Chapter 18

"The Prime Sentient One has gone back to slumbering."

"Advisor, when shall the hunter killers arrive again?"

"They should arrive when the star crests the horizon. Then we shall see if these new Sentient Ones are as much of a threat as we first thought."

"Yes, then maybe we can move to another life-bearing planet now that we have stripped this one of nearly everything. Unless we figure out how those strange immobile creatures got their energy."

"You know that we will never understand that. We must return to this strange red world to get enough additional biomass to make it to the next world but then we will all be slumbering. Until of course, we arrive at our next planet where we shall feast once again."

At this point, all of the Advisors were starting to get hungry but the sun would soon crest the horizon and none of them wanted to miss the spectacle that was hunter-killers fighting another Sentient One.

xX On Mars in the base's hangar Xx

"Be gentle, it's my first time," Charlette jested.

"Hey, you do know the Alabama colony's about a hundred miles south-southwest of here. Want me to see if I can get you transferred there?"

"Jim, if I had a gun, it'd have one less bullet in it. Just make sure the sync rates aren't going haywire when I finish getting these stupid gloves on."

Loyd angrily pulled the second glove on and pulled the tightening strap till it was snug.

"There we go. Alright Charlette, let's do this."

Loyd had been standing on the access platform trying to get his gloves on and Charlette had already opened her cockpit. He turned around and stepped back into the two slots for his legs.

"These only come up to my knees? I thought they were supposed to-" Charlette pulled Loyd the rest of the way down with a slurp.

"Never mind." The upper part of the cockpit came down as the access doors shut, bringing the sleeves down onto Loyd's arms.

"Alright, you can begin the synchronization process now, Jim."

"Roger that. So Loyd, how's it feels in there? Warm and squishy or-"

"Fuck you, Jim. She's only cloned from the same genetic material I was," Loyd snapped.

"No, I'm honestly curious as to how it feels. I can keep up the inuendoes but I'm starting to run out of those." Jim finished getting the computers onboard Charlette ready for the sync.

"Alright, you're good to go! Charlette, you have full control over the sync hardware now."

"Right now, where does the sync plug go again?"

"Uhm, preferably you would just use the automatic connect sequence but I guess you can freehand it."

"Please, Charlette, use the software. I don't want you to miss and cripple me, or worse."

"Alright, I'll use the software." Charlette sighed and switched the software on, which immediately pulled the injection plug out of the wall of the cockpit and stabbed it into the back of Loyd's neck.

The pair froze as every memory either of them ever had was shared between them. Then they were able to feel each other's heartbeat.

"You feel that?"

They shared the same voice now as well, and each knew the answer.

"Why am I not hungry, like in the simulator?"

"They fed me last night."

"Alright, then we should get moving. The mission timer says those things are going to land in the next thirty minutes. Clear the way everyone, we're moving to the AO."

"Roger that, the door to the air dome is opening now." Jim's voice had been replaced with the head technician's. "Don't crash through it like when you came here, alright Charlette? Those things aren't cheap to repair, and we do have an airlock for just such reasons."

"Yeah, sorry about that, you remember I was almost out of power on my way here, and I couldn't really detect the air wall."

"Yeah still. Anyways, your new equipment is at the R&D department over at Olympus mons. It's a little way off the straight path but you should be able to get both it and reach the drop site before the shuttle reaches the surface."

"Roger that. Make sure they have it on the southern launch platform when we get there." The two of them disengaged from the gantry and ducked under the still rising hangar door.

"Wait, but that's on the other side of the base? Why are you wasting time going around the base when they can just put it on the north side?"

"Just do as I asked and you'll see." The two arrived at the airlock and went through, once it finished cycling. They lowered down to all fours, their mouth curving into a smile as the excitement started to build within them. Then they launch through the air, their first bound covering nearly the length of the base and their second nearly doubling the first.

"Holy shit, they're fast! Check the load on the arms and legs."

The General walked up behind the head technician and smiled. "Quite spectacular, isn't it? The bio-type CTAS is the next stage in our war against the swarm."

"I don't know, sir, the strain on these joints is immense. I don't think they can keep up their current pace."

"You forget that they have the new pinwheel reactor, they will be fine."

"You put way too much stock in those things. If any damage is sustained to one of those, the crater will be the only proof they were ever there."

"Well, then they just need to be faster than the swarm."

The siblings continued to push themselves, till they reached a speed of nearly a hundred kilometers an hour. The base disappeared behind them and the great smoke pillars of the Olympus colony appeared ahead of them.

"The smoke reaches just to the edge of space because the gravity on Mars isn't quite strong enough to keep it closer to the ground." Charlette chuckled to herself as Loyd explained to her stuff she already knew from his memories.

xX A short time later Xx

"You two should be seeing the base in the distance now." The technician was still acting as their operator.

"Roger that, we see it cresting the horizon now. Switching to satellite comms now that we're at the edge of radio range."

"Understood, your contraption is on the southern platform, just as you requested."

The siblings both smiled, knowing that with their contraption they could easily clear the base in a single bound. They started to turn to go around the base but noticed the launch platforms on the north side had all been deployed.

"This is Monster One to Olympus base, do you copy?"

"We read you loud and clear, Monster One, feel free to use the launch platforms to just go straight over the base instead of wasting time going around."

"Roger that, get everyone clear of the southern platform. We've burnt a lot of calories already."

"All pads are cleared; you don't have to worry about that."

The siblings launched themselves once more, landing on the first platform and immediately launching themselves on to the next one. By the third platform, they had found that they could just grab the edge of the next platform without stopping from the landing. They cleared the fifth and final platform at nearly a hundred and fifty kilometers an hour, sending them over most of the rest of the colony. Their weapon was set on a gantry where they were supposed to dock for a short time.

"So, is this supposed to be automated?"

"Yes, you dock at the gantry and its set to attach your new contraption."

"Roger that. We're initiating the docking sequence now."

"Alright, just be warned this is gonna hurt like hell."

The pain of having a massive thruster system anchored to your very skeleton can only be understood by people who give bone marrow transplants, accept with four bones at a time. The gantry was bent from where the siblings tried to get themselves away from the pain. Now that the procedure was over, the gantry let them go. They fell to their knees, the thruster connecting to their neural network. The final checks were done and they could control their new appendage.

"Equipment installation complete, you guys are good to go."

"If I ever get my hands anywhere-"

"Stay focused you two, the swarm is still on their way to your final waypoint." The General interrupted.

"Yes, sir. I'm gonna be hungry by the time I get back. Remember that."

"We've got that chef from last week making you both a whole smoked hog."

The siblings began drooling.

"A whole smoked hog each?"

"That's right."

"Consider the swarm extinct." The siblings powered up their new thruster system and launched over the entire colony in a single bound.

"Well, they just broke the sound barrier. Now what're you gonna tell me? That thing doesn't use fuel?" The head technician was talking once again and she sounded flabbergasted.

"How'd you guess? This thing accelerates a series of small metal beads inside itself and then catches them against a shock-absorbing crystal matrix. It can also accelerate and control some outside itself using the pinwheel reactor as its power source."

"Wait, you mean that glorified backpack is capable of magnetic suspension outside of the main mag chamber?! How the hell did you get that to work?!"

"Lots of small-scale models, simulations, and headaches." Dr. Borya had joined the group in the mission control room.

"Doctor, it's good to hear you after that last model exploded on you." Loyd exclaimed as he continued to run.

"Well, that's why it pays to wear a bulletproof vest in my workshop nowadays."

"You should see the landing point in a few moments now, kids. Don't get distracted from your mission here or it will cost you your life." The General cut in.

"Yeah, we know the swarm is nothing like the simulator. You've drilled that into our heads for the past day, General. I think we understand it by now."

"We have additional standard-type CTAS on their way to the drop zone in order to provide assistance. They just won't arrive in time to help you."

"Fine, just make sure they don't get in our way. I've got eyes on the landing zone now." A loud explosion could be heard over the comms system as the Swarm's Hunter Killers began firing on Loyd and Charlette.