Tiny was placed in charge of helping Griffon with developing his new muscle strand. The two seemed completely enraptured in the scientific process, and Griffon was learning a lot about how the crystals worked. Tiny was also able to explain a lot of the intricacies of the crystals, that the humans hadn't figured out yet.
Madeline was planning out the trip to Earth, based solely on simulations of Loyd's rocket. The entire design aspect had been completed for her, leaving only the mathematics and weight ratios to figure out. She was having so much fun, no one was willing to step in and help, which suited her just fine. She even forgot to get food from time to time.
Sara and Linda were busy keeping the younglings as productive as possible, without getting any of them killed. The difficulty of this was only compounded by the work they were doing. Loyd had them doing everything that was far too dangerous for the former humans in his team. The two girls had their hands full.
Jim was working on how to dismantle the first two furnaces once they finished smelting all the ore down. The crystal structure in the walls would make nearly perfect heat shields.
Loyd stood at the top of one of the many building complexes, overseeing everything through the many eyes of his snake creature, using the neural network. Its eyes could catch far more than his, and he wasn't willing to give up on his human appearance to get better ones. Why should he, when he could use the neural network?
"Alright, that's the last of the ore! Close the pour spouts for a minute!" came a thundering voice over the intercom.
Younglings pulled levers frantically, causing the doors to slide down, and stop the flow of the molten metal that was pouring from the smelters.
"Everyone, get clear of the smelter towers. When we reopen the pour spouts, we're going to open them to full and melt through the support columns with the molten metal. I'm getting in position to plug up the smokestacks as soon as the supports are gone, and that will increase the heat. If the roof caves in then we're still pretty screwed, but this was the best plan I could come up with on such short notice," Jim said over the neural network.
The younglings streamed out of the area, fleeing the ensuing chaos. But it was planned chaos.
Loyd smiled, this was like something out of an anime. "We're all waiting on you now, Jim."
"Right, then. Let's open the flood gates and get to work!"
Furnace one and two opened their flow regulators as fast as they could, dumping everything they contained all at once. The liquid metal sloshed over the sides of the cooling troughs and began pooling under the furnaces. The support structure began groaning as the water hoses were all shut off, increasing the heat. The upper walls of both furnaces came away from the roof and started falling forward.
Jim plugged all three smokestacks as soon as the last of the smoke was suctioned out.
The furnace supports gave way as the wall fell on top of the cooling troughs creating large hot spots.
"Everyone needs to stay clear of the cooling troughs for a little while. Once it's finished cooling, we should have all the crystal you had wanted, Loyd," Jim said proudly.
"Well done! Now we just have the metal fusing to the cooling troughs, which are connected to the rest of the dome," Loyd applauded.
"Oh fuck. I didn't think about that," groaned Jim.
"I noticed," Loyd said, sighing.
Turning around, he fell backward, a line tethering him to the top of the building. He flipped in the air and into one of the lower rooms of the building. Inside was the first-ever fully operational CTAS designed solely by Loyd, himself. CTAS were humanoid robot vehicles. The bio-CTAS were CTAS with Swarm biological material, instead of mechanical components to promote the neural interface. This creature before him was much more than either. Loyd had made it with crystal technology, making it a true hybrid of all three races. Perfect for him.
The massive armored creature turned to Loyd. It still didn't fully understand everything, as its neural network was a new version Loyd was working on. Its connection to the neural network was still experimental.
"Ready for your first pairing, big guy?" asked Loyd gently, unhooking himself from the rope and hooking it onto the wall behind him, out of the way. Giving it a smile, he approached the CTAS.
The creature picked itself up from where it had been sitting against the wall, and leaned down, close to Loyd, its air vents flaring as if smelling him.
"You'll get extra free time when we get to Greeley," Loyd promised.
The creature seemed to think for a moment before opening its cockpit for Loyd.
Loyd had moved the cockpit to the back of the creature, adding even more armor between any attackers and the pilot. He had also seen to it that the cockpit didn't need any extra machines, making the connection more stable and movements more fluid.
Stepping into the receptacle, which closed around his feet, Loyd slid his arms into place in similar structures shaped like gauntlets. Upon attaching his limbs to the CTAS, the backplate closed, connecting the two via a spinal connector.
"Ugh! That hurt," Loyd complained to the CTAS. "I'm ready and waiting for you to finish connecting."
The creature straightened itself and connected its nervous system to Loyd's.
Both of them screamed as hot pain ran through both of their bodies. They fell to the floor, spasming as pain danced up and down their combined nervous systems, working out the kinks in their connection. When the pain finally began to subside, Loyd panted and wondered how long they had been down. It seemed like it had been an eternity.
Blinking away his tears, he flexed and relearned how to stand. Testing the new controls, he twisted and turned once he was on his feet, he then checked out the neural link.
"You're one tough fucker, aren't you?"
The CTAS seemed to chuckle as it tore open a hole in the wall and climbed out of the containment chamber it had been assembled within. Stepping up to the wall of the factory, it punched a second hole and Loyd looked over the nearly fifty-ton sheet of iron crystal resting on top of molten metal.
Tiny waved over at them. "You're going to need some help picking this thing up, aren't you?"
Loyd laughed, shaking his head and squatting down to grab the top of the wall. He lifted with the knees he had designed based off swarm joints and began rolling the wall up, using the heat to his advantage to stretch it and make it easier to transport.
"I guess not…" Tiny stepped back, amazement clear on his Crystalid face, at the strength of the CTAS.
Loyd used his CTAS to push the rolled-up wall off the top of the cooling troughs and into an overflow trench. A loud crack behind him alerted him to the collapse before it occurred, giving him just enough time to turn and duck. The first furnace collapsed, the weight of the roof collapsing with it, bringing tons of debris down where the roll of material had just been moments before. The second furnace collapsed a second later. Dirt and dust flew up into the air, obscuring his vision and making everyone outside of the factory scurry for face masks and helmets.
The possibility had been present when Loyd first came here, that parts of the dilapidated factory would collapse, so Loyd had made a point of ensuring enough face masks and helmets for everyone. Even the younglings had their own protective gear.
"That solves my material needs problem. Now we just need to get Griffon out here," Loyd said, turning towards the Crystalid.
"Why do you need me?" Griffon asked, standing next to Tiny in his CTAS to be protected from the massive heat still being put off by the cooling molten metals all around them.
"Because I found a way to make your reinforced muscle tissues," said Loyd, smiling. The CTAS he wore mimicked the smile, which would have normally freaked someone out, but Griffon was too shocked by his words.
"Wait! How?!" Griffon cried; excitement obvious in his tone.
"We always fabricated the muscles before. When you let the crystal take over a living creature, you give its muscles the resistance of the crystal while maintaining the strength of the creature you turned to crystal."
"Wait, what are you saying?" Tiny asked.
"Meet what was left of Charlette. I revived her as a humanoid. This is what was left after I extracted her and now, we have our first crystal-swarm hybrid."