"So, you plan on us slowly speeding up as we orbit Mars?" Griffon asked as he checked the cable that held both crawlers, the worms, and everything else.
"Yeah, pretty much. Since the cable is no longer connected to Phobos, we can't just climb up it like normal. Our combined weights would cause it to crash down to the surface. As it is, we're only barely stable. The faster we go, the further we get from the surface and the closer we get to escape velocity," Madeline explained.
"How many days will that take?"
"As in how many times will the sun crest the horizon or how many actually days we actually have to wait?"
"Both would actually be nice."
"Roughly seventy-four sunrises and two days. We are orbiting at a rather odd angle along the equator."
"Seventy-four! Do you have any idea how many G's of gravity we'll be under?!" Griffon exclaimed, dropping his scanner.
"A lot. I never checked past the first. This nanolathe is actually already suppressing ninety-nine point some stupid numbers worth of nine's percent of the artificial gravity. I don't' really see what the problem is," Madeline rationalized.
"Wait, this thing is just supposed to cancel the wind resistance. How is it fixing our gravity issue?!"
"Because that's what I asked the crystal to do," Loyd said, walking out onto the top of the crawler. "You probably don't need to monitor the cable anymore. That wormhole tech we stole from the Crystalids is in itself another living creature. You just have to figure out how to talk to it."
"Wait, so that little black thing you attached to the nanolathe is an intelligent creature?! What happens if it decides that we aren't worth helping?" Madeline asked.
"That won't happen. The Crystalids torture it in order for it to open wormholes for their ships to pass through. Normally any large amount of gravity, like Jupiter's, would destroy the wormhole while it's forming. Europa is special in that it has a large store of energy from its parent planet and is comprised mostly of water. Both of these are attractive to a tired and thirsty warp core." Loyd smiled and put an ice cube on the little black rock.
"You've got a rock pet… and you've finally lost your marbles," Madeline said drearily.
The group watched the ice cube either out of sheer boredom or excitement. Slowly it was consumed by the black rock that seemed to grow in strength.
"I stand corrected. You've got a pet rock with some voodoo coursing through its granules."
"Alright, little guy, let's see if you can speed up our trip at all," Loyd whispered, ignoring Madeline.
The rock seemed to start absorbing light from the air around it and the light seemed to shimmer, starting to appear around the windbreak. The nanolathe's reactor started spinning faster and faster until it was in danger of flying apart. Space itself seemed to fold around the elevator cable as its speed increased ever faster.
("EVERYONE GRAB HOLD OF SOMETHING!") Loyd yelled as a twelve thousand four-hundred-mile-long tear in reality started to form behind the elevator cable. ("We're almost to Earth!")
xX aboard the Crystalid ship Xx
The Chancellor stared at his viewing screen as he watched a fold gate open larger than any Crystalid ship had ever managed to create. The hybrids had achieved something previously thought impossible, by what the Chancellor believed to be the most powerful race in existence.
The young eidolon came running down the corridor to the Chancellor. "Chancellor! Another attack wave is incoming! We lost too many fighters in the last attack to not send in our gunships!" It yelled in desperation.
"The hybrids have beaten us with our own technology. What little use we will get from holding back our gunships is now outweighed by an incoming enemy we didn't know existed until only a short time ago. The swarm still lives and the rest of the fleet is lost to the cosmos. What curse have the creators-!" The chancellor stared in awe at his view screen.
Something was coming out of the fold gate above the surface. A ship covered in what looked like solid light made its way out of the gate. It was another Crystalid ship, and it was much larger than the Chancellor's.
"Impossible! The Primordial was lost when it attempted to open a fold gate within a star! I witnessed the explosion myself! How can it be here now?!" The Chancellor roared.
xX Inside that dark and scary place Loyd went to a few days ago Xx
A tear had opened up in front of the vessel as it sailed through the endless expanse of nothingness with the rest of its fleet. Sensors showed that the mother crystal was located on the celestial body just outside the tear.
"Captain, what should we do? We are also detecting one of our lost ships on the other side," The mechanical creature asked.
"Set a course through the tear. Our only objectives are to escape the creators and find the mother crystal. We can complete both at the same time here," this ship's version of the Chancellor ordered.
xX on Earth Xx
The space above the region formerly known as Russia was torn open as Loyd urged his new pet on. It was visible from most of the globe and scared even the Prime Sentient.
"What is that?! What weapon can wound the very sky?!" one of the advisors shrieked as it cowered behind a chunk of ice.
"That is the Indigestible One's greatest weapon. It can destroy one of the great balls of fire in an instant. And it can move an endless tide of troops across the cosmos in an instant. WE MUST HAVE IT! IT WILL ALLOW US TO BRING FOOD TO US! WE MUST NOT LET THE NEW SENTIENCE TO POSSESS IT!" The Prime Sentient thunder, shaking the very world as it bellowed and writhed.
xX back to Mars Xx
"I think I just ended humanity by accident," Loyd cried, staring at the ship that had come through the wormhole.
The light the ship was coated in started flaking off and dispersing as it emerged from the wormhole.
Loyd turned to his camera and transmitter and got an idea. ("We can save the populace from the Crystalids coming through our exit but it's going to be suicidal and stupid.")
("Whatever works, I guess,") Sara replied.
("What the hell? We've only got three species after our heads. Why not add these guys to that list?!") Jim asked.
The rest of the group's replies were like-minded as everyone readied themselves for a fight.
("Then, here goes nothing!)" Loyd declared, stepping in front of the now active camera. "Crystalid vessel! We are the Martian Swarm! We opened that gate so we could go deliver the killing blow to the Swarm you failed to destroy so many thousands of years ago! You can either join us or flee to your allied vessel orbiting the largest planet in the system! If you fail to join us you will be considered an enemy to be destroyed!" He threatened, shutting off the camera once he had finished.
The world waited for a reply as another ship started coming through the wormhole. The Crystalid capital ship turned its massive cannon batteries on the crawlers before pointing its nose skywards.
"We mean no harm to anyone! We are escorting a fleet of evacuation ships from a series of planets that were populated and then destroyed by our creators. They managed to trap us in their dimension until you gave us an exit. We will extract our mother crystal from this world and leave. If any of you stay within this system you will die at the creator's hands! You are welcome to join our fleet but we cannot promise your safety," The ship's captain responded in a firm almost human voice. "If you wish to stand and fight against the creators than you have our prayers. Nothing we have found yet is capable of harming them. An anomaly allowed us to gain some ground on them some time ago but they will still be here soon."
Loyd stared at the static that played on his Hud. "I think I know something that can hurt them."
He switched the camera back on and stared into it. "Do the creators look like little ribbons of light with a face that only consists of two golden eyes?!"
It took a moment for the Crystalid captain to respond to Loyd's sudden outburst. "Yes, that is what they look like. Have you already encountered them in the past?!" he asked a hint of worry on his voice.
"Once. In a bad dream. And I think I almost killed one of them," Loyd responded, getting more excited by the second.
xX back to Europa Xx
"When did he almost kill one of the creators?! Is that why it looks like he is being corrupted by one of them?!"