The fast movers dropped into the third line trenches and destroyed as many of the enemy CTAS as possible.
"Like cobras, we strike fast and hard. Remember that and we can't lose." Griffon was proving to be great at leading his squad of scorpions. His group was in charge of taking out all the enemies in the third trench line, which fully surrounded the base. With how fast and unpredictable their movement was, the enemies would be lucky to land even small arms fire on them. The last thing Loyd saw of them, was a foot disappearing around a bend in the trench.
"Sara, your group's up next!"
"Roger that! Come on ladies, lets show these boys what the meaning of fear is!" her group vaulted the wall, flying high into the sky and disappearing before a rain of explosives hit the next trench row, just before the girls landed. Loyd watched as they expertly launched off of each other and used their tow lines to cut enemies in half and redirect each other's jumps.
"Next trench, go!" Jim's group followed Sara's example and flung themselves over the wall accept they stayed close to the ground using the lip of the next trench to catch themselves. Loyd followed Jim's group and waited for a volley or artillery to land all around them.
"We ready to go, Loyd?"
"I need a second laser volley on my tag and then we can get inside the compound." The artillery continued to fall all around them as Loyd, Jim, the twins, and two others waited for the laser cannons to finish their cooling cycle.
"Firing in five. You guys just need to hold out till then."
"Roger that, just don't miss or it'll be the end of us." Loyd and crew waited as a set of small beams emanated from the canons before the primary salvo. The beams heated the surrounding air as they melted through the steel walls of the main complex.
"Just a little more and we can punch through! Get ready!"
"Damnit! I'm cooking here, can't they melt through faster?!"
"No, that would just make it even more miserable for us, without much more being done thanks to the automatic shutdown built into the canons."
The female twin was trying to be helpful but this was the wrong time. The laser canons shut down just after she finished talking though, so that was a plus.
"Everyone, move now!"
Loyd had started moving even before the canons stopped firing. His foot hit the wall of the building and went straight through. The inside was dark but Loyd could hear an echo as his feet found the floor some five stories down. The others joined him soon after he landed and the sounds of the battle started to echo throughout the massive warehouse as part of the ceiling opened up to reveal a massive ship.
"That's the target? It seems small for something that's supposed to carry a planet extractor class drill." Jim noted.
"I know so watch your guys' backs." Loyd walked forwards waiting for his sensors to detect something.
"Split up and spread out. That way they can't take us out with a single shot."
"Hey, bro, I think it's about time we activated those primal instincts of yours." Charlette had popped up in his vision and looked pretty nervous.
"Can you smell something?"
"Call it a woman's intuition and leave it at that."
"Alright then, you heard her, everyone, I'm releasing the final restrictions on you and your bio-types now. So, if you feel you need to go full monster on these guys you can."
Loyd took a deep breath and bent down letting the part of him that he had only recently learned existed, loose. His mind went blank while his stomach started to ache; his form distorting slightly as his body continued to hurt. Then it was over and all he could think of was completing his mission and finding food.
"Now where's that drill."
He lurched forward, smelling something delicious. The shuttles guns swiveled towards him before being impaled by sections of pipe.
"I smell it, too! Whatever it is, has made me feel hungrier than I already was." Mark was drooling, his tail swinging back and forth searching for something for its pincer to grab. "If this is how you felt when we fought in the simulator before, then I can forgive you for what you did. I still want that rematch though."
"You can have one as soon as we're done here." Loyd stood back up as the others joined them. "And for the finale, I present to you a ship filled with food."
The shuttle started to lift off, the rest of its guns firing at all of the bio-types closing in on it. One such bio-type reached it and started ripping into the side of it, climbing inside in search of the crew. Another followed it and slowly, but surely, the evacuation craft was torn apart, its crew devoured. The remains were searched through, the smell still lingering in the air.
"The smell wasn't coming from the ship but from underneath it. Move aside."
Loyd raised his arms over his head and beat the ground as hard as he could. The sound of an enormous bell being rung shook the compound as the hatch that the evac craft had been concealing, crashed down a shaft large enough for several bio-types to descend through.
"It's coming from here."
The red eyes of the bio-types were all the people at the bottom of the shaft could see. Then they, too, were consumed; the pilots taking another step towards becoming a swarm.
Some time passed as the base was ripped apart. The only people spared were those who didn't fight or run. The cadets' hunger subsided, several falling to their knees as it did so.
"The hell did we just do?! How many… oh, fuck" Mark looked up at Loyd, horrified of what he had just done.
"Now do you understand why I don't do that very often? It's far too easy to chase the rabbit too far. But I will tell you it gets easier to deal with the more you do it."
"Yeah, you can say that again. This is only my second time and I'm almost ok with what I just did." Griffon was smiling even though his face was very green.
"Well, we found the drill and all of the enemy combatants are dead, that means this mission is a total success."
Jim looked perfectly fine, this only being his first time feeding.
"It still hasn't hit me just yet but give it some time and I'll be staying in the toilet stall."
"Human is far crunchier and juicier than I first thought it would be." Sara was sitting there still munching on a person. "This isn't the worst thing I've had to do but this is definitely in the top five."
"I don't want to know what could possibly top that." Argo looked up; her chin still had a bit of vomit running down it. "Nor do I think I'll ever get used to that."
"Seems like the rest of you aren't doing too well, either." Griffon stated looking at the non-sub-commanders. "Well, like I said, the second time isn't nearly as bad as the first."
A loud beep sounded to mark the end of the first of the weekly events, a scoreboard and replays were available for each team. Loyd was on the top of the individual scoreboard but his corps was in second place for how quickly they completed the mission.
"How do you beat this in under ten seconds?!" Jim cried in shock.
"You drop a kinetic rod from space and crater the entire base."
Loyd was appalled that someone would stoop so low as to bombard a simulated enemy stronghold from orbit.
"I guess it does minimize the chance for casualties."
The other teams took a full twenty minutes longer than the Martian Swarm but still only required light repairs afterward. The team with the most confirmed civilian kills was also Loyd's group, as the bodies were caught on video rather than eradicated from orbit.
"Well, that would make us the most efficient ground team; we took out more than our quota," Mark grumbled.
"Hey, that just means we don't have to waste as many resources on transporting them back." Griffon joked. "That sounded better in my head."
"Oh, come on man, not in front of the kids." Sara motioned towards a group of children that were being led to a civilian shuttle still munching on a leg.
"Hey, my bad, I'm not used to this, yet."
"Well, I must say, from looking at the scoreboard, we did the best out of everyone. Heck, we have over double the salvage of the second-best corps." Loyd said impressed, his stomach doing summersaults.
"Then, I guess we had better collect that drill, shouldn't we?" Sara had finished her leg and come over to Loyd, the look in her CTAS's eyes told Loyd she wasn't going to be normal ever again.
"You went too far and you know it. Allow me access to your pod's internal camera." Loyd watched as Sara stopped walking, her head turning towards him.
"And what makes you think I would allow that to happen?" Sara let Loyd look into her pod anyways.
Her frame matched that of her bio-type almost exactly, the main difference was the lack of a tail and the audio sensors she had upgraded herself with. Although Loyd could almost swear that he could see them through the camera, he knew they were not there.
"You went too far but you managed to stop yourself from going as far as I thought you had. Well done."
"Like I said, this isn't the worst thing I've had to do before. Stop acting like my dad, commander, it doesn't suit you very well." Sara walked off, getting her team together for recon duty.
"Well, at least she's still kinda cute."
"JIM! Seriously, you think that's cute?! She has more civilian deaths than anyone else here! Not to mention she was the first to that evacuation ship and I don't think I need to tell you what she did to it."
"Cool your socks, Griffon, she dug her way through to the crystal chamber and ate the people in there, knocking the power crystal out of alignment as she did so. That's what gave her the most kills, you forget that all of us are two stories tall. Or in your case, a story and a half."
"Hey, that's only because I've got more biomass dedicated elsewhere, and you know that."
"You can say that again. You've got the thickest arms and legs out of any of us but your torso is quite wimpy. I mean, two of your arms, put side by side, are thicker than your torso. Who comes up with a design like that?"
"You're talking to him, Jim, so why don't we go join the girls and see what this drill is all about," Mark interrupted.
"Yeah, why don't we do that? Should help get our minds off what we just did." Jim joined Mark as he walked off after Sara and Argo.
"You gonna join us, Commander Loyd?" Griffon looked up at him nervously. "Or is there something else you were going to do?"
"Check the ranking under the monster's category. There should only ever be five people there at any given time."
"What, they have-" Griffon's eyes widened as he read the six names on the list. "That's each of us sub-commanders, and you."
"We can either keep it that way and the bounty on us will continue to rise, making these missions harder. Or we can lower how many civilian casualties we create. I'll leave that decision to you and the other sub-commanders but personally, I kinda enjoy being a monster."
"That's good, cause you're about to have to fight some real monsters. Commander Loyd, within the next two days, here on mars, we will be attacked by the Swarm. It is your job to make sure they don't take more than a few steps on Martian soil." The general had popped up on Loyd's Comm panel with a look of utter boredom on his face.
"Roger that, sir. I'll make sure these swarm won't know what fresh hell they landed on."