Chapter 21

"We have existed since there was life to consume. Our goal is to find enough food to feed our endless hunger. Our kind was many, and this is how we became so few," the voice said, gentle as a mother, in Loyd's dream.

"We came across a race who were not flesh and we could not devour. Like all the others before us, they offered to assimilate us." The voice paused for a moment, as if in thought. "The alternative was the complete annihilation of our race. We refused, saying that it was our flesh that made us strong. Oh, how we were wrong."

A face formed out of the black mist in front of Loyd. It looked like an older Charlette!

"Charlette? Is that you?" Loyd cried out, tears streaming from his eyes.

"No. I am not your sister." The face turned away saddened, before turning back. "But I guess you never met your mother, did you?"

Loyd floated in the darkness, staring at the woman as she finished manifesting. She wore a blue dress that fell down into the nothingness. The sleeves were tatters of what they used to be, barely hiding her horribly scarred arms. Her skin was pale and she had an aura of frailness to her. Reaching out to Loyd, she smiled sweetly.

"Mom?" Loyd stared, his mind racing. "Then… where did I get my swarm?"

"From me sadly. In the early days of bio-type research, we thought that maybe adding a piece of the swarm to a human would be the fastest way to figure out how they worked." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I was the head of the Far Point lab and was the only one willing to go through with the procedure. I was unaware that I was pregnant with twins until a month after I entered quarantine. The swarm tissue that had been grafted to me had infected my blood and started to increase my metabolism. This didn't have any major effects other than an increase in food intake but that could've also been from the pregnancy. We never really found out before the quarantine." She stopped when Loyd pulled away.

"I don't believe you. They would have tested for that before proceeding with any kind of experiments!"

She stared at him with round eyes of shock, before looking away thoughtfully. "I guess you don't have a reason to believe me. Just let me finish this story please." Glancing back up at Loyd, there were tears in her eyes.

"Alright, continue." His voice was cold and filled with anger.

"Thank you." Taking a breath to collect her thoughts, she continued. "Your father came into quarantine with me. He was a rather gruff man but once you got to know him, he had a gentler heart than anyone could ever believe. I think… I think I killed him. My memories start getting fuzzy around then. He may still be alive and I just don't remember what happened but for now, I can only hope." She wiped a tear from her eye. "I remember your birth like it was yesterday. My body had become horribly deformed and they had to cut you out of me before I tore you out myself. They had to dart me, to do it but when the dart hit me, my mind shattered. The drugs worked and they got you out but as soon as you were a safe distance away, the lab was detonated with all of its staff, to keep the secret contained. They took a sample of my body to the same research facility you and your sister were in. I don't know what happened to you there but I know I was able to get you two connected when they upgraded the simulator. I watched you as you turned into a monster on more than one occasion. I don't know why but it made me proud watching you tear apart your first prey. The Prime Sentient contacted me soon after Charlette was killed. It told me to give you the Swarm's entire history. I just don't know how to tell you what it told me."

Loyd embraced his mother, tears now streaming from both their eyes. "If only I'd known." He held her tighter. "What was dad's name? I want to know at least that about him."

Loyd's mother chuckled, returning the embrace. "Your father was a military man. His name is Reinhold, and I know you would've loved him."

"Can I bring you back?" Loyd asked hopefully.

"I never died son. I'm just stuck in the simulator and for now, I think that's where I'd better stay," she replied with a smile. "Before I go, I'll finish telling you what the Prime Sentient wanted me to tell you."

"Alright." Loyd backed away, wiping his eyes and listening.

"The Swarm has only ever known one enemy that could wipe them out. The Crystal Wielders are that enemy. They assimilate by embedding one of their seed inside a host and having it convert their bodies into more crystal. The swarm had found a way to kill them all by destroying their Mother Crystal. The only issue with the plan was that the homeworld of the crystalline beings was sent far away long before the swarm could make planetfall. These crystal creatures moved their planet across galaxies in the blink of an eye! I can't see how they could do that from a scientific standpoint. The energy requirements are comparable to that of a star." She looked up as Loyd tried his hardest not to start laughing.

"You forget the energy crystals are capable of producing infinite energy, mom."

"What energy crystal? We found out how to make infinite energy?"

Both stared at each other in astonishment before Loyd thought of something.

"When did you graft the chunk of swarm onto your arm?"

"Around three months after the lab was finished being constructed."

"How many years after planetfall is what I'm asking."

"Thirteen years, seven months, and sixteen days. Why do you ask?"

"I'm over ninety?!" Loyd yelled, doing the math.

"What? How are you over ninety-" His mother stopped, realizing what he meant.

"It's year 107 from when we first arrived on Mars. You turning into a swarm creature must've slowed down the gestation process for me and Charlette. Or maybe we just grew slower once we were extracted from you? I don't know," Loyd giddily rambled.

"How can increasing my metabolism have slowed down your aging? That doesn't make sense." Loyd's mother thought a little before continuing. "Unless the swarm has a way of fixing their telomeres. That may have something to do with it."

"We can talk about this later. For now, I just want you to finish telling me what the Prime Sentient, or whatever you called it, said," Loyd gushed, crossing his legs as though sitting, even though he was still in the void.

"Your right. I'm not sure how much longer we have to talk either. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, the crystal things sent their homeworld to another galaxy as a precaution. Then they started to bombard the ever-living hell out of the Swarm's home system. Somehow, the swarm had acquired enough biomass to tether all of the planets in their home system together and were getting ready to simply throw planets in an attempt to save themselves. They got an asteroid out of there in time for it to escape the bombardment. That asteroid was the one that hit Mars so many years ago. The only problem with our model was that the swarm didn't land here. They jumped off the asteroid and orbited for some time before catapulting to Earth. That's when the invasion began."

"That is so confusing. I understand it but how would they catapult themselves that perfectly? Just how smart is the swarm?" Loyd asked.

"Beyond smart. It's smarter than any computer that has ever existed. What I'm wondering is how that chunk survived so many years in deep space. The Prime Sentient never told me that."

"Maybe they have a way of recollecting every bit of energy they use? Or they have the biological version of the energy crystal," Loyd wondered, unsure of his answer.

"Perhaps, but my time is running out. I'll have to see you tomorrow night." She started to fade into the darkness.

"Alright, see you tomorrow, mom," Loyd called after her, waving.

xX Elsewhere Xx

The miner turned another corner, making sure his line was still coming out of the reel. It was and he started walking forward before stopping. Two violet eyes stared out from within the pod in front of him. A tap on his shoulder caused him to turn and meet the creature behind him. Its hand was elongated and boney, the face close enough to be confused for a human's. The creature's body, however, was definitely not human. It was snaking back along the tunnel behind him, with many additional limbs holding onto the ceiling and walls. The hand that had tapped him, beckoned for him to follow.

"Alright, I'll follow you," the miner whispered in horror, too terrified to refuse.

The snake pulled itself back along the tunnel as the miner followed. Sunlight peeked out after a short time and the miner realized the snake was taking him back to the surface.

"You're not going to eat me?" he asked, turning back to look at the snake.

"Only if you get in our way, would I eat you. Do you wish to be eaten?" the serpent asked, confused.

"No! I just thought that…" The miner stumbled away, before the thing changed its mind.

The movements of the miner, as he ran, mimicked the waving of his hand, so the snake waved back before noticing a camera crew recording it. Leaving the tunnel, it approached the camera crew. They tried to run, but the worm burst out of the ground in front of them, trapping them.

"I merely wish to talk. You are in no danger, unless you run away," the snake hissed.

The reporter turned to look at it, eyes filled with fear. "Alright, we can talk. What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, first I need to know if that camera is streaming live to the rest of the colonies. It's rather important that I know this."

"Hey, Burney, tell the tower we need to go live everywhere… Look out the fucking window and you'll see why… alright, we're live now to the tower. Just give us a second to get patched through to the colonies," the reporter stammered looking at the cameraman.

"I can wait."

"Jeff, they want to see the worm. Swing the camera over it for a minute," the reporter barked at the cameraman.

The cameraman swung the camera over to the worm who got closer and tried to smile. It was terrifying.

"That is creepy, and totally awesome," Jeff, the cameraman, said.

"Alright, we're live in five. Swing it back over to me and…" The reporter looked up and down the snake trying to think of a polite thing to call it.

"Alright, we are live." Jeff said.

"Hello, everyone out there. I know you're probably a little confused about why we interrupted your regularly scheduled broadcast." The reporter held his hands up at the snake who politely walked into view. "Here's your reason."

"I come here to inform you that we will be arriving at Greeley colony within the hour. Everyone at the south-eastern farm needs to evacuate. Please stop all traffic on the space elevator as we will be ascending it shortly after we finish at the farm. Anyone who gets in our way inside the Olympus Mons colony while we move some equipment to the airlock, will be eaten. Follow these instructions and no one will be consumed. Anyone trying to stop us will be dealt with." The snake turned back to the reporter. "That is all."

The worm sank back into the ground and the snake walked back up to the cave and disappeared.

Sirens wailed from Olympus Mons and Greeley as the reporter and his crew piled into their vehicle and fled the site.