Weeks passed. There was much construction done over that time. With the combination of Human knowledge and the various alien physical abilities the work was done quicker and more precisely than any Human suspected. The aliens were often confused about what they were doing, most of it seeming like a complete waste of time and energy. The most helpful and most disruptive was Mya. She, like most of the rest of her kind, didn’t understand what the Humans wanted with the matrix of underground tunnels and cables of metal wrapped in the material that the clothes created by the ARMS devices were made of so she made a scene over and over again. She was convinced that she was smarter than them and all that they were doing served no purpose other than to slow them down. Every time there was a problem, often due to her changing the plans randomly, there was an argument between herself claiming that the Human plans were bad and the Human city planners. That always resulted in them coming to the council and Jason to plead their cases. The council members didn’t know what the Humans had in mind other than Ray and Jason, but every time they trusted Jason that the Human plan made sense. They tried to explain it to them but they had never seen running water nor heard electricity. To them it was magic on the same level as the ARMS and their captors’ technology and to those that understood that technology, like Mya, at some rudimentary level didn’t get the point of what they wanted to do.

It may have been back breaking confusing work, but they got it done. They had lived that time in temporary shelter made to be used for storage of food and resources that if they weren’t careful could become scarce and put them in a bad situation, but for now they were largely empty and perfect for shelter while their new town was being worked on. It’s not they couldn’t stand living like that, but it had been nearly a month and most of what they had done was dig up the ground, put tunnels that the majority of them couldn’t fit through into the hole, and then cover them up, leaving them right back where they started. In that time they could have built individual shelters for all of them. How could they not be upset. They didn’t know what the Humans had planned. But one day, the multitude of pipes they had placed started pouring water out of them, covering the ground in water. The aliens didn’t understand was happening, but were amazed that there was water coming from nowhere. The Humans had performed yet another miracle, re-energizing the aliens and growing their belief in the abilities of Humans.

Several more weeks passed. Buildings went up all over. The original plans were altered once the aliens began to grasp what in-door plumbing and electricity could do for them. There wasn’t much that could be used with the electricity, but simple devices could be made with the infrastructure they had built. Mainly lights, but it was also able to be used to heat various things, but again there was conflict, Humans wanted to make sure that all the water was heated and there was enough energy to cook food before anything else, such as heating a house. Those with medical knowledge tried to explain about bacteria, viruses, and keeping things clean, but it was a foreign concept which couldn’t be as easily shown the benefits of. Regardless, the Humans insisted and they had shown that they tended to be reasonable. Moreover, the worst that resulted from their insistence is that everyone had heated water to bathe in which pacified them.

The town grew, its technology became ever more advanced over all other settlements that they had ever encountered on Debris, even Xev in her hundreds of years of wandering around the planet. The greatest limiter was the resources that they had access to and the ARMS devices. They were using the devices as miniature power plants that provided all the electricity to the town. No one knew the limits to using them in this way. They were designed to be used like that. Mya and Xev had never seen a device run out of power so they just assumed that they had a near infinite power supply, but they also seemed to have a maximum output, higher than any similarly small device that could be found on Earth, but not enough to power a fully modern city of Earth and even if there was, it’s not like they could create the modern tech that many of them had grown accustomed in their lives which they had been deprived of over the last couple months. For this reason the city planners put aside space to build factories and a power plant that they would build when they had built up the places to live and gotten all the people settled.

A couple months had passed since they left Gondaluke. Their relationship with each other and the Apox were becoming stronger. The choice to place Apisis on the council ingratiated this new settlement to the Queen of the nearby Apox hive. She was so pleased with it that she created a new position within her hive, giving Apisis a special status second to her own and sent several dozen lower cast Apox to become citizens of the new settlement. Each of the species had begun adapting to the new living arrangements, with innovations that the Humans brought to them altering their normal behaviors. Everything was going good. They believed they had made the right choice to follow this mysteries new citizen of Debris.

They were almost finished putting the finishing touches on their homes when buzzing began to be heard in the distance. No one knew what it was. Scouting parties were sent out, but nothing could be found. The buzzing grew louder over the day. Night fell. The buzzing continued, growing louder throughout the long night. The people tossed and turned trying to fall asleep, but the buzzing kept them resting. Their minds raced, questioning what it could be. Were they in danger? Should they be getting prepared to fight? What was coming for them. Had they made a mistake, crossed a line, using forbidden technology that the Humans brought? Or used the ARMS devices in a way that enraged the rulers of Debris?

Morning broke. The tired people rose to get to work. The buzz was still there, but it didn’t seem to be anything to be afraid of. They couldn’t do anything about it other than go about their lives with it in the background. The gates opened and they prepared to go out on the hunt and do the daily farming chores. Suddenly, a roar filled the air, and then another. The aliens looked around confused with what they had heard, but the Humans, their blood ran cold. They didn’t know consciously what it was, but on a subconscious level they all knew that they had heard it before, but they couldn’t quite place where it was that they had.

Jason was like the rest of them, but he had more experience with the dangers of this world than others. Immediately he ordered that the gates to be closed and everyone to equip themselves with whatever weapons that they could find. However, many of the ARMS devices that they had brought with them were being used to power their city which left them lacking in the ability to fight back. Even with the ARMS devices though, they would have been woefully unprepared to protect themselves. They naively didn’t believe that they would need to engage with any enemies. It was an oversight in Jason’s case. He thought that he had dealt with the only threat to their safety by allying with the Apox. The town suddenly became bustling with life as the people ran around finding equipment, anything that could be used to defend themselves, while the children that had been brought along were ushered behind the inner wall and into the safest place that they had built. They were joined by any one that felt they could not defend themselves. That was almost half of the populous crammed into a relatively tiny space. And there they sat awaiting their fate.

They had surprisingly moved very quickly and were all prepared in a matter of minutes, but then they sat there. Nothing happened. The buzzing noise increased to the point that it began to start causing people to have headaches, but still nothing came. Hours passed with no change. Another roar sounded keeping them on edge. Some had found that their consciousness started to fade. The sleepless night and the intense stress was having an effect on them all. They began to fall over untouched by any physical attack. That is when a single Crita rose over the wall. One came over, then another, and another until they were flooding in like a waterfall. With each new wave of Crita that made itself known the Buzzing decreased, but the effect was already felt by all the inhabitants.

Jason called to get those that had fallen on their feet, before charging towards the giant wasp-like aliens, each with weapons raised to do combat with the town’s inhabitants. Jason knew from experience that only those who wore the ARMS armor had equipment that could withstand their attacks. Everyone else were vulnerable. The Apox who were also experienced with the Crita rallied together. Not all of them were veteran warriors but under the command of Lady Apisis they were a formidable force well equipped to handle this enemy despite not wearing any ARMS armor.

The Tok`phane donned their guard armor that they had brought with them. They were the first to respond, quicker than the Apox that had been preparing for this since they set up in the town. The dog aliens where well armored, able to take the strikes of the Crita, but they were experts in the use of greatswords. They could scarcely hit the mark against their enemies, but for every 20 failed attempts to score a blow 1 would land, bisecting the evil wasp’s body, but it wasn’t enough. The upper part of the body just keep fighting back. With each new wave of Crita the last was pushed further in and soon the Tok`phane began to disappear into the ocean of attackers. All the Tok`phane could do is just keep fighting back with all that they had.

They were joined by the Apox and T`kata. Their numbers were nowhere near the equal of the invading Crita, but it seemed that they were more organized. The T`kata used their axes, creating a tornado of blood around them. The skills used to cut down trees and shape them were now being employed against these villains that threatened their new colony. I was not in them to be afraid, only to do what was decided by the colony to protect the queen. They didn’t stand much of a chance against a Crita alone, but as a unit, they looked to be unstoppable. Some fell, but that didn’t put them on the defensive. All that mattered was the survival of the colony. Their lives were forfeit.

Meanwhile, on the edges of the fight and across the walls the Sil`phane picked off stray Crita. As long as it was a one on one fight and they could use sneak attacks the Crita had no chance if a Sil`phane could execute a perfect attack. Perfect attacks, however, were few and far between. Even when they were able to perfectly strike one of the wasps down it wasn’t enough. The Crita were able to counter attack and kill, if not injure, the Sil`phane. They were quick to react, but there was a limit to how fast they could react to the totally unexpected.