magisternihil's 100-word story for January 9, 2026

magisternihil wrote the following micro-story on Hectalex on January 9, 2026. Each story on Hectalex is inspired by a daily visual prompt and must be exactly 100 words.

When the saucers arrived, everyone assumed it was invasion. Countries each responded in their own way, some threatening, some attempting offering friendship, but the strange space creatures with their bulbous eyes just ignored any meaningful attempt at contact and set about their mission. Book after book they pulled from our shelves, emptying libraries, homes, stores, until they had a copy of each. In the end, they didn’t have to destroy us. The collected effort of the humans eventually landed on using nuclear weapons. The collectors left a planet annihilating itself while they flew their archives away and continued their task.

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