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The planet of Uso. From space it might have seemed like a desert world, but that was only because all its water was beneath the surface. A vast underground network of rivers and lakes. More than enough water to supply a crafty colony. Which it did.

The current population had recently surpassed one billion and there had been a great celebration a few months ago. For many years Uso had faced hardship head-on. They were a closely knit people who valued community and cooperation. How else could they have dug so many wells or have endured the grueling sandstorms? There was even talk of declaring independence, becoming a self-ruled planet. But that was mostly just the zealous pride of cheerful drunks after a long day's work.

To put it simply, Uso might have looked like a dust ball, but it was overflowing with happy families and potential. The future looked bright.

Which is why it became the target of a civilization predator.

In the darkness of space, a near imperceptible shadow advanced. A dark outline which absorbed any light that dared caress its smooth exterior. The creature's true shape could only be perceived with extremely advanced technology or with the use of radically specialized magic. Which Uso did not have.

Its build was equine in nature, with four legs ending in hooves. It had a slender neck leading to a head which featured short cone-shaped ears and a blunt muzzle. However the monster also had several qualities that were definitively insect-like. It had two compound eyes made of countless smaller hexagonal plates and its entire body was covered in a hard exoskeleton. Additionally, protruding from the creature's back were two pairs of thin wings crisscrossed with veins.

And most notably, the monster was many kilometers long. It was very nearly as large as the world it was descending upon.

It was a space fairing exa-fauna. More specifically, it was a very distant relative to the common changeling and had all the same abilities. But those powers functioned on a much larger scale.

The exa-changeling drifted ever closer to the planet that had caught its eye. It passed the closest of Uso's three moons with a slight tilt of its wings which seemed to work even in the vacuum of space. Yet, as it closed in on the atmosphere of the planet, it flared all four of its wings and mysteriously came to a stop. It was not in orbit and it was no longer falling towards the surface. It was as though gravity could not affect it despite its massive size.

The exa-changeling rubbed its hooves together slowly, eyeing its meal hungrily. It licked its lips. Then it began the harvest.

It spread its hooves as though it intended to grab the world before it, however its limbs never breached even the upper atmosphere. It opened its muzzle as wide as it could and seemed to bite nothing with its huge fangs. Then it lazily closed its eyes.

For an entire month it remained attached to Uso, draining it of all positive emotion. A powerful magical aura surrounded the exa-changeling and rendered it completely invisible, despite its enormous size, while it fed. There was no clue perceptible by any sense that something supernatural was happening.

However, the effects of the creature's feeding could not have been more obvious...

Families disintegrated. Friendships ended in brutal fights. Leaders turned to corruption seemingly overnight. Law and order broke down. The entire world was plunged into anarchy. Chaos. The body count exploded as the cities fell to ruin.

Finally, there was nothing left for the exa-changeling to devour. No more love. No more happiness. No more peace. Uso was nothing more than a hell hole now. A backwater planet consumed by hatred and infighting. Not that the huge monster was concerned about that. As it drifted back into the abyss of space it contently rubbed its full belly. It was time to relax and enjoy its meal.

Though it made sure to keep an eye out for the next cheerful world it would have to suck dry...

Author's Note

A while back I saw a post by someone speculating if giant changelings would need more love than their normal sized counterparts. Honestly, I kind of dismissed the idea. It was amusing, but I wasn't interested in it at the time. More recently I found myself playing the Dead Space remake and rekindling my old love for the franchise and its lore. I'm a big fan of Lovecraft and cosmic monsters you see. So I was thinking about the necromorphs and Markers and how they work when I had a realization: the abilities of the Brethren Moons are kind of similar to the powers of changelings...

Why "exa-changeling"? It's supposed to be a reference to "mega-fauna", but I wanted to go bigger. However, giga and tera are already common terms used in the size community and they generally aren't used for something this big. So I went a step further. So exa!

"Uso" is a reference to the main character in the story "Big Hot Teacher". Hector Uso got a planet named after him. Wonder how he did that. Must be thanks to that education he was so determined to get.