Chapter 30

The old man stood at the edge of the air dome staring out at the Martian landscape. "Quite miraculous that those worms could survive in such a thin atmosphere. Care to explain how that's possible, little one?"

"Well, master made it so they could breathe through their skin and they have an internal airlock in front of their stomachs," the youngling answered, cheerfully kicking her feet from her position on the ledge. "I don't really understand what that all means but master says it keeps them from having their stomach acid boil-off and removes their need for lungs."

"I see. So, my son's a genius then. I wonder how his mother's doing?"

"She's with him, looking after the rest of us kids."

The old man laughed. "She always was a mother at heart. It looks like she finally gets to be one." Reinhold started coughing.

"Are you alright? I thought the air in this place was supposed to be the best on Mars."

"I'm *cough* fine. I just have *cough cough* bad lungs from my smoking habit *cough*," Reinhold said staring at the black fluid that had come from his lungs. "My time's almost up. Loyd had better get here soon."

"I think he prefers demon, instead of genius, by the way."

"Demon, huh? I guess that works. Say, I don't think I ever got your name."

"Eleven-sixty-two"

"What?" Reinhold asked confused.

"Eleven-sixty-two. It's my name."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well, we started with eleven-eleven and I'm the sixty-second one of us born. Master never gave us names so we made our own. Miss Linda is trying to find a name for all of us but it's taking her a long time," the youngling explained.

Reinhold just stared at the child as she playfully kicked at the air. "Maybe I'll name you then. Shouldn't be too hard. Now, you've got almost silver hair and yours eyes are also silvery. Argenti, it means silver in Latin, an old Earth language."

"It sounds pretty. I like it." Argenti jumped up and hugged Reinhold. "Thank you for giving me a name."

Reinhold ruffled her hair laughing. "It's the least I could do when I heard you didn't have one."

xX Back to the main character Xx

"So, we have everything torn apart and loaded on the trucks now?" Griffon asked, putting the last metal bar onto the back of a massive crawler.

"Should be. We're just waiting for everyone to climb aboard before we move through the main dome," Sara called to him.

"The last three kids are being seated as we speak," Linda said over the radio.

"Right then. Jim, I'll go through with the cargo first. Then you follow me with everything else. Tiny, try not to look too much like an alien," Loyd said.

"Alright, convoy, you are cleared to enter airlock three. We've evacuated everyone except a camera crew who's supposed to lead you through the city," said a voice over the radio.

"Roger that. Crawler one moving out," Loyd replied.

The airlock door shut behind him allowing the room to pressurize. Once it had finished pressurizing the other door opened to a small van with a cameraman seated on top filming the crawler.

("Alright everyone, get ready for the attack. They should hit us soon after you enter the airlock, Jim.") Loyd said looking around and pulling the crawler forward.

"You just have to follow us to the next airlock!" yelled the cameraman.

"That's what control said."

The van started to move forward with the crawler until both reached the first turn. The crawler was too big to try and turn without tearing apart the surrounding buildings. Normally this would've been a problem but Loyd had designed these things with 360° steering. The crawler slid the control booth around on a rail and locked it back in place. Eight giant feet pressed down against the ground and picked the crawler up. All four of its track assemblies rotated to face down the street. The feet then let the crawler back down and it started moving down the street.

"Eat shit, Archimedes. I just moved nearly seven-hundred tons using muscles, without pulleys." Loyd laughed.

"Seriously, Loyd? That was why you made these things the way you did?" Sara asked from behind him.

"That might've had something to do with it, yeah."

"You're hopeless. Cute, but hopeless," she muttered.

A loud pop and a hiss could suddenly be heard.

"What was that?" asked Loyd.

"This stupid dial's not working right!" Sara yelled, smacking the control panel.

The cameraman looked up at the control module, confused, as some red liquid sprayed all over the glass. "What's going on in there?"

"Please don't break the equipment like that again," sigh Loyd.

"How was I supposed to know the thing could explode like that!?" Sara yelled.

"The fact I told you it was the hydraulic controls should've told you not to go around breaking it!"

"Yeah, you told me it was the hydraulics controls. That doesn't mean it could explode like that!"

"Well, I've got the leak plugged now," Loyd said from under the console. "If you got any on you…"

Loyd looked at Sara who stood there completely soaked. "What? If I got any on me then what?"

"Go get yourself a bath. That stuff should come off with water but it'll turn into jelly if you wait too long."

Sara went bright red and walked out of the control room. "If you peep on me, I'll do more than just kill you."

"I'll send one of the girls to get your clothes for you!" Loyd called after her.

("Hey, Loyd, we're through the airlock maybe this attack you're so worried about isn't going to happen,") Jim said.

("It's too soon to tell but I'm driving blind now so keep your distance.")

("What do you mean you're driving blind?")

("Sara broke one of the hydraulic hoses in her console and it sprayed all over the glass.")

("Can't you clean it up?")

("Yeah, I'll just stop the crawler outside the dome and clean it up then.")

A powerful explosion rocked the crawler. The news van had driven off as fast as it could, when the hydraulic sprayed the glass, leaving red, blood-like streaks. They must not have wanted Loyd to kill them too. A land mine, placed below the street, detonated underneath them. It had been powerful enough to damage the crawler so when the van had set it off, there wasn't a van anymore.

"Well, there goes our bystanders," Loyd said to no one in particular as he picked himself up off the floor.

"Can you get past the hole that mine made?" Griffon asked over the radio.

"Yeah, we can. I'm just not sure if there's not another one buried further along our path."

"Allow me to fix this situation. I can easily survive the blast those things give off," Tiny said, jumping from the second crawler to the first.

"You do that. Just make sure you don't bring down any buildings," Loyd called.

Tiny jumped to the ground and started walking towards the crater the first mine had caused. Upon reaching its edge he noticed a pipe running underneath the road with another explosive partially destroyed just barely in view.

"We may be underestimating our opponent here. These are incredibly advanced explosives for some random person to come across."

"Could they be mining explosives?" Jim asked.

"That depends on whether or not you're trying to excavate the ceiling of a mine. These things are shaped charges."

"Then we drive over them at top speed and punch through the airlock at the end of the street," Loyd said. "The crawlers may need repairs when we're done but they can make it through."

"If you say so," Jim said. "Punching it into high gear."

"Crawlers can you hear me?!" the radio voice from before came through with a lot of static. "Terrorists have placed a large explosive at the junction ahead of you!"

"Roger that control. Tiny detonate that thing and we can drive over the rest of them."

"Understood." Tiny ran to the junction and noticed the wire a second too late.

The explosion sent him flying back and tore down the surrounding buildings.

"Damnit! They had a budget, didn't they?!" Loyd exclaimed.

"We felt that from back here is everyone alright?" Jim asked.

"Alive but sore," Tiny said getting to his feet. "You should still be able to drive over that. The rubble from the buildings helped fill in part of the hole."

"Alright, I'm punching it," Loyd said flooring the accelerator pedal.

"Right behind you," Jim shouted.

Several smaller explosions went off all around them as they rushed through the minefield. Both doors to the airlock opened in front of them. The suction caused several alarms to go off all around the dome.

"It'll shut after you're through!" the operator yelled at them.

The first crawler came out of the dome with scorch marks all along its underside. None of the smaller explosions had been strong enough to destroy the crawler but there was quite a bit of hydraulic fluid leaking from it.

The second crawler shot out of the airlock and skidded to a halt behind the first.

"Why can't anything be easy for once?" Griffon asked.

"Because then it wouldn't be as fun!" Tiny said climbing aboard the second crawler.

"Well, my crawlers dead in the water. You're going to have to tow me behind you, Jim."

"Sure thing, Loyd."

("I GO TO HAVE ONE SHOWER AND A WAR STARTS ALL AROUND US! WHAT THE HELL!") Sara screamed.