Anoona led Thunder into the quarry where the Third Gen could be seen licking up the blood that now soaked the sand.
It noticed its mother's approach and immediately stepped towards her, letting out its first breath and filling the entire quarry with steam.
Even without eyes, it peered into hers, armed with receptors that allowed it to sense everything around it.
Anoona raised her hand and gently held her child's burning cheek, singeing her hand a little.
"You… will be retribution."
Retribution let out a low, ground-shaking growl before seemingly sighing.
She was hungry, but the amounts of food that she wanted weren't available currently, hence why Anoona fed her millions of lives.
They would have to do for now.
"Retribution is an awfully long name. How about I call you Ret, lil' sis?"
Ret snarled at Thunder, revealing that her entire mouth was filled with jagged teeth that could crush boulders, as opposed to her brother's, which had been designed to enjoy soft and processed food.
"I think Ret is a cute nickname." Anoona may have smiled, but it made Ret lower her head a little.
"Come. Let's greet your other siblings." Anoona lightly rubbed her daughter's cheek with her thumb before realising that Ret had shrunk a little.
She had already metabolised all the Newmen she had eaten, shrinking down to two meters in length, and was eyeing Thunder like he was a sandwich, which made Anoona chuckle.
"No, you cannot eat your brother. If that was even possible in Thunder's case."
"Wait, what?" Thunder frowned in confusion as he and Ret followed their mother out of the quarry.
He kept a close eye on the, at times motionless, Ret as the boarded a tram that took them all the way to the spaceport where Rusteater and Thunder had their offices set up since they had to coordinate the war effort above.
The sixty ships that had attacked the Earth had retreated to a distance just beyond the moon, where they regrouped.
According to intel that the Bio-Web had intercepted, the Council had fast-tracked the development of drones that could counter Anoona's Hawks, along with cyborgs that could counter the Betas, a thought which made Anoona laugh a little. This actually made Ret react, tilting her head and letting out a soft croak.
The trio eventually arrived in Rusteater's office to find that the goober had shed his gaster, leaving him half as big as usual.
"Greetings, little brother." Thunder made sure to emphasise the last two words, making Rusteater shake his head as he pored over various blueprints.
"Who gave birth to this guy again? Please remind him that I am your 45th child." Rusteater scoffed while glancing at Ret, who silently stood by Anoona's side.
"That would be me. You got a problem with that, punk?"
Rusteater ignored his mother's stank face and looked Ret over.
"The Bio-Web's telling me that you're planning on giving her some more siblings, but I'm also being told that she has too voracious an appetite."
"True enough, but worry not, she can eat sand." Anoona gave her son a thumbs up, only for Thunder to squint at Ret.
"She could eat the sands of the desert until it was empty, I bet."
"Meaning we cannot feed her here," Rusteater muttered after his brother.
"That's why we're going to the moon." Anoona smiled, but this just made her sons pause.
"Mom… I don't think we should let her eat the moon…" Thunder warned, but Anoona waved his concerns away.
"I know. She'll just have some of it while we wait for the Newmen to bring her more food. Heck, she could even roost there if she wanted."
Rusteater and Thunder let out muffled groans.
"Alright, but what of Miss Prithvi. She's yet to grow significantly larger and doesn't seem to be combat capable beyond her Noetic potential." The Gamma asked, idly tapping his six legs, creating a rhythm that made Ret sway from side to side a little.
"If it happens that she isn't a fighter, then so be it. I'm only keeping her because she asked me nicely. I don't really have any other uses for the child beyond that, so leave her with Dahlia for now."
[Why should I be the one to nurse her?] Dahlia griped only for Anoona to completely ignore her transmission.
"Anyway, since things are inevitably going to scale up to levels even we can't imagine, maybe the first-generation Thetas could grow to be world-eating leviathans, haha!"
Thunder and Rusteater didn't dignify their mother's words with a response and instead dedicated the next hour to planning the journey to the moon.
.
..
Tora attended an in-person meeting with the many High Generals who had gathered on the deck of the Santa Maria, with it being designated as a centre of command, since Tora and Captain Sandback were neutral entities.
Many mega cooperations and political groups had an obvious interest in the cradle of life, and Tora was acting as the mediator between all of these interests.
It was true that the Earth belonged to all men, but the Newmen numbered in the trillions now.
One didn't need to be ken in all things to know that the Earth, moon, or even surrounding planets couldn't handle housing even a fraction of the Newman population, which wasn't even being considered.
What was at stake was who would get governing rights over the Earth.
Normally, a person would find a planet, register their claim if it was empty and be its owner/governor under the Council.
But this was different.
This was the Earth.
No man could technically claim it as an owner, so the technicalities were being discussed.
The Council predictively said that they should be the ones to govern the earth, but the cooperations, in an obvious play, brought up the fact that no one could own the earth or govern over it as a single entity.
It was the home of all of Newmen and so was to be shared.
Other private entities then suggested an intriguing alternative.
The earth was technically occupied by the hostile entity that was Anoona.
They suggested that it should be a free-for-all and that anyone who can claim land on the ground should be the one to own that particular lot.
This was bound to cause chaos and infighting, but, strangely enough, the Council didn't shut this idea down.
Tora saw through their ploy, though.
He knew that the Council wanted to minimise their losses, so they were going to play the long game, letting smaller political groups and private entities burn their resources in this veritable gold rush.
This would accomplish two things: it would weaken the competition and weaken Anoona.
The Generals all agreed to the notion of the free-for-all, being agents of the Council, and the private entities agreed.
All that was left was to get the minor political groups to agree, since they were the most diverse in beliefs and motivations.
It was here that someone asked Tora a question in the grand auditorium.
"Are you absolutely sure there is no way to peacefully resolve this with Anoona?"
Tora stood to answer, dressed in pure white just like everyone else, although some people dressed to stand out or had cybernetics that were clear to see.
"As you may have seen in the footage of the Scalpel Massacre and the events of the orbital bombardment, Anoona threatened anyone who was thinking of returning. It is the highest priority of everyone in the room to eliminate her because of the danger she poses, and I think the Free-For-All will encourage healthy competition, which may lead us to a swift victory." Tora spoke clearly and confidently, even though his mind was racing with doubts.
Until they cracked the Earth open, there were no guarantees and speaking in such certain terms made his stomach knot.
This meeting may have ended, but Tora had to attend the next one with the High Generals of Humanity United Military Forces who wanted to pick his brain regarding the designs of the Artimen who could possibly stand up to Anoona's children.
He entered the room alone and was met by the stares of four men who were fitted with various cybernetics after having sustained various injuries.
Newmen soldiers did this on purpose because if you got completely patched up, then no one would know that you were ever injured, so they kept themselves in a state between recovery and physical trauma that signified their dignity as a warrior.
Tora saw through all of this, of course, having survived the era of Many Wars himself.
He had once lost his leg in an aerial bombardment, but he got a new one shortly after and carried on like a normal person.
He sighed away his grievances with the soldiers and looked over their prototype designs.
Tora had several doctorates related to Terraforming and wasn't an expert on the Artimen, but he knew enough to know that even the current, most advanced Artimen didn't hold a candle to Anoona's children in terms of strength and... Humanity.
Tora recalled speaking to Thunder, and it wasn't like talking to a demigod or a bug.
He spoke like a normal guy you'd come across at the mall or something.
Yet, in truth, Thunder could change the face of a planet by himself.
Tora knew that much.
Something that would otherwise take an incredible amount of money and decades, Thunder could do in probably a month.
Something the Artimen would break in even attempting.
But there was no harm in trying.
The first thing was power.
It was presently impossible to replicate the designs of Anoona's children since they didn't have any samples, but somewhere to start was the issue of power.
While Artimen were able to run without external power sources indefinitely so long as they had food and water, this limited them to having strength that was around that of a human.
The case was different for those that were militarised, having a larger power capacity, but only being up to eight times stronger than a human, which was nothing compared to the likes of the Betas.
The only reply for such power was the nuclear kind, and while small-scale reactors were common, they had never been fitted into an Artiman before.
Everything else would develop naturally, and this is what Tora suggested to the generals, who nodded before leaving for their ships.
A month had passed since the failed bombardment and, again, not much could be said about whatever was happening on the Earth's surface because of the interference but analysts feared that Anoona was going to retaliate and so, the now one thousand five hundred Newman ships had retreated to a distance of about a million kilometres away from the Earth where they orbited the planet.
This gave them plenty of range to deal with whatever approached, and the desire to reclaim the Earth was such a uniting effort that the thousand ships formed a mini stellar economy and trade hub.
This part of space had long since been abandoned, and it wouldn't be until the star gate was complete that traffic would finally be able to start flowing through.
Tora returned to his quarters, where he sat by Phymn's side, as he always did, and deeply sighed.
He had been so busy as of late that he rarely got any downtime, so he appreciated moments when he could just come home and think about everything.
He and the Council were still at odds, with his awards and achievements still under review. But he had long since detached his sense of self-worth from things like accolades.
All that mattered was this moment, and he was determined not only to live in it but to be remembered.
"I see now. It was never the stars that you sought to conquer. But time itself." Phymn uttered softly in the serenity of the room.
Tora turned to her with tired eyes as she scrolled through various data feeds.
"I suppose so." He muttered.
"And you... Ever content to follow."
Phymn turned her faux golden eyes to Tora and held her aloof expression.
"Is that not what you want?" She tilted her head ever so slightly to the side.
"It is but... Ugh, we've had this conversation a million times, it seems. And I always say yes, then I ask what you want, and you say you want what I want." Tora deflated with a groan, leaning back and closing his eyes.
"It's occasions like this that make me appreciate interactions with real people." He muttered.
"I can try to behave more naturally, if you like." Phymn offered, but Tora swatted her offer away with a tired hand.
"No need. Just give me the usual updates in the morning."
"Alright. Goodnight, dear."
Tora's reply was silence as he fell asleep.