Chapter 45

"Now that we don't have to worry about the Crystalids or their creators, do you think we can expect reinforcements from Earth or those refugees?" Griffon asked as he lifted a girder into place.

"I don't think we're going to be getting any help from either group. I mean what proof do we have that we actually killed those ghosts? The Swarm should be our only focus right now. That and this stupid mining rig that Loyd came up with. I'm not even sure how any of this is supposed to go together!" Jim complained loudly while welding the girder Griffon was holding up.

Griffon rolled his eyes and watched several of the younglings putting another piece of the bucket arm together. They were building their piece much faster than him and Jim but they still had to pick the entire piece up and attach it to the platform of the crawler.

"Makes you wonder why we didn't pre-process this stuff back at Olympus Mons. I mean how much easier would it have been to just build this stuff there and just assemble it here?"

"Not much easier than what you're currently doing because we would've had to rebuild everything from crawler one and then build the frame up again. Just be glad we spent the time to make these things weldable. Cause if we hadn't, you would've been bolting everything together and that would've taken both more material and more time," Loyd explained while checking on everyone's progress. "You guys are actually the ones holding everyone up. That piece you're putting together is the height adjuster. Without it, we can't drop the excavator's arm to the correct height. That's not to mention that if you weld it poorly, we'll have to take the entire thing apart and put it back together again in order to fix it."

Jim glared down at his work as he continued to weld.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, we've got a much larger problem heading our way from the northwest," said Loyd with a sigh, turning away.

"Wait, isn't that the direction of Chernobyl? How can they communicate going through an area with that much radiation?" Griffon asked.

"We believe this thing has a form of consciousness. It probably doesn't have remote controls like the others, either."

Jim stopped welding and looked up at Loyd. "Then what are you waiting for? You and Ragnarok need to get out there and kill it, don't you?"

"That's the thing. Ragnarok went out with Sara to fight a cluster of swarmlings to the south. My next option is still being pieced together by Tiny. It should be done by the time the thing is inside the perimeter. I actually came out here to see if you had finished that prototype you've been working on, Griffon."

Griffon looked at Loyd shocked. "You remember the list of side effects I told you about, don't you?! You won't survive the ordeal and I'm not sure we can bring you back if you die like that! Even a dive system without limiters isn't even close to what you're going to go through if you pilot that thing!"

"So, you did finish it then." Loyd smiled knowing what he was risking was worth the reward. He'd already planned everything out for them, now he just had one last question he needed to answer. He turned around and walked back over to the open hangar access. This wasn't going to be fun.

xX a few minutes later to the north-east Xx

The monstrosity making its way to the storm wall was several hundred feet long and looked like a cross between a centipede and a mantis shrimp. Its exoskeleton was nearly half a foot thick and had special clear plates over its eyes. It had two brains in order to control its massive body, both of which were capable of controlling the entire creature if the need were to arise.

It watched as a silhouette appeared at the edge of the sand. The silhouette seemed to be floating in place with two massive wings stretching out behind it. A red glow started to form in a spiraling pattern along with the wings as it came out of the storm.

Loyd stood in the control room of the hovering CTAS and looked out at his prey through two starving eyes. His nerves had been intertwined with the CTAS's directly. Unlike with the plugs that previous CTAS units had used, Loyd's body had been dissolved and his nerves were connected to the CTAS's.

("Let's begin operation Homefront, shall we?")

Loyd's CTAS sprouted arms and legs from its cocoon-like armor that then compacted around the muscle structure of the CTAS.

("Griffon called this thing the beast. Let's see if it's as demonic as he claims.")

The CTAS's eyes began to glow a soft purple as an energy barrier grew outwards from its wings. The sand that struck the barrier was repelled at several times the speed that it hit it with.

The Swarm creature stared at the display for a moment before rearing up onto its hind legs and unfurling its massive bio cannons from under itself. It began firing shot after shot into Loyd's energy field.

The wings that Loyd was using began overheating as shot after shot was deflected around the shield. He walked forward with each deflected shot as the growing hunger reflected in his eyes.

("Time to wake up, Beast!") Loyd shouted over the neural connection the two shared. ("Show the universe what a true demon is capable of!")

The glow from inside the eyes of the CTAS grew brighter as though a second eye opened within them. The restraints that had been placed on its jaw broke apart as it let out a cry of rage. Its wings unfolded as the energy shield grew in size pushing both the desert sand and the Swarm gunner back with such force that it was picked up off the ground.

A crater had formed around where the new monster had been standing. The Swarm gunner managed to get back to its feet and looked around for its enemy.

"Tell your master we're coming for it!" the monster screamed before using its shield to crush the Swarm Gunner under it like an insect before crashing to the ground itself.

xX back at the mobile base Xx

"WHAT! Why would you let Loyd pilot that monster?! You based it off of all of our combined anger didn't you?! Why would you think that this was a good idea?!" Sara screamed, a gun pointed at Griffon.

"He was the one who gave himself permission. He's the one who wanted to pilot that demon! I made it as a last resort and he knew that but that didn't stop him from taking it out!" Griffon shouted back at her.

Sara dropped the gun horrified by what she was hearing. "Why would he let himself be corrupted by that thing? Its only goal is the complete destruction of all life. It was our weapon of mass destruction and he takes it out for something as routine as border patrol?"

An alarm on Griffon's computer started going off behind him. "Warning, unknown energy signature closing on our current position. It is creating a disturbance in the sand storm. Electrical readings spiking. Recommending immediate evacuation from the area near the storm."

("Don't worry about what the computer is saying. I've put the demon back to sleep. I'm just spooling down the reactor with the shields,") Loyd announced.

("So, it didn't absorb you? That's a relief,") Griffon said, letting out a sigh of relief.

("It tried, but my will was stronger.")

Sara dropped to her knees and threw up. ("It's good to hear you're alright.")

("Same to you. Also, this guy is starving. I don't think feeding him will wake him up and we're using the same limiter that Charlette had installed in her that limits motion so even if it does, we'll be able to put it back to sleep pretty easily.")

("Alright, I'll have something ready for the both of you when you get back!") Charlette declared.

("You are able to disconnect from it right?") Griffon asked.

("Yes, I can disconnect. Don't worry about me.")

xX far to the south Xx

"The gunner was defeated but it was able to give us information on their newest creature," the Advisor said, trembling in fear from the defeat. "It is impervious to all forms of damage and can use its defenses as a weapon. It can also fly for short durations."

The Prime Sentient stared down at the Advisor in disgust. It wouldn't kill the Advisor because it had seen the enemy better than any of the other Advisors. So, it would be put in charge of finding a method of fighting the enemies' new warriors. That would allow the Prime Sentient to make the rest of its warriors stronger through mutation. The time to leave this planet was drawing closer, but it couldn't focus on that just yet. It was too dangerous to stop focusing on this new threat to do what was necessary to leave. The Advisor had to buy it more time.