Story Seed - Impact

As I stood on the shore, the skimmer board humming eagerly under my arm, there was a sound like thunder.  A growing rumble that began in some unknowable distance and grew louder and deeper until finally it ceased in a single apocalypse of sound that slapped the ocean flat like a tamping rod on fresh dirt.

I pulled myself from the surf, the sound had been like a physical impact knocking my feet out from under me, and looked up.  A glowing lance pierced the heavens.  White hot at its core, and nearly too bright to witness, it cooled to yellow and orange and red in its corona.  When it hit the ocean it did so with such force that I could not see if it sank or detonated.  Water was thrown in every direction, a killer wave rose and raced toward me.

A burning spear from beyond Earth, a remnant of a prior age, or something else? I do not know.

~~~~~

This is the last of the Story Seeds originally posted to the Numenera Fans Google+ Group. New Story Seeds will continue on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (with occasional time off for holidays and the like).