Chapter 42

xX aboard the original Crystalid ship Xx

"So, they plan on leaving this inferior race alone? And they plan to leave the Swarm, our greatest threat, alive?! These fools will be the death of our race! We shall not ally ourselves with these heretical imbeciles! We will fight on!" cried the Chancellor as he proceeded to increase the factory's production on the moon below.

"Chancellor, that is the lost fleet! Are you sure their minds have been corrupted?" the young eidolon asked.

The chancellor turned around, enraged. The arms that were concealed within his chair deployed and tore the young eidolon apart. "No one questions me!" He declared with a hint of insanity in his voice.

xX back aboard the Crystalid capital ship Xx

"What do you mean something is wrong with the other ship?" the captain asked.

"I was detecting two other Crystalids and now I'm only detecting one. I think that the ship's captain is corrupted but I am unsure."

"Helmsmen, after we retake the mother crystal, you will bring us next to that planet. If they fire on us, we have enough firepower to annihilate them before they do too much damage."

"Aye aye, captain!"

xX now to the hybrid crawler, tether thing Xx

"Hey, Loyd. I've been monitoring the Crystalid ship out near Jupiter and I just lost one of the energy signatures. Do you think the equipment is malfunctioning?" Jim asked, handing Loyd his tablet.

Loyd looked over the short video and smirked. "It would appear the captain of that ship killed his final ally. We've got to worry about the Swarm for right now but I don't think that the Crystalids are going to let that happen as smoothly as we planned."

"But plans change a lot when you're part of the hybrid army," Tiny declared as he passed the door with a box.

"Alright, I'm taking the new prototype out in a few minutes. Make sure you keep an eye on… how are you scanning them through a planetoid?" Loyd questioned.

"Uhm, by bouncing my scan off the Voyager probe. Why do you want to know? Had you not thought of that?" Jim teased.

"No, I hadn't. Good job, Jim. You're starting to think outside the box!" Loyd admitted happily.

"Well, I do have you to try and outdo when it comes to that!" Jim joked. "You might wanna get going if you're taking that new prototype of yours out before we get to earth."

"Alright, I'm going. Be sure to update me if anything interesting happens!" Loyd called back as he hurried down the hall to the hangar.

Jim smirked and got back to watching his tablet. "I wonder what would happen if… Nah that's too risky if what Tiny said is true."

Loyd hurried over to his locker and pulled his new low atmosphere suit on over his clothes. It wouldn't be as warm as his last one but it would still be better than nothing. His helmet was much less bulky around his ears and mouth and still allowed him to see everything around him. Its air seal around his neck made it so he could get away with a smaller air tank and vacuum out the air in the rest of his suit making it skin tight.

He exited the locker room and walked over to a large tarp. Ripping it off, he revealed one of the Crystalid fighters that had attacked them in the desert. It had been heavily modified to use both the small black Geodite, the warp core creature, and an extra pair of pinwheel reactors. It was much slimmer, since the cockpit had to be so much smaller for a human to operate it. The thrusters had been realigned so that a third engine could be installed behind the pilot and still be in line with the center of mass. The maneuvering thrusters had been angled away from the body more so they could be stronger while still providing some extra thrust. A set of four additional boosters had been grafted along the top and bottom of the hull in case a speed boost was needed.

A youngling stepped out from behind the craft with a jug of water. "You said you wanted a jug of water, Master?"

"Yes, I did, thank you," Loyd said taking the jug and opening his helmet. He downed the entire jug of water in mere moments and handed it back to the youngling. "Thank you. Hopefully, that'll keep most of my organs from rupturing."

The youngling looked up at him confused and decided it was better to just go along with it.

Loyd climbed up into the modified ship and was greeted by a single large eye that was attached to one of Loyd's various youngling. It had spread throughout the vessel and could be used as a form of autopilot if the need ever arose.

"Finished integrating yourself yet?"

The eye blinked at him and seemed to nod.

"Then let's take this thing out for a test flight."

Loyd started the two pinwheel reactors spinning.

Upon the first connection, they started spinning themselves up and lowered themselves into a position that would feed the reactors as well as themselves.

Loyd checked off each of the systems and monitored a few screens before pulling the fighter out into the middle of the hangar.

A series of alarms and lights let everyone know the hangar was opening as the air was sucked out. After almost all the air had been vacuumed out, the hangar door dropped, allowing Loyd to throttle the engines and fly out of it.

The fighter handled beautifully even if it was far more reactive than Loyd had thought. Only the two primary engines had been engaged and yet it was moving far faster than it had previously, thanks to the pinwheel reactors increased power output.

"Alright, let's see if this thing can keep up with air resistance enabled," Loyd muttered lowering the Geodite's energy supply.

The craft was rocked by the thin atmosphere of mars as they continued moving at a few times the speed of sound. The air resistance on Earth would be much worse than on Mars but the craft didn't seem to take any form of damage aside from the bumpy ride.

Loyd turned the power supply back on for the Geodite and the air started moving out of their way again. "Now let's try the third engine."

Loyd flipped a switch on the console next to him and listened to a third reactor spin up behind him.

The engine kicked on and caused the entire craft to lurch at the sudden increase in speed. The craft shot out in front of the elevator cable and crawlers as its speed continued to increase. Its boosters activated after the acceleration stopped and caused the craft to lurch once again as Loyd was pressed into his seat.

The g-force would've killed a normal human but Loyd was reinforced and the water he had drunk replaced most of the air pockets in his body. His lungs were still filled with air but he didn't notice the pain or shortness of breath.

The craft was vibrating from all of the thrusters and was groaning under the stresses. It couldn't withstand full speed for much longer.

"Let's, try something else then, shall we?" Loyd said glancing over at his Geodite.

The Geodite was capable of connecting to the Swarm neural network and understood what Loyd was wanting. It changed the shape of its distortion field and ran it throughout the ship stopping it from flying apart as Loyd increased the energy it was receiving.

The craft sped past Olympus Mons and turned upwards, shooting out of the atmosphere.

("Take me to the Crystalid ship near Jupiter.") Loyd commanded.

The space around the little craft folded around itself and disappeared with Loyd. It reappeared next to the Crystalid ship within seconds still moving as fast as it had been on Mars.

The larger ships cannons turned to fire on Loyd but couldn't turn fast enough to track him as he circled the ship looking for a weak point.

The ship had a massive section that appeared damaged underneath it as Loyd continued circling. Something massive seemed to be moving within the ship but he couldn't make out what it was.

A massive explosion shook the entire ship as it lost and then regained power. A red glow starting to come from within. A few seconds later a massive arm ripped its way out of each side of the ship as the head and body emerged from its upper decks, the ship's reactor firmly planted in its chest.

Loyd slowed the ship and turned to face the massive entity that was absorbing the rest of the ship. "Seems you went a little crazy there, captain! Maybe you should take a chill pill and calm down?!" he taunted.

The monster's head turned to face the small fighter and let out a silent scream due to the lack of air for the sound to travel through. Its massive hands came at the little fighter as though to clap it out of existence.

Loyd reversed his thrust and barely dodged the attack as he charged two laser cannons. The laser cannons discharged and cut into the eye of the monster.

It grabbed onto the side of its face with one hand and throttled its own engines to pursue Loyd.

"Oh shit, it can fly!" Loyd shouted, flipping his fighter over and increasing his speed. "You're going to have to be my tail gunner! Aim at that thing's chest! If you can hit the energy crystal you should detonate it and destroy the entire ship!"

The laser cannons spun around on a track that encompassed the cockpit and started to charge up again. Releasing its blast, it struck the chancellor.