Killer Out of Space (Post Columbia Revision)

Spoiler Warning: "The Killer Out of Space" was originally published in 1987 in Cthulhu Now, Chaosium's first modern day sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu. If you are a Delta Green player or modern day Call of Cthulhu player you may wish to ask your Keeper if they intend to run any scenarios in Cthulhu Now before reading this write-up, as pertinent scenario information will be revealed.

Some changes have been made to the scenario to make it compatible with Delta Green and to reflect changes in the world in the 17 years since the scenario's publication.

Dedication: This write-up is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William McCool, and Ilan Ramon, the crew of STS-107 — the final mission of the space shuttle Columbia. Columbia broke apart on reentry on February 1, 2003.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004, 10:10 p.m. CDT

Crockett Inn, Crockett, Texas

Now that the agents realized Blue Fly was involved in Gove, Texas, they made concrete plans for that night's mission. Blue Fly was the alien crash recovery unit of Majestic-12, a super-secret government organization. If Blue Fly was involved, the agents had to find out what was happening to the inhabitants of Gove. They would have to sneak into the quarantine zone.

MORGAN checked online and found out that all traffic on the rail line near Gove had been diverted. However, the military had not stopped traffic along Highway 287 between the cities of Crockett and Palestine. This meant that traffic was still travelling on the 287 between Latexo and Grapeland. Gove wasn't on Highway 287. The highway skirted past Gove about a quarter of a mile east of it. Gove lay between Latexo and Grapeland along a road that met the 287 north and south of Gove and ran roughly parallel to it through the town. MICHAEL suggested driving along the 287 and pulling off somewhere east of Gove. The agents would then hike into the town.

"There's that word again," said MAYA, who had an aversion to long hikes in the wilderness.

Agent MICHAEL had brought along a uniform he had recovered from the corpse of a Blue Fly operative in Maine. Since it mostly consisted of camouflage fatigues, MICHAEL would wear that. MAYA and MORGAN would wear the ghillie suits they recovered from the "green box" in Houston. They would travel without a lot of gear, armed only with their sidearms and night vision equipment. The agents picked some additional equipment. MICHAEL would take his parabolic microphone gear and the camouflage painted telescope into the Armada, MAYA grabbed the video camera, and MORGAN packed some of his medical gear in an over the shoulder, self-described "man purse".

They piled into the Nissan Armada and drove up highway 287. Traffic was light and there were no military checkpoints. MICHAEL had a good quality area map that showed a turn off due east of Gove. MAYA turned onto the short dirt road, which wound below the level of the highway. She turned the Armada around and everyone got out. They donned their camouflage. MICHAEL pulled out a compass and led the two other agents into the woods.

It wasn't long before they came to the railroad track that divided Gove from highway 287. Just past the railroad track, according to MICHAEL's map, was a creek. MICHAEL searched up and down the track but he didn't see anyone patrolling it. The creek paralleled the track a short way to the north and then angled under it. The easiest way to cross the creek was to walk along whatever bridge or trestle carried the railroad track. They set off north and found a short trestle over the creek. They crossed the trestle and slipped off the track on the other side. They continued west.

A second fork in the same creek was about a quarter of a mile further west, and close to the town. The creek forked at the southern base of a hill that also marked the edge of the woods. The agents walked west until the trees thinned at the hill, then they hugged the treeline. They looked carefully for the creek. MORGAN didn't look carefully enough and found it by falling into it. The drenched MORGAN crossed to the other side of the creek. The agents followed the creek north until they found a suitable ford. MICHAEL and MAYA crossed the ford at the creek, though not before MAYA slipped a foot into the water. They hiked a short distance north until they saw Gove's street lights.

The agents hid at the edge of the woods beside the road that ran north and south through Gove. They were at the north end of the small town. Gove had not fared well in recent years. While a couple of houses had exterior lights on and a handful of buildings were in relatively good repair, almost as many sat derelict with boarded up doors, broken windows, and plant infestations. Gove was slowly becoming a ghost town, though the agents had no idea how literally true that statement was...

They had only been watching the town for about half an hour when all three agents saw something strange. A bright glowing ball of light registered in the night vision goggles. When MICHAEL watched with naked eyes he saw a globe of shifting iridescence. It was of an unearthly colour, or of a colour that shifted so rapidly that the brain couldn't register it. While almost impossible to describe, it was most definitely there.

The globe slipped out of one building and into another, with seeming ease. The agents looked at each other in stunned silence for a moment, and then acted. MORGAN decided to strip off his ghillie suit. He reasoned that if he was caught it would be easier for him to bluff his way out of a bad situation as a CDC investigator if he wasn't wearing a professional camouflage suit. He hid the outfit. He was now in a pair of jeans and a light weight olive shirt with leaf print adorned. The agents carefully slipped across the street and headed to the house the globe had entered.

They sneaked as best they could, but MAYA kicked a trash can with a loud bang. No one, and no thing, stirred in spite of the noise. They quietly moved up to the exterior wall of the house. MORGAN took the camcorder from MAYA and carefully climbed up to the window and looked in with the camera running.

Inside, the globe hovered over a sleeping figure. The person, a middle aged woman, tossed and turned in her sleep. As MORGAN looked on, the globe pulsed. The woman, in turn, became haggard. Wrinkles appeared on her face while MORGAN filmed. Her cheeks sank. Her breathing became shallow. The globe, pulsing more rapidly now, moved away from the woman and headed through the opposite wall. The ever resilient MORGAN was only slightly disturbed by the sight.

He slipped down from the window and handed the camcorder to MICHAEL. MICHAEL rewound it and then watched the captured images. The recording ended in snow, but still MICHAEL stared at the tiny screen, locked in a catatonic trance. MORGAN slapped him once to bring him around, but it didn't work. He gave MICHAEL smelling salts, and that woke him from his stupor. MORGAN offered the camera to MAYA, but she refused to look at the video.

The agents decided to follow the globule of light. First, they needed MORGAN's ghillie suit hidden back in the woods. They carefully shifted to the road. MICHAEL reached the road first. The lights of oncoming trucks caught him. They hadn't heard the vehicles, and now the convoy was almost upon them. MORGAN tried to hide behind a tree. MAYA, in her ghillie suit, dropped where she stood and did an excellent impersonation of a bush.

The convoy consisted of three military Humvees. The first two passed without seeming to notice the agents. MORGAN spotted a shed and quickly hid behind it. MICHAEL, standing out in the open, quickly donned the royal blue beret that matched his uniform. The third Humvee slowed down and rested in front of him.

MICHAEL's uniform had the insignia of a Lieutenant. His dog tags said he was Joseph Fantino, which was the name of the man killed in Maine. The soldier riding shotgun in the Humvee was a sergeant. As it pulled to a stop, MICHAEL stepped up to it. The sergeant saluted. "We weren't informed anyone was in the town, sir," said the sergeant. MICHAEL smiled and informed the soldier that he was ordered to check it out, personally. The sergeant saluted and the Humvee slowly pulled away. MICHAEL noticed that as the vehicle departed the sergeant was reaching for the radio's microphone.

MAYA stood up and MORGAN jumped out from behind the shed. He quickly ran back across the road for his ghillie suit. MICHAEL and MAYA watched the Humvees. MICHAEL noticed the third Humvee slow down and stop by the side of the road. MICHAEL hid. MORGAN crossed the road, wearing his ghillie suit. MAYA was visible, but not MICHAEL. They looked around for MICHAEL but couldn't see him. They also didn't notice the Humvee, which was in the process of making a U-turn. MICHAEL realized he hadn't told them what was happening, and jumped from his hiding place. He told them about the Humvee and all three agents hid. They were all out of sight not a moment too soon. The Humvee drove up to their last position, shining a searchlight. MAYA noticed that there were four in the Humvee. The vehicle crawled slowly north. A moment later, the Humvee drove back south. MICHAEL was able to count four inside, so it hadn't dropped anyone off. He waited until they were safely out of the path of the searchlight before he had the entire group move through the town to the west.

They eased through the town as quietly as they could, keeping an eye out for the strange light creature. MAYA saw the Humvee convoy traveling west on a road south of the town. They moved a little further west before MICHAEL spotted the iridescent glow of the creature. It was heading in a straight line south southwest from the town. He checked his map. There was a tree line ahead of them. Beyond that was a creek that headed south. None of the agents were experts in navigation so they felt the safest route was to stay far away from the creature while using the creek to take them southward. They would also catch up to the road the Humvees took, in case they wanted to follow the vehicles.

The agents reached the creek and headed south. Not long after they came to the single lane road that the Humvees had taken. They carefully looked for vehicles and soldiers. When none were spotted, they crossed the road. They continued to follow the creek.

After they travelled a couple of hundred yards, the woods thinned out to the west. Light penetrated the woods. The light was coming from a brightly illuminated area. The agents diverted to the west.

They arrived at the edge of a very small lake, or a very large pond. Almost all of the lake was drenched in floodlight. On the lake was a barge with a crane. They could see divers in the water, vehicles on the water's bank, and armed guards on the other side of the lake. The agents swept further south and hid on the lake edge near the creek's inlet. MORGAN still carried the video camera, so he started filming. MAYA watched through night vision goggles while MICHAEL unpacked the parabolic microphone.

For 30 minutes they viewed the operation in silence, completely hidden in the underbrush. The crane moved and dropped a hook into the water. A few minutes later the crane started to bring something to the surface. Divers directed the crane's operator to raise the hook slowly. The hook lifted out of the water, attached to a strong net. In the net was a cylindrical metal canister, about four feet high and two feet in diameter. MAYA couldn't make out details through the night vision goggles, but MORGAN and MICHAEL could see the canister had scorch marks. The canister had a serial number and a NASA logo.

MICHAEL picked up voices with the parabolic microphone. "Looks in good shape, better than I'da thought," said one of the soldiers on the far bank.

MICHAEL focused on him and his immediate colleagues. "...this is one of the more intact pieces we've found," said someone else.

The Delta Green agents slowly moved closer to each other in order to confer. MAYA said that she thought it might be something from the cargo bay of the ill-fated Columbia shuttle. The agents realized that they weren't far from Nacogdoches, Texas, and that the military could very well be recovering Columbia debris. MAYA took off her night vision goggles and used MICHAEL's telescope to read the canister's serial numbers. The canister was lowered to the bank and inspected by soldiers.

MORGAN suggested that he should move closer to get a better look at the canister. The others reluctantly agreed. MAYA took the video camera and continued filming. MORGAN slowly moved along the woods at the water's edge. He didn't get far. As he crawled over a log, he slipped and fell into the creek, which fed the lake. The soldiers near the floodlights aimed a couple of them at the water's edge. MORGAN hid behind the log. The floodlights slipped past him, but caught sight of MAYA, her ghillie suit betrayed by the video camera at her face. More floodlights captured her, and six armed soldiers ran around the lake's edge.

Realizing she was spotted, MAYA jumped up and ran into the woods, taking the camcorder with her. MORGAN slowly hid himself. MICHAEL carefully crawled away from the lake. The soldiers ran past MORGAN's position without seeing him, even though one of them came close to stepping on him.

MAYA was not M Cell's fastest runner, but she held her own against the soldiers. She found a small hill southwest of the lake and ran to its crest. She found a place to quickly conceal the camcorder and then hid herself, relying on the ghillie suit to protect her.

She barely had time to get get comfortable when the six soldiers arrived. She watched as they easily found the camcorder. One of the soldiers took it and had the others fan out, looking for her. He rewound the tape and began to watch it.

A few moments later, another soldier showed up. This one went up to the one with the video camera and started watching it with him. The soldier with the camera was visibly shaken by what he was seeing, but the second one seemed almost unaffected. This freaked MAYA out a little, and she resolved to stay away from this creepy soldier.

One of the original six called out. Something was moving in the woods northeast of MAYA. All but the creepy guy and the trooper with the camcorder headed off after them. Four more soldiers arrived, fanning out to look for her. Another soldier showed up and watched the camcorder images. He was more obviously affected by the video. He appeared to be an officer as he took possession of the camera and made some ordering gestures. He walked back down the road with the camcorder. MAYA cursed under her breath.

There were only three soldiers left near her position. The creepy soldier slipped off into the woods south of her, leaving two. They soon stopped searching and merely stood around, watching the area. MAYA lay still, hoping she hadn't inadvertently laid down on a fire ant bed or something.

Less than twenty minutes passed before a soldier came back up the road. It seemed to be the creepy guy again. The two soldiers near her saluted him, so she assumed he was some sort of officer. He headed off towards the other soldiers north of her. She couldn't hear them anymore. MAYA didn't shift from her position.

About a half an hour later the large group of soldiers returned. She couldn't see all of them, but she could hear them. They marched down the road toward the lake. The two soldiers watching the small hill moved off with them. Soon things were very quiet, and she thought she was on her own. Even still, she stayed hidden.

A few minutes later the creepy officer sneaked quietly through the woods, not far from her position. This justified her caution, and she lay still for another half hour.

By now MAYA was pretty sure that they had given up looking for her. There was now the simple question of what to do next. She had no idea where the other agents were. They didn't have a radio, either, though they did have their Delta Green cell phones. She decided to head for the Armada, wait until she thought it was safe, and phone the agents with their secure phones. Hopefully the others had them on silent mode.

MAYA moved southward, so as to give the lake a wide berth. She stayed in the woods. When she came to a clearing, she aimed east. Along the way, she noticed a glowing trail in the grass, heading from the town in a roughly straight line south southwest. She carefully crossed the trail.

MAYA came to a road she thought was the road through Gove. She quickly ran to the other side. She eventually came to a creek, with a railroad on the other side. She guessed that this was the first creek they had crossed, but there was no sign of the second creek, which she should have already passed. She moved north along the track until she came to a trestle. She couldn't tell, in the darkness, if this was the trestle they crossed originally. She made her way to the other side of the tracks and continued hiking. Before long she came to a hill. Looking over it, carefully, she could see a road. A transport truck travelled along it. This was probably highway 287. She couldn't find the dirt road where the Armada was hidden.

It was about 4 a.m. She pulled out her Delta Green cell phone and risked calling MICHAEL.

* * *

The soldiers ran past MICHAEL's position without seeing him. He hid the parabolic mike, and slipped in behind them, following them along a dirt road through the woods. Ahead he could see the soldiers arrive at a small hill southwest of the lake. One of the soldiers spotted something on the ground and lifted up a camcorder. He barked orders to the other soldiers, rewound the tape, and started watching it. MICHAEL put on the beret, slipped out onto the road and then ran up the hill, pretending to be one of them.

All of the soldiers except the one with the camcorder were searching the area. The one watching the video seemed to be in shock. MICHAEL slipped beside him and looked over his shoulder. MORGAN's videography left a lot to be desired and it was only by sheer luck that he hadn't filmed either of the other two agents. MICHAEL was worried, though, that further footage would betray the existence of him or MAYA (since the soldiers were looking for MAYA, it would tell them that there was at least one other person out there). There was a commotion. Apparently one of the soldiers had spotted something. The other five soldiers took off into the woods to the west.

Before MICHAEL could do anything with the camera, four more soldiers came up. Less than a minute later a lieutenant showed up. This officer immediately took charge. The lieutenant demanded to see the video camera. The shaken soldier eagerly handed it over to the officer, and rushed off to join his five comrades. After watching for a moment, the wide-eyed lieutenant informed the soldiers that he was personally taking this back to Colonel Coffey. He ordered two of the four remaining soldiers to secure the area and told the other two to join the larger body of soldiers to the west. He further ordered MICHAEL — thinking that he was one of them — to take command of the group of eight soldiers. MICHAEL suggested that he would be better off searching the small hill, but the lieutenant overruled him. "Alright, alright," answered MICHAEL, and he jogged toward the group of soldiers. The lieutenant headed back down the road with the camcorder.

As soon as the lieutenant turned away, MICHAEL changed course. He swept wide and ran through the woods as quietly as possible while trying to get in front of the lieutenant. About a hundred yards down the road MICHAEL burst from the woods and threw a kick at the lieutenant's head. The kick was intended to knock the man out, but instead it hit him square in the chest and cracked some ribs. The startled lieutenant swung at MICHAEL with the camcorder, but only succeeded in sending the camera into the brush. MICHAEL swung at the lieutenant with his fist and knocked him unconscious. MICHAEL quickly dragged the officer into the bushes and tied him up.

Unsure of when the officer might regain consciousness, MICHAEL decided to hit him, hoping to drive him into a coma. Instead there was a sickening snap as the blow struck the officer's head and the officer stopped breathing. MICHAEL stripped the body and recovered the camcorder. He wrapped the camera in the uniform.

MICHAEL backtracked and recovered the hidden parabolic mike. He moved back down the road a short way toward the small hill. He found a good place to hide the camera, mike, and uniform. Happy with his concealment work, MICHAEL took the dead officer's ammunition — the officer had the same calibre Glock as MICHAEL — and headed back to the other soldiers. He came to the two soldiers securing the hill. They saluted him, and he returned it. He then went on to the group of eight soldiers searching for MAYA. From a distance he could see that they didn't have the female Delta Green operative, which was very good news. He slipped into the woods and hid. Eventually the soldiers gave up and headed back down the road. MICHAEL let them pass him. He waited until they were clear and slowly crept along behind them.

He had no idea where the other two agents were, so MICHAEL decided to head back to the Armada. He recovered the uniform, camera, and microphone, and then headed east, with the help of his compass. Along the way he caught sight of a faint glow in the tall grass. Squinting, he could make out a residual trail left by the globe. There was no sign of the creature — or whatever it was — itself. He quickly crossed the globe's track and continued moving east.

His navigation skills weren't great, but he managed to find the road running through Gove. He hiked through the woods to the east of the road. It took him a lot longer than he remembered to find the second branch of the creek. He soon came across the first branch and he could see the railroad track. Deducing that he was still somewhat south of the SUV, he followed the creek to the north. After a while he found the trestle where the creek passed under the track. He crossed over the trestle. Shortly afterward he was at the Armada. By now it was after 3 a.m. There was nothing left to do but wait and see if the other agents would join him.

Around 4 a.m. he felt his jacket pocket move. It was his Delta Green cell phone ringing on vibrate mode. It was MAYA. She explained her situation. MICHAEL looked on his map and calculated that she was a couple of hundred yards too far south. He had her hike back to the railroad, then travel north until she found the correct trestle. He told her to phone back when she got there, and they hung up. She phoned back fifteen minutes later. MICHAEL directed her from there to the Armada. They greeted each other, warmly. MICHAEL explained what happened to him.

Suddenly MAYA said, "My God, I saw you! You were the creepy looking one!"

There was still no sign of MORGAN. They phoned his Delta Green cell phone but got his voicemail. The agents began to speculate that perhaps he had been captured, or worse.

* * *

MORGAN lay near the log that sent him sprawling into the creek. The soldiers pounded past him, looking for MAYA. He was alone. MORGAN thought about what to do next. The team hadn't made plans in case they split up. He reasoned that if he kept moving south he would eventually get to Crockett. If he was captured he could always try bluffing his way out since he was a CDC investigator, though the ghillie suit would take some explaining. He would lay there for about an hour and then head south.

While waiting MORGAN could see the canister loaded onto a truck with armed soldiers guarding it. Lights were now set up to scan the woods for interlopers. The barge and divers continued to look for something in the lake, but they didn't find anything while MORGAN was there.

After about an hour, MORGAN slowly moved away from the lake. He first moved south, and then he moved west. He remembered a stream that ran into the lake from the south from MICHAEL's map. He walked until he came to the stream, and then walked along it for a long time. It crossed a dirt road and, a while later, a paved road. The stream came out of the woods, and merged at a fork.

This area was relatively flat. MORGAN looked around and saw that the vegetation in this area glowed faintly. He pulled out one of his bottles and took a sample of the vegetation. While sealing the lid on the bottle, he caught sight of something moving in the grass. It was the strange, glowing ball. It was moving south southwest. MORGAN followed it, from a discreet distance. He watched as the ball slipped below the surface of a small pond.

MORGAN hiked east, so that he could safely bypass the pond. He found another stream moving roughly southward, and walked along it it until he passed its source. Doing as good a job as he could at dead reckoning, he hiked through the woods, hoping he was moving in a southerly direction.

Thursday, May 13, 2004, 5:00 a.m. CDT

Five Miles Southeast of Gove, Texas

It was less than an hour before dawn. The agents at the Armada called MORGAN a couple more times but each time they got his voicemail. They tried again. This time MORGAN answered after the first ring.

"MORGAN," came the calm reply.

"Oh. You're not dead," replied MICHAEL.

They quickly relayed their locations or, in the case of MORGAN, guesstimated location. He told the others that he had struck out for Crockett. MICHAEL told him to strike east and they would pick him up along the 287. MORGAN crossed a road, and then a rail line, and eventually came to the side of the highway. It took him the better part of an hour. He phoned MICHAEL to tell them he was at the highway and ready to be picked up. He removed his ghillie suit while he waited.

MICHAEL and MAYA jumped in the Armada and drove down highway 287. They slowed down where they expected MORGAN to be, but he wasn't there. They continued south and soon spotted him. MICHAEL looked on his map. MORGAN had managed to hike south, out of the quarantine zone, and then cross the road a fair distance from the military checkpoint. MORGAN jumped into the SUV, and MAYA took off for Crockett. They caught up on what happened to them that morning. They arrived at the Crockett Inn at 6 a.m.

The first order of business was to edit the footage they captured on the video camera into something they could e-mail to ALPHONSE. The camera was undamaged, in spite of being thrown into a bush. MORGAN wasn't much of a camera man but he did capture enough footage to get their point across. MICHAEL uploaded the images to the secure Delta Green e-mail server.

MORGAN pulled out the sample he took in the field. The glow was not visible in the daylight, but it was noticeable when he took the sample into the darkened bathroom. He needed to analyze the sample, and quickly. He came up with a plan.

MORGAN drove to the East Texas Medical Center in Crockett. He went in to see the administrator of the hospital. Using his CDC credentials he convinced the administrator to let him have access to a lab. Alone in the laboratory, MORGAN conducted experiments on the sample. He spent all morning with the lab's equipment but didn't find out anything about the weird glow. It wasn't chemical or biological in nature.

He set the sample down on the table. Something began clicking. He hadn't noticed it before, but on the table was a Geiger counter, used in the nuclear medicine department. The counter showed that the radiation, while not immediately harmful, was well above background levels. MORGAN packed away the sample, and slipped the counter into one of his cases. He then made a point of going to the administrator and thanking him for the lab time. MORGAN jumped into his gold Toyota Echo and headed back to the Crockett Inn.

MORGAN knocked on MAYA's door and called her into his room. There he showed the three agents the tainted grass and the Geiger counter.

Soon after, the agents went to bed for a well earned rest.

Thursday, May 13, 2004, 4:15 p.m. CDT

Crockett Inn, Crockett, Texas

MICHAEL received a reply from ALPHONSE. The e-mail stated that another Delta Green agent remembered reading about a similar occurrence. ALPHONSE would e-mail them as soon as the agent tracked down the information. MICHAEL sent a follow-up e-mail about MORGAN acquiring a Geiger counter and determining that the glow was radioactive. In the e-mail MICHAEL wrote, "We are investigating other leads until further information is received." MORGAN filed down the serial number on the Geiger counter while MICHAEL finished the e-mail.

The agents were hungry, so they went to Betty Boop's Soup and Sandwich, in Crockett. Over supper they talked about what to do next. They needed to find a list of experiments on board the space shuttle Columbia on its last mission. The agents were operating under the assumption that whatever the ball was, it was part of an experiment that may or may not have doomed the shuttle. If they could find a list of experiments, they could possibly match the serial number on the recovered canister.

MORGAN, with a grin, asked MAYA if she wanted to see the video they captured that morning.

"The first hit is free," said MICHAEL, dryly.

MAYA scowled at MORGAN. "There's a new movie out. 'Kill MORGAN, Volume One'."

They left the restaurant and returned to the motel.

Thursday, May 13, 2004, 8:20 p.m. CDT

Crockett Inn, Crockett, Texas

While searching the Internet for information about the Columbia's last mission, the agents received an e-mail from ALPHONSE. An agent uncovered a report from an engineer back in 1927. The engineer was surveying the land for a reservoir outside of Arkham, Massachusetts. In the land was a "blasted heath", an area devoid of vegetation and covered with a strange, grey dust that never blew away. The engineer recounted the story he heard from a local man, Ammi Pierce, about what happened on the land. The land was owned by Nahum Gardner, a farmer. In 1882 a meteorite crashed near his well. Something came out of the meteorite and terrorized the family a year later. It eventually sucked the life from all of them. When Pierce and some men from Arkham went to investigate, they saw something remarkably like the Delta Green agent's iridescent globe. The globe erupted up into the sky, leaving the horribly blasted area behind. While the men managed to get out of the area in time, the creature killed all life remaining in the vicinity, including Ammi Pierce's horse, when it burst into the sky. The farm was now under water, flooded when the reservoir was built. Though the people of Arkham considered Pierce's story as the fantastic ravings of a senile old man, the engineer apparently believed at least some of it. He finished the survey, but he never returned to the Arkham area, not even to see the completed reservoir.

The creature seemed to be non-corporeal, and seemed to be more a "colour" than anything physical. The original report called the creature "the Colour"... the Colour out of space.