Chapter 14: God of the Swarm

Launching her interceptor from her personal ship, Scarlet descended into Skallis' atmosphere, her distant HUD beacon fixed upon the Gaia Corporation's headquarters. Breaking through the cloud cover that hung over the sprawling metropolis, she closed in on the industrial part of the district. Even in the daytime, Gaia's stylized 'G' logo could be seen on several of the massive skyscrapers that towered over the surrounding businesses and apartments. From above, she laid eyes on a blocky, silver transport ship positioned on a large landing pad outside the largest of the nearby superstructures. Under normal circumstances, her fighter would have already been targeted by the corporation's extensive air defense network, but because her information had been previously logged into the system, no one and nothing hassled her.

After circling the landing pad for minutes, Scarlet noticed the transport finally lifting off with a cloud of white smoke and dust. As it ascended, Scarlet dropped altitude to match it and flew alongside the vessel. Seconds later, a large blue box surrounded the transport on Scarlet's eye lens HUD, indicating it as a friendly.

A gruff, male voice reached her ears via her flight headset. "Duchess, huh?" he mumbled, referring to Scarlet's active callsign. "I don't remember you being part of this assignment."

"I was a last minute addition," Scarlet replied. "The boss asked me to help out."

"Got it, got it," said the transport pilot. "Specter's pilots should be forming up soon. I'm going to circle the industrial airspace until they arrive."

"How many of them are there supposed to be?"

"Just two, and a mission control ship of some kind. Honestly, it's starting to make sense why the boss asked you to help."

"You think you're gonna need it?"

"Beats me," the pilot replied, "But honestly, I ain't got a clue what we're going to be dealing with."

Scarlet took a tense breath. "I've been to the Aparoid Wilds one time. Absolute hellhole. We're probably going to run into at least a few flying Aparoids. Depends on the weather. The nicer it is, the more of them are going to be out and about."

"Great…" the pilot sighed. "The weather data for that part of Zharon doesn't show a cloud in the sky."

"Well, buckle up, then."

"That's your job, not mine," the pilot retorted. "Hopefully these Specter guys are as good as I've heard they are."

"Oh, they are," Scarlet declared. "You're in good hands."

With no signs of additional fighters approaching, the transport began lazily circling Gaia's industrial complex. With nothing better to do, the pilot continued the conversation.

"So, how does this Specter company operate? You seem like you know a thing or two about them."

"Yeah," said Scarlet. "Specter is a group of flight teams under one umbrella. They're split up into four teams of four with a fifth person to run mission control for them. Well, technically there's a fifth team that the owner flies with, but they don't operate as a group very often."

Teams of four?" the pilot wondered aloud. "I was only assigned two escorts and a mission control ship."

Scarlet thought for moment, before a realization struck her. "Wow—these might be the boss's personal wingmen, maybe even him personally."

"Huh. Well, we're about to find out, because I'm seeing three Specter IFFs showing up on my screen here," the pilot replied.

Looking to her right, Scarlet noticed two fighters with dark gray block camouflage paint rapidly approaching her position, along with a third vessel three times their size with an x-pattern swing-wing design. As they closed in, their blue IFF tags registered in Scarlet's HUD, indicating their technical names and their allegiance.

SFX-01 SPECTER

SHINIGAMI SPECTER

JUPITER-40IW SPECTER

The two fighters flanked the Gaia transport ship, flying directly to Scarlet's right closely enough for her to get a close view of the vessels and the pilots themselves. The first fighter, closest to her, was one she had seen countless times in media but seldom in person. Specifically, a first-generation Arwing. The fighter had seen better days, with its exterior dotted and marred by scratches, scrapes, and patches where the dark gray paint had been ripped away to reveal the previous silvery-white color that its current coating had been sprayed over. An unsubtle infinity symbol decorated the craft's pointed front end, with a blue and white number 0 positioned in front of the canopy to identify it as belonging to Specter's reserve team. The edges of the fighter's wings, rear thruster vanes, and the hull itself were marked with blue accents.

The second craft flying alongside it had an angular, pieced-together appearance with harsh angles, a cockpit positioned farther back than normal, and four forward facing small wings suspiciously reminiscent of the Wolfens used by Star Wolf during the Great Lylat War. However, if one looked at it from any angle other than the side, they would notice that the fighter looked like it had been cut in half down the middle and glued back together to accommodate a center section that ran more than halfway down the craft's fuselage. And if one looked more closely, they would realize that the center section was a massive central gun jammed into a tiny fighter. As opposed to the digital screech and the green energy trails created by the Arwing's engines, the second fighter emitted a hollow, foreboding drone that paired with its orange exhaust. Like the Arwing, it sported a number zero in front of its cockpit. However, the accent trim on the second ship was defined by strips of yellow and pink, with a string of yellow kanji symbols decorating the side of the "nose."

A familiar voice came through Scarlet's headset from the pilot next to her. "Well well, look who it is. How've you been, hot stuff?"

"I've been alright," she replied, grinning from ear to ear. "I may or may not have run into someone you used to know."

"Ooh, now who would that be? I used to know a lot of people. That doesn't narrow things down much."

"Don't get smart with me, Lombardi," Scarlet chuckled. "I'm talking about your old pal, Fox."

"Shit, for real?"

"Yeah. And I may or may not have dragged him out here."

Falco held his tongue, pondering his response for a moment before he warily asked her, "Have you…uh…told him yet?"

"Told him what?"

"You know what I'm talking about."

The realization dawned on her. "Oh… No, I haven't."

"Probably for the best," said Falco. "What he doesn't know can't hurt him."

"That was my thinking. Unfortunately, he's had to get in touch with my mom. There's no way he doesn't start piecing things together soon."

Falco's cringe was almost audible. "Yikes, that's going to be awkward as hell, especially if…"

"…If what?" Scarlet demanded.

Falco sounded unnaturally bashful. "You hooked up with him, didn't you?"

"Maybe…"

"And you didn't tell him."

"No."

Falco shook his head and muttered, "I shouldn't be so surprised."

"Oh, come on—there's no blood relation! It was all in good fun."

"Uh huh, just keep telling yourself that. Yeah, you're not technically related, but you're a hell of a lot closer to him than you want to admit.

Scarlet prepared a counterpoint, but before she had the opportunity, a female voice from the other fighter attacked her eardrums. "Ugh! Can you two shut the fark up? I signed up to shoot things, not listen to two idiots talk about incest. I can't believe this is a major plot point again!"

"Get used to it, Rena," Falco grumbled.

"You people disgust me," she replied under her breath.

A three second silence fell over the collective intercom system before a masculine, regal-sounding voice imposed itself on the group's ears. "Einstein, Yandere, Duchess, Gaia-9, this is your mission control speaking, callsign Janitor. I'll be assisting and monitoring this escort mission from the Jupiter-40 assault craft."

Against his (and everyone else's) better judgment, Falco decided to interject his own opinion. "Hey, Carmine—there's literally five people here including you. Don't be a tight-ass. Just call it like it is."

"You test me sometimes, Lombardi," Mission Control growled. "But fine. All pilots, this job is straightforward—escort the Gaia transport to the Aparoid Exclusion Zone on Zharon and provide cover for it while it lands and retrieves the high value targets. In the interest of keeping this job under the radar, our employer specifically requested a small group. This may pose a challenge in the Exclusion Zone. Weather conditions in the area are near-perfect with exceptional visibility. Expect a strong Aparoid presence. Not to frighten you, but if any of you go down in the Exclusion Zone, I and the company will most likely be unable to help you."

No one said anything in response, all taking in the information and understanding the gravity of it. After a moment of silence, Carmine continued, "Now that everyone's here, head for Zharon. Stay in formation around Gaia-9."

- § -

With Specter's two pilots to her right and the larger mission control ship tailing the group, Scarlet kept her eyes focused on the blocky Gaia transport as the convoy broke through the moon's violent mesosphere and descended into the sky far above the dense greenery of the Aparoid Exclusion Zone. From above, she could distantly make out the walls and garrisons built to contain the creatures responsible for the area's name.

Carmine issued an update. "The exclusion zone has an automated defense network that will target you if you drop below 60,000 feet and fly within 10 miles of the perimeter wall. For obvious reasons, do not do this. Continue towards the center of the zone and drop altitude then."

"Copy that," the Gaia pilot replied.

"This is going to make exfil a lot harder," Rena groused.

"Yeah, but that's why we're getting paid the big bucks," Falco chuckled.

Scarlet frowned, but only slightly. "Man, nobody told me anything about getting paid."

"Not like you're hurting for cash," said Falco. "You didn't get your callsign by being broke."

"Fair."

Breaking up the conversation, Mission Control called out, "Focus on the target. We'll be out of range momentarily."

After a 'momentary' two minutes, the Gaia transport began descending. As it did, a yellow beacon appeared in the group's collective HUD, indicating the pickup point. As the altitude dropped and the dark blue sky became progressively brighter, Scarlet noticed a moderate number of small dots. From a distance, they appeared like aircrafts, but she knew better. "They weren't kidding about the Aparoid presence."

The transport continued its descent, dropping below 5,000 feet. At this point, a set of stone ruins on the ground below stood out. The HUD beacon pointed directly to this location, surrounded on all sides by an all-encompassing forest. However, at the lower altitude, those previously distant dots revealed themselves as beetle-esque flying Aparoids. Scarlet's radar indicated at least 15 of the insectoid creatures, roughly three quarters the size of her fighter.

On cue, Mission Control called out, "16 confirmed targets—type: Aparoid Scarab. They're too slow to keep up with your fighters, but the transport is extremely vulnerable to them. Don't let them touch that ship! If they latch on, this mission is over. Be forewarned—they may swarm and coordinate their attacks, so don't let yourselves get caught off guard. Gaia-9, you are go for landing. We'll cover you."

"Copy," the transport pilot replied.

"Einstein, Yandere, Duchess, weapons free. Splatter as many of those bugs as you can. Einstein, Duchess—focus on the ones threatening Gaia-9. Yandere—stick to the perimeter of the area and try to keep more from compromising the LZ."

"Got it," Falco replied, "But what are you gonna be doing about this? Flying in big lazy loops around the area while giving us commentary?"

"Shut it, Lombardi," Mission Control snapped. "This ship isn't built for small craft interdiction. If bigger Aparoids start showing up, you're going to be glad I'm here."

"Geez, lighten up. I was just giving you a hard time."

"I know, and I'm not in the mood for your shenanigans. Focus on the damn bugs!"

Mentally tuning out the conversation, Scarlet slowed her fighter and pulled into a tight left bank, circling the landing zone with the smallest radius that her ship was capable of. One of the Aparoids flashed across her field of vision, aiming for the slow moving transport. Locking onto the creature, she squeezed the trigger on her flight stick, obliterating the scarab. A second one whisked past her, but before she had a chance to lock on, it exploded as a blue plasma blast from Falco's Arwing reduced it to biomechanical chunks.

"Duchess, you got one behind you! Break!" he called out.

Realizing that she had neglected to check her radar, she took Falco at his word and banked to the right as aggressively as her fighter would allow. Admittedly, it was built for high speed intercepts, not for slow, tight airspaces. As soon as she turned, she heard Falco's guns behind her, immediately followed by the sound of Aparoid particles bouncing off her hull.

"Was it that close?!" she shouted.

"Uh, yeah," Falco replied. "These things don't have a high top speed, but they do change directions fast."

She had no time to respond, as her radar indicated two more Aparoids approaching the transport while it touched down in a flat stone courtyard outside the main ruin. She continued her right loop and pulled in behind Falco as the two Aparoids began their descent from the left, flying parallel with each other.

"I'm going low, get the other one," Scarlet called out.

"Got it," Falco replied.

The two fighters dropped altitude and locked onto the scarabs, splattering them before they had any chance of closing in on the vulnerable transport.

Scarlet looked at her radar again, only to see it mostly clear of Aparoids. Given the number of bugs she and Falco had collectively hit, she assumed that the third fighter must have been picking off the others from a greater distance.

Mission Control spoke up. "Great work. Only five targets remain. But I've got bad news: we have more incoming, and these are different. Five bogies approaching at high speed. Dammit—missiles incoming!"

"Missiles? What the hell?" Rena called out. "I thought these were supposed to be weird bugs!"

"We did not anticipate this," replied Mission Control. "Two of you, I need you to fly close to the landing site and release countermeasures as the missiles get close to the transport. They might be locked onto it from a distance. Whoever has the fastest fighter—I need you to intercept the approaching targets. If you can't shoot them down, at least keep them too preoccupied to launch more missiles."

"That would be me," Scarlet muttered. "I'm starting to regret signing up for this."

Ignoring her concerns, Mission Control announced, "Bogies projected to reach the LZ in 65 seconds. Missiles closing fast, will be here in 20. Einstein, Yandere—run interference for the transport now!"

Scarlet watched for a moment as the two fighters broke off and headed towards the landing site before she pointed her interceptor in the direction of the five distant targets, then banked slightly more to the right. She pulled back on her left throttle yoke until it hit a hard detent, launching the fighter forward. To her left, a volley of green missiles streaked past, leaving strange, gooey contrails in their wake.

"Are those missiles…organic?"

As her fighter sped up, she toggled a red lockout switch on the control stick with an exclamation mark printed next to it. Then, with the lockout disengaged, she pulled the throttle farther back, unleashing the two oversized engines' full power output.

The entire craft shook, and within seconds, an air speed warning appeared on her HUD, accompanied by a concerning yellow display on her fighter's control screen. But she had commissioned and tested this fighter herself, and she knew its limits. Therefore, she ignored it. She glanced to her left and spotted the five approaching targets ahead of her. Disengaging her engines' 'overthrust' function, she slowed the interceptor and pulled into a hard left loop to position herself behind the targets. Due to the loop she had been forced to take, the bogies pulled out a considerable lead as they doggedly approached the landing site. All the while, Mission Control, Gaia's transport pilot, and Spector's two pilots called out updates.

"Missile intercepted."

"Gaia-9, confirming target pickup. We're getting the hell out of here."

"Copy that, Gaia-9—remember to take off vertically to avoid the automatic defenses."

"Hey, is anyone else getting some weird radar spikes?"

Scarlet had other things to focus on. For the second time, she engaged her engines' full power, once again triggering an air speed warning as the gap between her and the unidentified enemies closed rapidly.

She focused her eyes on the targets, barely identifiable as more than specks at the moment. But her vision wandered downwards, to her radar. Behind her, more dots than she could count appeared, with even more seemingly popping up by the second. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the tree canopy far below shook in unison, as if it was one living organism. Fear chilled her skin and put her fur on end, but she chose to focus on the rapidly approaching targets ahead. She switched her fighter's twin plasma cannons to their beam mode, and as she closed in, she targeted the enemy farthest to her left. Her IFF for the bogey indicated nothing, simply a targeting box. As she closed in, she noted the shape of the target—unmistakably Aparoid in nature, but possessing the design of a terrestrial fighter craft.

She squeezed the trigger on her right stick, releasing a sustained beam of red plasma. The blast ripped the Aparoid fighter to pieces. The other four enemies broke off in all directions, as she hoped they would. After all, her primary goal was to distract them from the landing zone.

She pulled up and banked to her right to pursue the target to the right of the one she had obliterated, but as she adjusted her flight stick, a flood of noises and voices assaulted her mind. Her HUD lit up with a frantic 'missile warning' alert, and at the same time, Mission Control shouted, "More targets incoming—more of the same! The numbers are off the charts! Duchess, what the hell did you do?!"

Refusing to take the blame for simply following orders, Scarlet yelled back, "Is the transport out of the AO yet?!"

"Negative!" Mission Control replied. He paused, then audibly gasped. "Missiles incoming! Too many to count!"

"What are we supposed to do?" Falco demanded, fear creeping into his voice.

Mission Control offered him no answer, instead adding, "Multiple large targets on radar. Moth-shaped."

"Farking shitballs," Rena spat.

"Everyone, close in on Gaia-9 and deploy countermeasures!" Mission Control called out.

"I just used all mine up!" Falco hollered back.

"There are too many missiles! Too many targets! It's not going to do anything!" yelled Rena.

The frantic calls of her counterparts went into Scarlet's left ear and out the other as she abandoned her pursuit of the Aparoid fighter and took evasive maneuvers. Unable to spare even the slightest bit of focus to look down at her radar and track the incoming missiles, she found herself forced to maintain a hard right loop in the questionable hope that it would throw off approaching missiles. The sheer number of them meant that her fighter's missile warning indicator refused to let up, even for a second. Yet, she had no idea where any of them were coming from—or if they were coming from all directions.

Mission Control yelled, "Gaia-9—ascend!"

"What do you think I'm doing?! I'm pushing this thing to the limit! I can't climb any faster!"

Voice quivering, Mission Control blurted out, "Missile impact imminent—five seconds and closing. Someone, defend Gaia-9!"

"How?!" Falco shrieked.

Scarlet glanced at her flight sticks, only to find her hands shaking in fear. Two green missiles streaked past her canopy, missing her by mere meters. In the moment, her mind seemed to stop working. Her brain's command to her right hand to bank her fighter to the left failed to register. Seemingly turned to stone, her hand remained frozen in place on the flight stick. At the same time, a sudden, crushing weight pressed in on her consciousness—tightening, constricting, choking her out from the inside. She closed her eyes and screamed, but no sound came out.

Then, a silent, wordless, but immensely powerful voice spoke, rattling the corridors of her mind.

"No."

The weight lifted, and simultaneously, her missile alert warning went silent.

Shaking, she opened her eyes and looked out of her canopy. Scores of Aparoid fighters soared above the forest, but none of them seemed interested in the five foreign crafts anymore. Her radar still indicated an absurd number of threats, but she felt a distinct lack of fear. She squinted her eyes and looked at the Gaia transport as she closed in on it, the fighters, and the mission control craft. The group of vessels ascended together, uninhibited by the Aparoids.

As Scarlet fell in behind them and began increasing altitude, Rena breathlessly demanded, "What the hell was that?"

"You heard it too?" asked Falco.

"How could you not?"

Still trying to catch her breath, Scarlet spoke up. "I was a bit preoccupied—what exactly happened there?"

Mission Control took the opportunity to answer. "The Aparoids simply…gave up? The missiles heading for Gaia-9 broke off at the last second. Look, you're going to think I'm crazy, but I think someone was looking out for us there."

"Carmine, that doesn't make any sense," Rena huffed.

"None of this makes any sense," said Scarlet. "You know what, though? You're not going to hear me complaining about it."

Falco nodded in agreement. "Yeah, no kidding."

"Leaving the exclusion zone," Mission Control announced. "Keep your guard up, but the hard part is over. I'm setting a waypoint for the main Gaia facility back on the homeworld. Once Gaia-9 lands, our work is done. Duchess, after that point, you're on your own."

"Copy," Scarlet replied. "Nice to fly with you guys again. Well, at least with Falco."

"Aww, I'm flattered," Falco clapped back with an exaggerated voice.

Clearing the moon's atmosphere, the group of five ascended into space above the green globe, following the distant yellow icon marked by Mission Control. After a quiet, uneventful, yet tense flight to the planet that Zharon orbited and the accompanying descent into the planet's atmosphere, the group closed in on the spires marking Gaia's corporate headquarters. The Gaia transport began its final descent towards the landing platform it had originally launched from, and as it slowly dropped altitude, Falco opened a private channel to Scarlet.

"Hey, hot stuff."

"Yeah?"

"Just thought you might want to know that this is the last sortie for the old girl here."

"What do you mean? Oh…wait, you're retiring the Arwing?"

"Yeah. I know she's got a lot of history in her, but things aren't working the way they used to and it's got a lot of bugs that no one here can figure out. It was a prototype, after all."

Scarlet paused for a moment. "What are you going to replace it with, then?"

"That's why I'm not sad about putting the old girl away. You see, the reason I'm in the reserve squadron right now is because I've been helping the big G test a new prototype for the boss. Guess who's about to take delivery of their own personalized version of the new hotness?"

"Damn, they just hand those things out to you guys? What does it look like?"

"Honestly, it doesn't look that different from what I'm flying now. But the controls and the engines are definitely a step up. The normal model is called the Arbiter and they're calling the interceptor the Harbinger."

"Wow, so edgy. I know a Felix decision when I see it," Scarlet replied, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, at least I didn't have anything to do with that part of it. The prototype I've been testing is awesome, but I wanted one that was even lighter and faster. It doesn't have as much armor, but I don't need that since I don't get hit. Ha!"

"Keep telling yourself that, Feathers."

"Hey, I think I will. Can't have too much positive reinforcement."

"Whatever."

Falco lowered his voice. "Hey, on a serious note, I don't know how much more you want to blow Fox's mind, but if you feel like he's ready for it, feel free to tell him I said hi."

"I might," Scarlet replied. "I'll probably be seeing him soon."

- § -

Scarcely a minute after the Gaia transport touched down, the craft's rear hatch opened, and the entry ramp descended to the concrete. Two Gaia employees wearing suits—a moderately tall Alsatian dog and a slightly shorter fruit bat with brownish-black fur—stepped up to the edge of the ramp and looked into the transport's cargo hold, where Voltimure and Agata sat on a crew bench bolted to the inside of the vessel's hull. The combined height and gravitas of the two passengers startled both of them, but the bat managed to collect himself enough to tell them, "Hey, the boss is waiting for you two. Follow us."

Voltimure and Agata glanced at each other, then stood up and walked down the loading ramp. The two towered over the Gaia employees, their strange, fearsome appearances making eye contact difficult. Neither Voltimure nor Agata said anything to the employees, but they offered no resistance when led in the direction of a giant sliding glass door in the side of the colossal building in front of them.

The employees led the two through the door and into the chamber immediately inside. Painted white, the space featured sparse, minimalistic decor with an edgy, clean aesthetic with towering ceilings and wide hallways that betrayed the building's purpose as an industrial office center.

Following the two employees, Voltimure took the opportunity to whisper into Agata's ear, using his rudimentary grasp of her language to prevent Gaia's workers from understanding him. "What exactly did you do back there?"

The woman looked at him out of the corner of her black eyes. "When I speak, my subjects listen."

"Your subjects?"

"Yes. Those creatures—the Hayawi, as we called them—are originally from the Homeworld. They are extremely dangerous, but my people learned to control them. Physically, they are strong, but their minds are weak. They know only how to consume, destroy, assimilate. My people sometimes kept the smaller ones as pets. The larger ones were used as enforcers. The Hayawi probably ended up on Zharon because they were on my ship when it crashed."

"So, you simply told them to stop attacking, and they listened?"

"Yes, exactly."

"Intriguing—most intriguing indeed," Voltimure replied. "Based on my previous experience with Cerinian genetic material, your kind's telepathy appears to be hereditary in some way. You seem to have a more potent version. I wonder if this would be repeatable in a laboratory setting."

The woman stopped walking and turned her head fully towards him. Disapproval in her eyes, she warned him, "Do not meddle in the affairs of gods."

The implication behind her statement hit him with an amalgamation of fear and anger. He knew what she meant by 'gods.' And he did not know whether to view her sentiment as one held by a being deluded by her own power or by someone who knew exactly what she was—and what she was capable of.