A3 - Chapter 140 – Queen takes Rook (Patreon)

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Tram 36 Tube to Main Transit Hub

Elis’s eyes shot open, but her vision was blurry and her head throbbed with a dull ache. She coughed as she took in a deep breath. The smell of burned metal and death assaulted her.

Slowly pushing herself off her side into a sitting position, a stinging in her leg showed that some piece of shrapnel had sliced through her skin.

Frustratingly, despite the pain, she could only make the limb twitch and spasm randomly. She was forced to adjust her position with her arms.

The tram had crashed. Or exploded. She’d only been alerted to the emergency when the passengers at the front had crowded in with them, and then things got fuzzy.

The tunnel was lit by the telltale flicker of dying fires and the deep blue glow of several dozen I-fields holding back breaches in the station’s hull. That sent a pang of urgency through her as she certainly wasn’t equipped for their failure if anything went wrong; more wrong.

She pulled herself out from under the smooth piece of wreckage that had landed over the top of her. Her heart leaped as she realized that if it hadn’t been there, she would have been crushed by the gigantic pile of machinery that had settled on top of it.

Scanning the area, she jolted as she came face to face with a corpse hanging upside down in a tangle of wires and tubes. The man’s face was only inches away from her own. That explained the smell.

There was no sign of her wheelchair, nor of any rescue personnel. She took a deep breath, then shouted for help. Her voice came out a meaningless mess at half the volume she intended.

There was a reply, anyway.

Elis turned to look further down the tunnel in the call's direction. It was faint, but gave her a direction to move in.

A growing anger and frustration with herself grew as her useless legs hindered that almost immediately. There was debris and wreckage everywhere, and she felt a pinch as a sharp piece of metal scratched her.

Fuck.

Elis stopped. She was just going to hurt herself more if she tried to keep moving. It would be better to wait for rescue. Considering the size and technology MIL-1A had, she thought they should arrive at any moment.

She found a piece of metal that wasn’t sharp, wasn’t drenched in blood, and wasn’t smoldering or in the path of something on fire. Pulling herself up to lean against, she paused and rested, already out of breath. She was certainly out of shape, despite all the physical therapy she had been doing recently.

Waiting for rescue went against her instincts, but what choice did she have? She was just going to hurt herself more.

She waited.

And waited.

Frustration reached a peak. A piece of metal fell and made a loud clang. Elis shot it an annoyed glare, as if it was the cause of all her issues only to stop short.

A black, pulsating tendril was slowly creeping through the metal on the floor. Where it wound its way underneath a piece of debris, little offshoots moved to travel up into them and do the same. Further down the rail, some items had been fully consumed, leaving black powdery replicas of what they had replaced.

Some collapsed under their own weight, causing the wreckage to shift, and the small clouds that were spewed out settled on the fresh material and spread the tendrils further. There were already patches of holes forming, carving more holes through the hull that required more and more bridging of the I-Field for the section to maintain integrity.

Terrifyingly, it seemed to speed up as it continued.

She had seen something like this once before, in a training video. Before NAIs had become commonplace, nanite technology had been heavily restricted because of rampancy issues.

One research station had been completely consumed by a released experiment, and the entire process had been caught in excruciating detail on video before the entire mass had been ablated by high-energy lasers from the military.

Yelling for help, she scooted herself in the opposite direction. It was already faster than she could manage, and the distance shrank. She pictured some of the dust entering her lungs and…

A beam of light landed on her, and the figure of a man appeared further down the tunnel. “I’m coming! I’ll help you! Hold on!”

Elis paused to catch her breath as relief filled her, but it was short-lived.

As he reached the halfway point, the man’s eyes went wide with shock as his emergency light revealed the rampant nanites on the move. He froze, fear filling his face as a piece of metal groaned and collapsed, spewing a small cloud of nanite-laced dust.

He turned and ran. Elis reached out toward him and tried to cry out, but it just came out a garbled grunt. She pulled herself down the tunnel again, but the nanites had already closed half the distance.

Fear was a powerful motivator, and she ignored the mounting number of cuts and abrasions on her legs as she forced herself away from the nightmare. Giving up on maintaining her dignity, she let out a garbled cry for help between each lurch.

Unsure of how long or far she had gone, she found herself running out of energy. Still, she pressed on, the burning in her muscles and the pain something she had learned to push through before.

It wasn’t enough.

Looking back, she saw that one of the faster tendrils seemed to have snaked its way straight toward her and had almost reached her foot. That elicited another burst of speed. She pulled whatever she could reach to fall in the tendril’s way to slow it down. But the push faltered quickly.

She refused to give up, but the dark thought of it wouldn’t matter and her efforts were useless bit at her from the back of her mind where she had shoved it away.

The nanite tendril was less than a meter away when a hand reached down to grab her by the collar of her shirt and drag her forward.

“I didn’t think you made it.”

She recognized the voice; it was Fred. Relief filled her once again.

After making enough distance between them and the nanite growth, he kneeled beside her and lifted her up into his arms. Breathing heavily, Elis wrapped her arms around the back of his neck and rested her head against his chest. She tried to give him thanks, but only the usual garbled mess came out.

Somehow, he still understood. “You’re welcome.”

***

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Main Transit Hub

Thea’s gaze fell on Alex, her optimism dashed as she realized that whatever the Meltisar navy had done to create the AGAI, it had infected Alex as well. A wave of frustration and anger washed over her, knowing that she had wasted two of her three precious scarabs. Created by Moneta herself, they were designed to convert any non-Psi to the Corpo side without risk to herself.

She’d used it on the lower ranking NAI out of an abundance of caution considering the circumstance. Even if that caution had been proven correct, she couldn’t quite help but curse at the waste of resources.

The AGAI infection had rendered them inert with the bizarre Omega code. A suspicion that the princess might be infected as well, and that was why they both had the blue nanite fields. She couldn’t fathom why they were assisting Meltisar with the AGAI, or gauge the extent of their complicity.

It didn’t matter. Thea’s arm morphed into a sword.

“I don’t want to fight.” The young NAI whispered just loud enough for Thea to hear. It was a near thing with the princess and AGAI duking it out in the background.

Thea shared the sentiment; she would have preferred not to deal with this until the rampancy was resolved. However, Alex had become forbidden technology, willingly or not.

Dealing with her now while the princess was busy with the rampant AGAI would be easier. Even if it made handling the other two more challenging later on. Her directives were clear, unfortunately.

It was unlikely the AGAI would try to escape the system as insane as it was. Alex, on the other hand, had already shown the drive and ability to traverse through different systems. Allowing the forbidden technology overriding the authority codes to spread was the highest priority.

Thea’s voice wavered as she replied, “I don’t want to fight, either.”

Letting the tip of her blade fall towards the floor slightly, she watched the girl’s reaction intently. The moment Alex’s guard seemed to relax, Thea sprang into action. Her nanite cloud, which she had been keeping tightly pulled in, released itself in an angry surge.

She reached the girl in a flash. The prospect of ending the fight before it began died at the last second as the young NAI’s arm morphed into a blade and intercepted the first strike. The girl’s sword work was rough and amateurish and only barely avoided being bisected with a bloody gash across her midsection.

Thea launched a heavy kick that sent the girl cartwheeling down the corridor. A sudden blue spike of nanites erupted from the floor, forestalling Thea’s chase and bringing her to a halt as she cleaved the attack and absorbed it with her defense field.

“Not bad for someone who never fought another NAI before, but you’re just prolonging things.” Thea commented.

“Please stop. We should work together to fight that thing before it destroys the station.”

Thea’s eyes wandered to her side. The exchange had pushed Alex away from her initial position and put Thea right beside the emergency pod. “I’m sorry. I’m not free to make a deal here.”

Her arm morphed at a thought into the rail gun and she raised it to point at the wounded, unconscious girl’s head.

“Give up and surrender, or I’ll blow her head off.” Thea said flatly. She could see the shock and hurt on Alex’s face almost instantly. It was enough to make her feel bad.

“Okay, I surrender.”

That wasn’t the answer Thea had expected. It took her a second to figure out the next part.

“Oh. Alright then. Cut your own head off if you could.”

Alex opened her mouth to reply but hesitated, seemingly at a loss for words. A small shake of her head preceded her muted answer. “I can’t do that.”

“I’ll shoot her in the head.”

Frustration and anger appeared on the girl’s face, and she took a step forward. Thea let out a warning sound and pressed the railgun barrel against the pod, forestalling her.

Alex’s hand curled into a fist. “Still, I can’t do that.”

Thea nodded. Raising a foot, she planted it on the pod and gave it a shove hard enough for it to slide out through the shimmering I-field and out into space. Alex paled and ran to the corridor’s crystal window to watch it float away.

“Sorry, I had to try. Directives, you know. Thankfully, they don’t actually require me to shoot her.” Thea commented, feeling a little like the bad guy.

“Directives, eh?”

"She'll be safer out there anyway, they'll pick up the pod's emergency transponder." Thea added.

"She hit her head. She needs a doctor!"

Thea shook her head. "I don't think she was going to get one here."

The blue haired NAI looked over her shoulder, as if she was searching for someone to come help her.

Thea shook her head. “No one is coming to help you. Even Meltisar Marines know better to jump in when NAIs are at play.”

Alex turned back to glare at her. “That’s not it. I just wanted to make sure no one was in danger. I’m going to go all out.”

To punctuate the statement, the girl slapped the wall of the corridor. A blue spider web exploded across its surface as it dissolved into a cloud of blue shimmering particles, leaving a five meter wide I-field glowing in its place.

“Oh?” Thea murmured.

Part of the cloud solidified in Alex’s hands as a solid blue metal form of a rifle materialized. A long, sharp bayonet protruded from where the barrel would have been. “First, let’s pick a weapon I’ve got experience with.”

Thea raised an eyebrow at the unorthodox weapon. The girl might want a rifle and bayonet, considering she likely had trained with it at Fort Glisson while with the humans…

But there were reasons NAIs used the vibrating blade arms. Having the blade be part of your body gave exceptional control of the nanites in the weapon. Vibrating anything at the rate required to create the sonic energy that would carve through nanites for anything else was virtually impossible. Even for higher NAIs like her mother, Rea. Or even Moneta.

Her sword would simply cut right through the fabricated nanite replica rifle. Just like it would cut through anything other than another blade vibrating on the same harmonics.

Maybe she doesn’t know?

Thea decided that was the simplest answer and readied her weapon.

“Nameless, you handle the cloud.”

Thea’s brow furrowed as the girl rushed toward her. The buzzing crackle of nanites genociding one another filled the air. She side stepped the first jab of Alex’s spear, but as she prepared a counter cut, a length of writhing metal lashed out at her.

She ducked underneath it, only to find a second one stabbing straight out of the floor at her groin. Backpedaling only revealed a third, then fourth length of metal fly toward her.

They were dense enough that her defense field failed to neutralize them, and thickening it was impossible with the ongoing clash filling the air. Dancing through the air, she was forced to focus on slashing away the nanite propelled projectiles. It was just as bad as fighting the AGAI’s seemingly unlimited barrage of nano machines.

How was the girl so good at field control?

The young NAI’s attacks with the bayonet were stiff in comparison, but still dangerous. Especially since they forced her to dodge, since Thea had avoided parrying completely.

After avoiding another slash, Thea saw her chance and placed all her bets on a full lunge. The young NAI made a textbook perfect block, except her weapon separated in half as it met Thea’s blade arm.

Thea’s blade plunged right into the girl’s chest.

***

There wasn’t time for surprise as the blade slid through her chest like a knife through her favorite cake. Alex shoved all her points from agility into strength as she grappled the woman’s arm just in time to prevent her from splitting her in half.

The nanite fields collapsed around them into a tiny, narrow space, the sudden density causing sparks and flares between the battling nanites to come to life around them as they both struggled.

The Corpo’s force swapped directions from upward to downward, threatening to split her from chest to groin, but Alex held the arm in place. Charging forward, she slammed the woman’s back into a wall that immediately began to dissolve into material for the yellow nanites to use to renew their attack.

It felt like a million angry insects were crawling over her skin, stinging and biting her.

Alex’s mouth went dry as an intense, searing pain pulsated through her chest. The vibrating blade grinding more of her internals into dust any time it moved, and it was impossible to completely compensate for the Corpo’s constant changes in force.

Gasping for breath, Alex coughed hard, a spew of blood coming out of her mouth to cover her and her opponent. The movement sent a fresh wave of pain through her. Alarms and emergency notices filled her HUD with gibberish.

[Notice: Organic respiratory and circulatory system disruption detected. Supplemental Oxygen source has been deployed; auxiliary nanite transport to maintain Avatar cerebral function has been activated.]

[Informative: A frequency has been determined for hostile vibration weapon. An isolational counter frequency has been deployed as an integral patch to Avatar chassis.]

Alex looked down at the blade sticking through her lung and heart. She didn’t like Nameless calling her torso a chassis. A dense bundle of nanites had clustered on the blade, and began to slow the vibration. The pain had reduced by an order of magnitude from mind consuming to simply this is going to kill me.

[Recommendation: Terminate hostile NAI immediately.]

As much as she hated to admit it, the Corpo was better at fighting than her. That wasn’t her fault, it was her first time fighting another NAI. Playing soldier with Tia didn’t count, they simply hadn’t used any of their NAI abilities.

She discarded her first thought to try to chop the woman’s arm off at the elbow so she could retreat and heal before restarting the fight.

She needed an easy win.

Thea wasn’t even the main threat. Tia was fighting alone with no help.

Alex took a step forward, instead of holding the blade in place, she pulled Thea’s arm toward her.

Shoving an arm through your chest was more painful than having a merciless vibrating sword impale you. Who knew?

The woman’s eyes widening in shock was worth it.

“Checkmate.”

Alex kissed her.