsibility from the opening assault, it is clear there’s more to come. Submissions will be graded on how the story draws the reader in, and the sense of emotion it evokes related to the gravity of the situation.

Criteria

• Your story must be between 500 and 2,000 words in length. It must be your independent creative work (no collaborative writing), and it must have been written and posted during the duration of this competition.
• Your story must be posted to your individual command as part of a mission that is attached to the Nightfall fleet-wide mission. Stories from fleet-wide sandboxes and role-playing games are not eligible for this competition.
• Your submission will be graded in accordance with the Bravo Fleet Fiction Rubric, which marks on the following criteria: Language, Style, & Mechanics; Adherence to Canon; Perspective; Characterization; Originality; Use of the Prompt.