1 Chapter 1 Prologue

The swarm had been a fact of life for the past hundred or so years, especially after they managed to make planetfall. The subsequent evacuation was considered the only chance for humanity to survive as a species. We took to space like fish to water; it seemed to be in our DNA to explore the universe. Earth was quickly devoured while the escapees managed to reach Mars, the point of the first contact with the swarm, a planet that even they had left for greener pastures. We set up an outpost and began creating a colony, but the swarm was still in the back of our minds. The main question we had was how did they manage to achieve escape velocity, or build something that could take them to space from the ground? We still don't know the answer to that question, but we did find something only a mile below the surface of our first colony on Mars.

We had found ourselves the largest trove of alien technology that we have ever discovered, even to the current date. We found the secret to infinite energy, but we didn't realize it at first. It took us five years to find out that the crystal at the heart of the ruined city was the powerplant. The discovery was monumental on a scale similar to splitting the atom, comparable to learning to use fire as an energy source. Any power troubles the colony had were erased as engineers linked their energy systems to that of the old city. Well, I guess that "city" is the wrong word for it. We had found an armament manufacturing center nearly fifty kilometers in diameter. That's not to mention the vast amount of what we believe to be residential space further out from the manufacturing center.

It didn't take long for engineers to take a piece from the core and try to find what it was made of. Of course, what they found could only be considered a miracle alloy. The crystal was an alloy of iron, calcium, and potassium, all of which were readily available in the Martian environment. When introduced to a sample of each material, the crystal absorbed the new materials in the proper ratio to grow. Within months, we had the process of crystal growing mastered. By having the crystal perform its miracle of power generation, outputting more power than was put in, the process was even faster. We soon had more crystal than we knew what to do with.

The next major achievement came when someone tried using a laser to cut the crystal. Shall we say the reaction was more than simply violent? The crater around the Far Point lab was nearly a kilometer deep and seemed to have vaporized the matter in the area. It didn't take much time to cause a similar reaction, but this time on a much smaller scale and partially directed. The gun was unable to cope with the sheer stress the reaction caused, but it did manage to deflect the majority of the energy in the desired direction and cause the desired effect. Humanity now had an orbital defense cannon should the swarm ever try and return. The cost was the lives of thirteen people and half of a mountain.

The next leap happened only seventeen years ago. A new form of the crystal was created when an automated machine delivered twice the normal amount of iron. The new crystal was discovered to be different in more than just the color. It gleamed as though it were normal iron, but nothing material could cut it, even diamonds had trouble. It had also lost its energy generation properties. A laser could cut through its nearly diamond-hard surface. The new crystal type grew the same and shared all the other characteristics of the original crystal, aside from its makeup, so we made a second plant devoted to making this new armor type crystal. This event also led to experiments trying to make other new crystals. We now have well over five hundred different forms of these crystals with a new one being discovered every year, after the simpler ones were found year one.

Three years ago, we send a scout ship to see if the swarm had left Earth yet. They never came back, but a transmission received from them showed that, not only had the swarm not left, they had figured out how to use and reconstruct our old technology. We were fighting an enemy that outnumbered us a thousand to one, and now they had guns. Our new armor-type crystal production was increased. More weapons production plants were also set up. Humanity was devoted to taking back a planet they had fled nearly a hundred years prior.

Our newest and most impressive piece of tech is our Crystal-Type-Armored-Suits, CTAS for short. Their crystal drives were based on a transport shuttle design from around the time the crystal had first been reproduced. The biggest bonus for having CTAS is that we could finally produce enough power to use lasers as a primary weapon. Most other forms of space-based weaponry produce unwanted gas clouds or shrapnel. The swarm uses mainly beam weaponry, thanks to a special organ that can generate large amounts of electrical energy and send it through a special fluid that ejects from a chitinous tube along their spines. Many lives were lost finding this out.

"Rookie! You can catch up on history later! You've got practice to do!" the major was smiling as he knew this boy was the best pilot on base, but that didn't mean he could get away with skipping his mandatory hour in the sim pod.

"Fine, I'll go kick the AI's ass again if you want." He had always hated the AI as it was way too predictable and almost suicidal.

"You're not fighting the AI today." The cadet looked up at his major hopefully. "You're fighting with the rest of the group against all the other trainee groups."

"When do we start?!" The cadet actually looked happy, which was starting to become rare.

"You're going to be the last one to arrive if you don't hurry, and the battle will start as soon as everyone enters the battle sims."

The trainee knew the major was hiding something but also knew he wouldn't get a straight answer if he asked about it.

"Alright then! I'll see ya there!" he yelled as he ran off.

The sim building was the largest building in the entire training base, aside from the hangar. Inside were two hundred excited recruits starting up their individual pods, which they were given upon entering the research division. The recruit went to his pod labeled with his initials and serial code, and sat down waiting for the neural interface to connect.

"Hey, now that we're all here, I'm going to brief you all." The squad leader, Argo, seemed rather sleepy. "Our job is to defend our base while taking out the other eight teams' bases. On defense, we will have Mojo, Hawthorn, Mike, and their respective lesser squads. Understood?" A cheer came over the comms system. "Good. Soup, your squad will head to a support position between our attackers and our base. That leaves Sara's squad to go on the offensive, but don't get cocky, these aren't AI we're fighting." Another cheer came over the comms. "Hey, new guy! I know I put you in Mike's sub-squad, but I want you to go with Sara so you can get some experience in combat sooner."

"Afraid I'm not up to fighting people, Argo?"

"Nah, I just don't like how you were assigned to me a year after the rest of us joined." Her voice was laced with venom.

"Understood, Captain."

"Was that respect you just gave me? Well, you ain't sweet-talking your way out of this, rookie." Now she sounded angry.

"Never intended to," he said as he swapped to Sara's channel.

"What are you doing here, rookie?" Sara sounded confused as the pod told her someone new had joined.

"Argo said I was going with your group once we launched, so I could get some combat experience sooner." There was a pause before the entire channel seemed to roar with laughter.

"You got on her bad side joining up with us so late, but you're welcome to join us on our suicide mission." She kept having to catch her breath from how hard she was laughing, but he didn't seem fazed.

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, thanks for having me."

"All cadets, the battle will begin in ten seconds." This voice was one of the majors. The major sounded rather bored.

"Everyone! Get ready to move out."

"Nine…"

"We can, and will, win this."

"Eight… seven… six… five… four..."

"Ready to launch, lead!" Rookie said, when it was his turn to confirm.

"Three… two…"

"Everyone, launch!"