Apocalyptic Rebirth: With a repairman system space, she rises again.

A chill moved through the room, colder than the air itself. Something about those ants was strange. But what was the watcher's interest in them? Did the watchers want them to attack the ants?

Were they being helpful by informing them of an impending threat?

Nobody spoke for a long moment, the screen still glowed with the image of crawling, swarming black.

"Tell us Suni, what do you think they wanted to achieve." Lisha asked. "The way you make it sound, it seems like a trap to me. Maybe we should forget about the ants outside and just kill one by one if they make it into the base."

"And who says they will come one at a time?" Hades asked her.

Lisha shrugged. It was a game of guessing; nobody knew what the end result would be. What if they went outside and those birds tore them to pieces with their gigantic claws?

She was unwilling to see Sunshine die out there. Others mattered too but Sunshine mattered more. Lisha thought about the superhuman leading the marauders. With Sunshine around, she would just freeze and shatter him. No muss no stress.

Sunshine's fingers drummed against the steel table; the sound was sharp in the silence. The image of the colony still lingered on the screen, her eyes pinned on it yet, her mind was fixed on the watchers that were lounging on her bubble-like VIP guests, always looking into the base.

There had to be agenda behind their move. "I could be wrong, but I think it could be one of two things," she finally said, her voice was steady, eyes moved from one person to another. "Either they want us to go to the colony and fight such that they can study more about the technology of our weapons...or..." she paused, letting the weight settle briefly. "Or they want to weaken us by luring out some of our best fighters, the superhumans especially.

In a realistic world, without advanced weapons, only superhumans can fight mutant and mutated animals. The last option is that they want to divide and conquer so that they personally attack the base while those they have marked as strong are away."

"Like you and Morris." Elio said. It was not a random comment; he had watched the watchers just as they watched them.

Among the people they were interested in the most, Sunshine and Morris stood at the top. They also liked to watch Rosario's baby.

He could have sworn that he saw them laugh one time when Sister Anna fell in a ditch and screamed like a banshee after Siegfried saved her by carrying her while he was shirtless.

Sister Anna had said something about needing two baths in holy water to cleanse herself.

A murmur rippled through the table meanwhile as everyone considered Sunshine's words seriously.

Some people's jaws tightened, others clenched their fists.

"These watchers are more cunning than I initially thought." Morris whispered.

Sunshine leaned back, her expression unreadable. "From the last fight while rescuing Alfred and his people. The watchers learned something, they saw the superhumans and the dragoinoids.

Our weapons and skills are unique and attracting their attention. It is possible that they want to see what more of what we can do.

Additionally, there was some mist in the any colony that was dissipating. Maybe they want to see if we can survive the mist or they want to send us there to our death." She exhaled. "Whatever the case is, we must destroy the colony before those insects get to us."

Warren slammed the table. "My idea of sending a grenade to destroy the place works perfectly in this situation. No soldiers lost, no bait taken if any. We deny the watchers the pleasure of whatever they are hoping to achieve."

Sunshine shook her head; the risk was too great. "What will we do if the insects do not die but scatter? They will dive into the ground and we'll lose track of them completely. They could reappear weeks later beneath our walls. And meanwhile the watchers will have learnt about our grenades. We would be showing our cards and gaining nothing."

Warren let out a frustrated sigh. "What do we do now?"

Hades' deep voice rolled like thunder. "Before any decisions are taken, we should not go in blind. I suggest we send in a reconnaissance drone first and observe what we are up against. At the end of the day, we must tackle the problem from the ground. We still need a team to go in and ensure that all the bugs are dead even if we bomb them using the help of drones."

"Agreed." Sunshine nodded.

The plan could not be put off so a decision was made to begin immediately.

Without a word, Dwayne rose and left the room. His boots echoed down the corridor as he launched into a run.

Sunshine put her hands together and nodded slowly, thinking to herself that she had made a wise decision by forming the committee. On her own, she would have blindly run out to confront the ants. The idea of dropping bombs or grenades had not crossed her mind at all.

Moments later Warren returned and shared that the drone was being released. Lisha operated the tablet that she walked around with usually and connected the footage of the drone to the screen on the wall.

Noise in the room climbed rapidly as they got their first look of what lay beyond the wall on this day. In the apocalyptic world, everyday seemed to bring a surprise and this one was no different.

Snow appeared to have doubled overnight. It covered most of the forest, skeletal and mutated trees were buried under a thick white blanket.

Every once in a while, they saw dead frozen people on the road and those were the ones that had just died. Many more were buried under the snow.

As the drone neared the colony, a sharp squeal split the speakers. A sharp squelching metallic sound was heard, and the screen jittered, froze, then blackened. Signal lost.

Gasps cut through the room, hearts pounding in unison.

"What the hell just happened? Is it what I think it is?" Morris blinked continuously.

Hades muttered. "It is the watchers, they've taken it."

"The one with pink." Elio spoke softly.

Not many heard him, but Sunshine and Lisha did.

"My God!" Carson whispered in wonder.

Sunshine scoffed, arms crossed, eyes flashing with grim satisfaction. "That was just as I expected, the watchers do not want us to see what is going on down there. It is not going to be easy getting the drones to where that colony is." She leaned forward. "Bring out the other drones, thirty of them. We will give them a storm that they cannot swat away."

Dwayne stiffened. "Thirty? Those are the last we have in storage."

"Bring them all out." Sunshine cut in. "There are more from where those came from."

Confusion spread across the table. Brows raised, glances exchanged from those that did not know about the space.

Within minutes, a small team of soldiers that worked as comms officers was gathered. The drones were brought and some were armed.

Sunshine and Elio were watching the watchers, and they noticed that the birds were eyeing the drones.

"Pink is pissed and she is looking straight at you." Eliot said.

Sunshine scoffed and commanded. "Launch."