"Five seconds until the enemy comes within range!" Madeline shouted over the speaker.
The swarmlings all screamed as they charged into the kill zone and burst into flames from the intense heat of the lasers. Within seconds the sky grew black with smoke and ash as the horizon burst into flame with an intensity that dimmed the setting sun. The sand underneath the swarm bubbled from the fire, it stuck to the swarmlings above it acting more like a liquid than a solid surface.
After only a few seconds the first wave of swarmlings was reduced to a few severely burned corpses. The second wave would be there within the hour and the light was nearly faded. The radar showed that the third wave was circling around from both sides and the remaining twenty waves would be staggered by far more and would last longer than the previous ones.
Loyd couldn't help but smile about how much like a game this siege was. This pause did give them a chance to finish their defenses but after the third wave, their no man's land would be made obsolete as the waves would start containing larger enemies that couldn't fit within the trenches and wouldn't be affected by the razor wire. He was testing Madeline without her even knowing it.
"Everyone get back to working on our defenses! We don't even have an hour before the next wave reaches… us… Griffon is something wrong with the radar?"
"The backups are all saying the same thing. The enemy is stopping. They're going to strengthen with each successful defense and become more and more resistant to our attacks. My guess is that they're going to start becoming more and more heat resistant and when that doesn't work they'll try becoming reflective. The only issue with that is in order to fully reflect red laser light you completely give up on reflecting blue and green which we can easily swap to if the need were to arise. The best chance of surviving is actually to coat themselves with a layer of silver or hyperreflective aluminum. They'll still be burnt pretty badly but they would take way more shots than if they didn't have anything." Griffon paused and turned to Madeline. "We can only pray they don't come across that aluminum deposit to the south."
"They will. But that just means our laser weapons will be less effective than they are now. You can think of it as an armor modifier like in the sims. Remember that one mission we all had to go through as part of the entrance exams? " Jim asked.
"The one where we had to fight something that we could only scratch with each attack?" Madeline answered.
"That's the one! We had to attack the same point over and over and the only one to actually beat that thing was at it for over three hours and that wasn't even during the exams!" Jim paused. "We may not have that person with us right now but we can use them as an example!"
Loyd laughed from behind them. "They never did update who beat that thing, did they? Well, I had to make it through the entrance exams too you know. That enemy was easy to defeat compared to what these things will be like. I chose the heaviest CTAS with a laser cutter we had in the system and played through a sumo match. We can't do that here because it's not a one on one match here and the swarm has way more strength per ounce than the older models could ever hope to achieve."
"Why are you the best at everything on your first try?" Jim asked annoyed.
"Actually I had to succeed on three of the five tests and I barely scraped by on my last one and with neither of my two retries remaining." Loyd's smile widened. "Not only that but I started with the lowest score in everything. And some people were in the negatives. The only reason I got as good as quickly as I did is entirely based on how I think."
"Well then explain how you think?" Madeline demanded.
"If only it were that easy. I don't think like a human and since you already think like one I'm not sure I can teach you how to think differently. The closest you can get to thinking like me would turn you into a sociopathic cannibal." Loyd blinked realizing something. "Like Sara."
xX in Jupiters orbit Xx
"Sir, it would appear the first wave of swarmlings has been neutralized by the hybrids. It's quite possible that the swarm stopped attacking in order to mutate its next wave to resist their weaponry."
The commander watched the video for several minutes before laughing. "They aren't even making use of the swarmlings bodies! That's a lot of biomass they could be using."
"Actually they are making use of it. The smoke and ash is being collected by a swarm of micro machines and collecting in a pile on top of their mobile factory. It looks like mold is growing on top of this collected material and will probably be harvested once it has finished converting the entire pile. That is, assuming the next attack doesn't come before the mold finishes."
The commander leaned back and thought for a moment. "Can you zoom out and show me the swarm's battle lines?" He watched as the screen in front of him shifted its focus to where the swarmlings were finishing their mutation. "It would appear the next wave is about to start."
"Do we want to send them some support using the jump pads?"
The commander looked at the worried expression on his subordinate's face. "That would be choosing a side in this war we know almost nothing about… however, after watching them these past cycles I don't believe they are anything like the swarm except on a genetic level. Joining the fight alongside them might also be useful for us. We may be able to bargain for a chunk of this system's resources so we can repair our ships." He turned to another of his subordinates. "Ready the jump pads and send them some of our best-equipped pilots."
xX elsewhere aboard the main ship Xx
"The devils need to be ready to jump to the commander's coordinates before the cycle ends!"
"That's hardly any time at all! Everyone get ready for an emergency jump!"
A group of burly crystalids ran over from a game they had been playing and started putting on their equivalent of CTAS. They were ready within seconds and pulled towards the jump pad at speed. Whirring started from within the jump pads superstructure as uncountable electric discharges started dancing towards the center of the wormhole generator. The first ringing connected with a crackle like when you crush an aluminum drink can and started bending towards the second which ripped open a hole in the solid disc of the first before flowing along with it towards the third and final ring where, once connected, they continued to bend until space itself folded and a stable wormhole was created. The view through the hole moved rapidly and out of focus while the other opening finished opening near the hybrids' defensive line.
xX to the… hybrid defensive line… Xx
Loyd looked up from his explanation as lightning began flashing in the cloudless sky. His eyes widened as massive bolts stretched across the sky and crashed down in the distance. The hybrids started to panic as many smaller bolts crashed down within their no man's land. A ring of lightning began to form like a halo over the hybrids as a funnel of it began stretching towards the sky. Only a second later a group of seven massive crystalid war suits began raining from the lightning funnel.
"We are here to assist you against the swarm and whatever other enemies you might have."
Tiny poked his head out of the hangar and stared at the other crystalids. "Those things are ancient! How are they even moving?!" He began taking measurements of the war suits and started laughing. "Your running on fuel cells?! Why don't you just use an energy crystal?"
"Because those explode when you pull too much power out of them. With these, we can pull as much power out of them as we want without that risk. The one downside is… who are you?"
"The hybrids call me Tiny my actual name is *the following word is unable to be displayed* I was part of the corrupt chancellor's crew. The only reason I believe I am unaffected by the corruption is due to the particular work I was assigned which involved essentially running the ship on my own. I was too busy to go insane."
The devils stared at Tiny while he continued to measure their equipment and decided he was worth investigating before they annihilated him. "So, who is the leader of these hybrids?"
The Beast hovered out of the hangar and turned to the crystalids. "I am. You said you were here to assist us? What might I ask does your leader want in return for this help?"
"Enough materials for us to repair our ships for the voyage home. The humans are ready to obliterate planets in order to end this conflict and we want only to return home and start anew."
"Materials… that's it? Yeah, you can have the entirety of Jupiter for all I care."
"And what planetoid is that?"
"The one your ship is orbiting."
The devils glanced nervously at each other; they had never encountered a species that was so willing to give away part of its home system, but they were here under orders so they decided the deal had been struck. "I declare the deal struck then."
"Sweet; go talk to Madeline. She's the one with long black hair on the roof. I'm going to do some subterfuge and won't be back until the next attack is almost here."