Chapter 7

xX Somewhere on Earth. Xx

Jake awoke to a strange sound in the distance. It had been two years since he had crash-landed. Never before had he heard that sound. Reaching over and grabbing his makeshift gun, he was ready for when the thing got closer. It took a minute before the Swarmling came around the side of the rock. Its head was larger than he was even though it was the smallest of the Swarms many bio-forms. The creature sniffed the air, searching for him as he aimed his gun. It turned to him screeching as it started to pounce. His aim was true killing it in a single shot by separating its spine from its brain. The thunderous sound of his gun would attract more of the Swarm but his leg was too messed up for him to run. He was going to sit there and kill as many of them as he could.

xX Back at the Mars base Xx

"That man was the only human in a hundred years to set foot on earth and, what he sent back to us, can only be described as the nightmare situation. The Swarm refuses to enter the area where the Chernobyl incident occurred. The green trains dumpsite is also a no-go zone, so we have landing sites. The only problem is that CTAS can't protect pilots from the lethal doses of radiation found there."

The General stared at the map the man had laid out in front of him and thought.

"If the CTAS can't protect the pilots from the radiation, but the radiation poses no threat to the CTAS themselves, then we have our landing sites," Doctor Borya said smiling down at the map.

"Doctor that technology is still untested and highly risky. What happens if we lose one of the pilots," The map man stated, glaring at the doctor.

"That won't be an issue, gentlemen. We simply need to up the production rates at my facility." The man in the corner of the room chewed his cigar as everyone turned to him. "I am Loyd's creator after all."

xX Back in the arena Xx

Loyd had swapped out his spot as the medic for the second round and went in with another of his prototype weapons. His group was fighting the combined team of Pegasus and The Leopards both of which were all-girl groups. His team knew they were going to do the same tactic as they had last time, the only difference this time was that the enemies had firearms; big firearms. Four of their members were siege gunners. Two were barrage gunners like the ones that had bombed Loyd on his first mission. While Sara and the rest were simple Assault troops with the CTAS equivalent of assault rifles. Loyd had swapped his class but his team's composition had remained the same.

"So, you give us the green light and we charge?" Argo was still pretty pissed about the last match.

"Not really, he just kinda moved and we followed him." Jim had increased the size of his hammer head between matches to see what his capacity was.

"Well, this time I set up a timer for you guys so be ready when it goes off," said Loyd.

The colosseum timer came down and started the count down. Both teams got ready for the charge. The assault troops deployed some physical shields for the siege gunners. Loyd's timer went off and the battlefield started to move in slow motion. His group's movement surprised the enemies who were still setting up their defenses. The arena was larger this time so they had a chance to react but Loyd was already planting his foot in the face of one of them and bringing his new weapon to bear against another of their siege gunners. The projectile consisted mostly of armor type crystal with a core of the energy crystal. It was first propelled by an electromagnetic rail and then after it had hit its target, a small laser fired into the back of the energy crystal, detonating it. His shaped grenade put a rather large hole through two enemies and managed to cripple another one's leg.

xX Back in the viewing room Xx

"The hell was that? Did he just make a shaped charge between rounds?!"

The nobles who had been invited to spectate were all standing as Loyd fired his new drivers into the person who he had landed on. His team then came in and cleaned everyone else out.

"That boy is the first person selected for taking out the Swarm back on Earth." The General had finished his meeting, and although slightly pale, had come to watch the tournament.

"All we need now is a ship which the navy doesn't care or know about. I handpicked each of you for that specific reason."

The General turned from the main monitor to look at the crowd, "Because all of you have ships like that."

Every one of the nobles glared at the General, who didn't really care what they thought of him. He had all the cards at the moment and he was willing to go all in.

xX Back in the ring before round three. Xx

Loyd stood there working on making the rest of his team a more easily used version of his new type, using the simulator to think faster. The roster was waiting on one of the other battles to finish before it moved on to the next round so, he had time. It took the group a few minutes to get used to the increased speed and strength of the new types of CTAS but they all figured it out way faster than Loyd had thought.

"The final group round will be beginning shortly. All combatants please enter the arenas. The delay was caused by a lack of both teams being able to kill the other and the winner was decided by which team had more pilots survive."

Loyd's new squad walked into the arena, seeing that their opponents were to be the Twins.

"Figures, you guys would make it this far. You could easily take any one of us on our own. But what happens when we have superior machines than you guys?!" Sara challenged the Twins. "What happens when your armor is your biggest weakness?"

The Twins stood across the arena, ignoring Sara's taunts and checking out all of the new types Loyd had brought to the battlefield.

"You really think something with so little armor could ever hope to stand against us? I challenge you to a duel. That way I can put you in your place. The winner will win the match," said Mark, one of the Twins.

Loyd smiled and turned to his group, having swapped back to his loadout with the nano-hive. "Should I accept? Or should we do this the normal way?"

The resounding cheer assured Loyd he would have his duel.

"Then, I accept the challenge to fight the Twins in one versus two combat. Winner takes all."

Loyd's group stopped their cheering and watched the twins.

"Your funeral buddy," Mark, the larger of the twins, said as he was walking forward. He walked in front of his sister while everyone else stood at the edge of the arena watching. But she wasn't following him.

"May the best fighter win," the boys intoned together.

Loyd crouched low, preparing to activate the subroutine that only he could use.

"Mind Fracture, initiate," he said in his mind to activate the program.

The world started to move in slow motion as Loyd transferred his entire consciousness into the simulated CTAS. Its sensor array were now his eyes and ears. Its limbs were his own. The world came back into real-time, as the clock reached zero.

"Whatever trick you might have up your sleeve won't work," Mark boasted before charging.

Loyd swiveled his thruster to send him down and leapt over Mark, like a beast might jump over a log to reach its prey. Mark watched, unable to react fast enough as Loyd landed on all fours and pounced towards his sister who, despite her best efforts, was unable to hit Loyd before he got to her. Holding her down, he released his nano-bots which ate the joints out of her CTAS. He then opened his CTAS's new mouth and tore hungrily into her cockpit.

"You bastard, get off my sister!" Mark was on him already but his swing was too slow to hit him.

Loyd jumped off Maria, and landed far enough away, Mark couldn't reach him.

Mark just stood there, his sister's cockpit had been torn open and painted a dark shade of blood red. Mark had never seen his sister, or anyone else, like that before. Loyd circled them, having taken out the arguably more threatening twin. He felt a strange sense of hunger from within the pits of his stomach and Mark started to look like he might taste good as well. Mark turned around, determined to destroy Loyd.

"Four steps. That's all I'm going to need to kill you!" Mark exploded.

Both of them sprung at the other, Loyd dropped his nano-hive and Mark shed his heavy armor.

xX Back in the viewing room Xx

"What the hell is that boy! Some kind of monster!" The noble looked like she was going to be sick.

"He just ate my daughter, General!" The father of the twins turned and glared daggers at the General, who lazily waved it off.

"It's all simulated. Your daughter is fine. Scared shitless but unharmed." He had the technician swap the view over to the inside of the girl's pod where she was curled into a ball, crying.

"See? Now back to the battle. I don't want to miss this."

The twin's father sat back down, vowing that Loyd would pay for shaming his family like that.

xX Back to the battle Xx

Loyd had Mark underneath him. He just had to get through Mark's weapon to get to the tasty morsel inside its CTAS. Mark couldn't push Loyd off of him but he had to think of something. Loyd rose up, still putting his weight into keeping Marks weapon down. Pulling the weapon up suddenly, before the unsuspecting Mark could react, Loyd slammed it back down against Mark's cockpit.

Mark released his weapon to punch Loyd, who turned and bit Mark's hand clean off. As Mark screamed, Loyd pried open his cockpit and went in for his treat.

The pilots stared as he continued tearing into Mark's cockpit like some starved beast. After Loyd had finished eating, he came to his senses and glanced up. The rest of the Twin's group recoiled in fear.

"Void previous command," Loyd felt his consciousness being ripped from his CTAS.

To say that it hurt was an understatement. It felt as though his body was going through a meat grinder but he grit his teeth and took it. All eyes were on him as he stood up with a knife sticking out of his cockpit.

"Well, do you surrender yet?" Loyd asked as he opened his cockpit to remove the knife more easily. The knife had removed his simulated arm at the shoulder, which was now bleeding profusely but Loyd didn't seem to care. "Or do I need to kill more of you?"

He pulled a bandage out of a storage compartment in his cockpit and began tending to his stub, while closing his cockpit through the neural jack.

"Good, then I welcome you to the Legion."