" Come with me, you should see what you're competing with" said Jaus to John.
The two left the lab and went on a route John hadn't passed before, it was just like the other passages, dark grey, metallic, and a bit little for more than three person width.
The men made a few turns and then got to a spot along the passage. They stopped and slowly ran their eyes over the display right in front of them.
Two Mechs were on display right for passerby and the wall at which they stood was pressed back a little so as not to take the passage little space.
" These are..."
" Yes, You fought one of these earlier. The Mech Avaris and Starlight"
These Mechs were placed in a wall of glass and below them on a tab, their names were inscribed on a wooden tag.
The two Mechs were humanoid, with the Mech Avaris clad in black adorned with dull green strips from the side of its chest down to its flank and then to its feet, it had two thin black projections on its head around the width of three centimeters and the length of ten centimeters.
It was slightly taller than an average man and appeared quite bulky and intimidating, it had black viscous-like eyes and a series of little white circles in it, such that it resembles the magnified eyes of a fly.
On its back was a flight contraption that went like the wings of a dragonfly, unlike the dragonfly proportion, its wings were about two to five in respect to its height.
Aside from the contraption at its back, its flight is aided by two cylindrical tubes around its heel and ankle. These tubes are normally hidden from sight and only reveal themselves when in use.
The other, Mech Starlight was around twice the size of its counterpart. It had a little hole at the center of its chest, its eyes were just like that of the Mech Avaris, also unlike its counterpart, its flight contraption had no resemblance to a bug's part.
On its back, a wide white ring was placed, this ring alongside little holes under the bot's feet grants it flight. On its shoulders, stood a blue sword hilt.
" This one doesn't fly?" John asked as he noticed the lack of a visible flight contraption.
" It does, they're a bit inconspicuous, however. There's a device that grants it flight under its feet and one on its back too. Another model exists, it's too large to fit the pathway so it was positioned elsewhere"
" Does that make it the most powerful?"
" No No No, the most powerful is right here, the Mech Starlight"
" Whoa!" John exclaimed.
" Does that make it stronger than I am?"
" I'm still not aware of your full potential, I can't say but I doubt you can create destruction beyond it. It is filled with some of the most destructive projectiles" Jaus paused
" Ehemm....That excludes nuclear bombs of course"
" The last is called the Blockbuster and just like what its name suggests, its strength is astounding. It's underground, by the way, I should have shown you when we went there. It's enormous size made us place it down there, space up here is too valuable to spare to such a Mech"
" There are other custom-made with prowess surpassing these though." Jaus said and paused for a few seconds.
"So there you have it, a little insight of our military."
" What now?" John asked.
" What now you say? Well, I haven't learnt much about you. Tell me more about yourself"
" Myself?"
" Yes, we talk like we've known each other for a long time however, I barely know you."
" I'm just another person, nothing special" John replied with a wry smile.
" That wouldn't do, you must tell." Jaus pushed.
John proceeded to tell the important details of his life, what he was before the invasion crisis and what begot the deep hatred he had towards the invading alien species. Just a superficial run-through, one that didn't take more than a minute.
" Ahhh, we all hate those monsters as much as you do. Everyone does!"
" There'll be an all-out war against them soon enough, we are accumulating military power in the meantime. There are still things I need to achieve, you are a pathway to those achievements John"
" Me?.."
" Yes you!"
" Think about it! About ten thousand of you up there on the battlefront. That'll put us close to victory than ever."
" I didn't know that you were just nineteen, you look a lot older with those sunken eyes of yours. Perhaps halting the self-hate and blame will help your looks" Jaus proposed.
" Yeah, maybe" John replied running his hands over the thin glass barricading the body suits like he wanted to feel for dirt.
***********
On a large mass of ice, right between the Continent Lapis and Tyr, a large contraption stood tall thrusting upwards aiming for the skies. At an astonishing height of seventy meters and a width of about twenty meters, it stood with visible current of electricity squirming around it. At its end, two large bodies branched from it, boring their frames into the ice caps
Metallic settlements were about the contraption, many were cuboid shaped with only one resembling a dome, in total there were ten of them. Spacecrafts employed by the aliens were about the buildings roughly distributed.
The Icecap Esus inhabited no life except a few microbes prior to the advent of the Mulkers, its omnipresent dark skies blocks the brilliant rays of sunlight hindering evaporation thus making it quite stable.
Two Mulkers stood by each other right in front of the large contraption looking up at it with about fifty of their species behind them, although their blank faces makes it difficult to perceive their feelings, these two were in a state of happiness as they were ever closer to their goal.
" It's complete, contact the General, he'll be glad to hear this"
" Yes" the other went into the domed building with a circular metallic device on its arm, it moved rather casually rather than utilizing its super speed as it brought the device to his superior.
Upon receiving the device, it tossed it on the Ice surface and a hologram came up.
The hologram brought the image of a large and fairly tall throne with a figure on seat.
" You have good news this time around, don't you?" he spoke.
" Ye..ss!" his response quivered lightly over the new presence, although they were hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart, they all couldn't help but feel tense.
" Tell me"
" The Earth coordinates have been occupied now, we're done here"
" Ahh, I see, that's indeed great news. I'm afraid we can't go on as expected, our new enemies are a lot tougher than we bargained for." There was what seemed to be a long pause.
" I should speed things up, I've been pretty lax lately, my people need my help. Keep the locations secured and keep on with the experiments, we need more numbers." he said with his right arm raised like he wanted to lift something.
" Yes my Lord."
The hologram came off and the tense aura dissipated.