Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

[Vitarian Sanctuary Vessel: High Earth orbit]

"This damn fucker!" Castor cursed at the screen displaying the events of sector AH AB 42069. "I gave you such a convenient way to fix this bugged mess and you are not jumping on it like the idiot you are?!"

Castor's hand fell down on the table, repelled by the very energy barrier that made it up.

"So it didn't work either?" Catlea muttered under her nose while trying her best to hide her annoyance.

"At least I contained his unprecedented growth," Castor replied, running his two fingers across the main holo screen and switching the view to the energy plane. "Your idea of limiting his growth and forcing him into a solution if he wants to overcome it was brilliant, thanks," he said, turning around on his levi-chair and nodding his head to his assistant.

"Dully noted," Catlea replied, rolling her eyes only to pick up her pagebook right where she left it.

"Would it kill you to be nice for once?" Castor complained.

"I'm a nice person," Catlea replied, her focus already moved back to the several other subjects she was monitoring on her handy device. "It's your fault for dragging me out here for this mission," she countered.

"What I'm worried about is how clever this damn guy is," Castor opted to focus on the topic rather than on the girl's antics. "If he goes to the tribunes to find out the details about the solution I complied..." he cut his words short only to slump down in his levi-chair.

For a moment, the entirety of the small space sanctuary the two of them was in turned completely silent.

In reality, it wasn't silent at all.

The roaring of the engines was deafening. The constant ticking and clacking of all the servoprocessors and aptimeters continued to fill the air with unbearable noise.

The only reason why the two of them didn't care less about it... was the audio blockers installed in their brain that fully filtered all the noise out, leaving them in comfortable silence.

"Any other brilliant ideas?" Castor asked. This time, whoever, his voice turned meek.

He even went for the length of turning around on his chair and looking at the girl.

Yet, with most of her brain processing power oriented at managing the army of clones that hot-tuned the modification to the planet below them, the girl couldn't care less.

"Thanks for nothing, you nerd," Castor then barked out, turning his chair back to its natural position and moving his physical eyes back to the main screen of the sanctuary.

Contrary to the personal holoscreen Castor was using to observe AH AB 42069 sector, the main screen displayed a lot more data. Yet, for how informative it was, its information was related to the planet as a whole rather than just a buggy case of a single specimen.

"Two more weeks, huh?" Castor then muttered, looking down at the progress bar flashing in red on the screen.

It was the countdown to the arrival of a powerful mana wave. It headed for the planet below them at a merciless speed. And it was the very reason behind the sudden cessation of Castor's lazy life in his private sanctuary and transfer to this imperator-forsaken outpost.

Unable to bear the time pressure, Castor moved his eyes to the other parts of the display.

"At least the general percentage looks good enough," he muttered to himself, taking a look at the percentage progress depicting the conversion of the planet's population. "Unless that guy fucks up a big time again, we should be able to make it in time. Maybe even have a day spare," he muttered, using the general situation to avert his thoughts from the massive mess of one of the three sectors that didn't want to work properly at all.

"Oh right," Catlea suddenly pulled herself up from her levi-bed. "I forgot to mention, I managed to find out the initial bug's frame," she announced in a casual tone.

"..." Castor turned his entire levi-chair around and stared down at the girl.

His eyes widened as fury took over his mechanical soul.

"And you didn't find it important enough to tell me?" he asked in a strangely calm, passive tone.

"It's not like knowing what happened will change it," Catlea countered, rolling her eyes before swiping her fingers from her pagebook to Castor's personal screen.

The scene displayed was of a pretty low quality. It was also riddled with fissures and artifacts, showcasing just how deep the girl had to dig to recover it.

It displayed a small shack with two specimens barricading themselves from the beta type of specimen.

"It never ceases to amaze me how unlucky those guys are," Catlea muttered, her face filling with sadness.

Even though they were the ones responsible for fulfilling the orders that ultimately robbed seventy percent of the planet's population out of their sanity and self-awareness and in effect deemed a further twenty percent to a less-than-desirable fate... It was something that she had no say in whatsoever.

'In the end, if we did nothing, they would all die once the mana-wave would wash over the planet,' she thought, fighting off the massive feeling of guilt that still lingered in her soul.

Hoping to avert her thoughts from the genocide-born guilt, Catlea turned her eyes and attention back to the data she recovered...

Only to see the two specimens express their desire for each other.

And yet, rather than getting down to the reproductive business, a behavior that Catlea found as strange as it was cute...

The two of them simply brought their primitive bodies together.

And then, a surge of power exploded outwards, originating right from the core developed within the troublesome subject's brain.

This was the reason why this simple mission turned so troublesome. A single instance, only two hours prior to when everything would come to an end, brought them back to the beginning while depriving their station of nearly half of its resources.

"What the hell was that?" Castor asked, baffled by the video that just ended.

He never invested his basic benefits into the mind upgrades that Catlea did. As such, he would take years to realize the same things that she could figure out with a single glance.

His lack of mind upgrades was also the sole reason why Catlea, his closest of kin, was forced to follow him on the mission as support. Which, coincidentally was also the sole reason for the massive anger in Catlea's manasoul.

"That guy is a born bugger," Catlea muttered.

Now that her mind switched its analytical mode on, she couldn't help but feel impressed.

"That kid turned back time for nearly two weeks," she revealed. "I don't know how, yet, but he used your operating system to do it," the girl said only for a smirk to appear on her lips. "Maybe next time try to do your job properly?" she suggested, all too happy to put a pin into Castor's ass.

"Maybe next time mind your own fucking business," Castor barked, feeling the burn of the girl's mental poke. He then shook his head, turned back his chair, and swiped his hand away, removing the video from his personal holoscreen.

Ping, ping, ping...

A series of extremely annoying noises suddenly filled the room, easily overcoming the audio blockers the two of them had installed.

"What now?!" Castor nearly screamed out when the noise made his head feel as if it was about to deconstruct itself. Yet, as soon as he looked at the sanctuary's main screen, his face froze.

"They are coming..." he muttered, unable to move even an inch from his seat.

"Who is?" Catlea asked, already back to her task of overseeing several thousands of specimens on the planet below at the same time.

"The tribunes..." Castor muttered, only to swallow a gulp of mechanical oil that his servo-jaws squirted out into his mouth. "No..." he then added as his breath escaped from his mechalungs. "It's the auditor himself," he added as terror filled his face.