The crawlers were massive platforms with what looked like a living space suspended between each crawler's four sets of massive tracks. It was obvious the habitat had been newly added, as several scorch marks were visible on either side of it. A large bipedal creature peeked its head up over one of the piles of metal and waved down at the group.
"Hey! How's it going, Argenti?!" the creature called, jumping over the pile and walking towards them.
"Ragnarok? You're bigger than you said you were," Argenti said staring up at the titan before her.
"Well, I've grown since then. Loyd had me eat some of the possessed eidolons the Crystalids sent after us. Then, I also ate a chunk of that stupid quartz, or whatever Griffon called it. I still feel funny from that."
"Well, maybe you can make more of yourself like a big cell?!" Argenti piped in.
"Maybe, but right now I need to stay this size so I can do the heavy lifting with Tiny." Ragnarok pointed behind him with his thumb, at another tall bipedal creature whose face was hidden behind a visor that was attached to a makeshift helmet, like a welding helmet.
Tiny waved back and then turned back to what he was doing.
A loud bang shook the lead crawler as a harpoon shot out of a large mortar, a tether connected to its bottom.
("Hey, why don't you guys get on here before I start pulling the crawler up the elevator?") Loyd asked with a hint of pride in his voice.
("You were a little high. I'm not sure we've got enough cable,") another voice declared.
("Mom, I'm still extruding more cable. We've got plenty. Everyone, batten down the hatches and finish sealing that breach. We only have a few more minutes before the dust storm gets here.")
("So, you're my son? The demon, Loyd? Why'd I expect anything less, from someone who would ask something so trivial from the news station as a poll on what people think of you.")
("Yeah, yeah, get up here old man. You've got someone who wants to smack you.")
("Oh, I am well aware of that. I just thought I'd say that much before this tall fellow picked us up and carried us the rest of the way to the crawlers.")
Loyd chuckled, watching the tether as he slowly retracted it. The tether was too heavy to be pulled much by the weight of the crawlers but he still had to work quickly because the dust storm would add several tons of material that he couldn't afford. The winch caught and started to groan under the intense weight. "Come on, little guy, you've got this," he muttered to the winch.
The worms signaled they were nearly finished and would be there shortly. Everything was unfolding seamlessly so far.
A shot rang out and everything seemed to move in slow motion. Loyd's vision went red in one eye as he lost vision in his other one. A sensor was beeping at him and the side of his head hurt. Someone had shot him. How stupid could someone get?
Loyd bent down grabbing his head as the beeping continued. His anger started to mount as he ripped his suit off. He wouldn't last more than an hour without it but his mind wasn't fully aware of its humanity at the moment. It just knew someone had hurt it and it was angry.
The sniper fired another round through Loyd's heart, bringing back bad memories. Loyd's pupils dilated and he charged forward. Moving by grabbing onto any object he could and almost throwing himself forward.
The soldiers all got out of his way as he rushed past them. A third bullet struck him in his leg trying to slow him down but his skeleton had already been replaced with a crystalline matrix. He jumped up the building the sniper was in and broke through the window they had been shooting out of.
A little girl, with a number of bruises and cuts, was standing on the other side of the room staring at him and crying.
The sniper shot Loyd in the side of the head with his pistol and pulled away from him.
Loyd's ears were ringing but he still didn't go down.
The sniper emptied his pistol into the monster in front of him, backing away as he shot. The first clip hadn't hit the floor before the next clip was already in the gun but the sniper didn't get to shoot another bullet before he hit the floor.
Loyd had waited for him to back out of the girl's vision before he ripped his head off his shoulders. His control having returned just enough so he didn't scare her more than he already had. A door was open in front of him and revealed a scene from hell itself. Two barely recognizable humans lay dead on the floor their skin hanging from the wall behind them. Their nails had been removed forcefully and were sitting in a murky solution next to a blood-soaked chair. Used condoms were scattered all over the room from where the sniper had fun killing the two people.
"I should've killed you slower," Loyd admitted turning back to the main room and wiping the blood off of him.
Loyd walked back around the corner with a towel soaked in blood and several holes in his chest to find the girl on the ground, her neck broken, and another man standing behind her.
"You should have just laid down and died. Her death is…" the man stopped, watching Loyd's expression.
Loyd could feel the rage from before coming back but differently. "Her death is on my hands. Is that what you were going to say? Well, I've got news for you buddy, everyone you ever cared about just died on yours."
"That'll be difficult for you to do, seeing as I've already killed them myself," the man said, sounding proud of himself. "That's how you get into the Earthborn society. You make everything that could say otherwise disappear."
"So, those explosives were from the military. As well as this gun you've got here. It seems you covered your tracks well enough. That reporter in your back pocket too? Oh wait, they died on their way home when their brakes failed as an automatic transport was careening down the road at breakneck speed towards them. That was you, too, apparently," Loyd said, still staring as the little girl's eye twitched. "The funniest part about all of this, is that you believe you actually broke her neck."
"What?!" the man asked dropping his eyes for only a second. His body fell back as his head continued staring down, his brain not realizing it was dead, allowed him to watch his body fall away.
"That's why you don't fuck with me, you bastards!" Loyd screamed.
"It seems we underestimated you," the head replied oil dripping through Loyd's fingers. "Should you seek reinforcements from humanity, you will only receive missiles and bombs."
"Funny, I didn't take you guys for comedians. Cause I don't recall your bunkers being safe from a kinetic bombardment," Loyd said, throwing the girl over his shoulder and heading back to the crawler.
The hole he had made in the air bladder's fabric, still wasn't repaired when he got back to it, and sand was starting to pour in. He stepped through, knowing that even if the girl's heart stopped, her brain would still be fully functional for at least five minutes, and that was plenty of time to transfer her into a new body.
"You look like shit. Who's the girl?" Griffon asked trying not to laugh at Loyd's new appearance.
"Trial attempt one. We're going to give her a new life with the rest of us. It's not often you get to test something on a willing test subject."
"So, you want me to perform a mind transplant? That shouldn't be too hard; just give me a minute to get the womb ready."
"No, put her in one of the CTAS who never woke up. I've got a plan for her," Loyd said, putting the bloodied girl into the pod and turning it on.
She let out a scream as her entire body convulsed from the pain. A second later she fell back to the chair, her eyes filled with malice and loathing.
"I know you can hear me," Loyd said, leaning close to the girl's face. "I want you to kill the people who have killed your parents. I saw the bodies in the other room from where you were. That man who was trying to kill me, tore them both apart. They did not die a quick death. I am asking you to make sure the people who did that to them, come to the same end."
The girl's eyes glossed over as her mind transferred over to the CTAS. A massive hand opened the access door to the internal hangar of the Crawler and revealed a face with the same look in its eyes as the girl had. "Yes, master."