A3 - Chapter 136 – Malevolent Collison

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A, Joint Services Research and Development complex, Heuristics Department

Thea’s eyes narrowed, her heart pounding as harrowing screams bombarded her ears, echoing through every channel. A small river of molten metal cascaded from the ceiling of the AGAI lab’s central nexus, mingling with the dying remnants of the Tau ShipCore, dissolving into a lifeless goo.

As the Tau tore its own ShipCore apart, Thea realized that any hope of salvaging the anguished NAI had vanished. She was left facing a rogue scientific experiment that had commandeered the Avatar’s body for itself.

She exhaled, her breath trembling. This was a formidable challenge—one she wasn’t certain could be overcome.

Steeling herself, Thea aimed at a row of computronic modules beneath the lab and fired into the crystal floor. The glass erupted in an explosion, unleashing a storm of razor-sharp shards. Her own nanites formed a protective sheathe that deflected the material that lashed at her.

The railgun shell tore carried on without slowing down, plunging through a dozen modules and reducing them to writhing masses of dying nanites.

What she needed was a bomb, but her railgun was the most potent weapon at her disposal. She charged through the gaping chamber, the station’s gravity seizing her. Clenching her teeth, she took aim and fired repeatedly.

With no anchor to brace herself, each shot’s forceful recoil hurled her sideways. She deftly kicked off the walls to maintain momentum downward. Another digital scream resonated from above, making her wince as she stole a glimpse upward.

The Tau—The AGAI was enveloped in churning black metal and the only resemblance to its previous human body was the familiar bipedal form. And the two menacing black orbs that fixed on Thea.

It had completely broken free from the machines that once held and nourished her... it. Thea wasn’t sure if anything of the Tau remained, or if there had ever been more than the desperate cries of a tortured spirit begging for release upon her arrival.

A swarm of nanites devoured the floor beneath the AGAI’s body, and as more material disintegrated, a maelstrom of metal formed a lethal whirl around the monstrosity.

The haunting, pained wails of the machine threatened to distract her. Thea activated a filter, silencing them completely. But there was no escaping the acrid stench of scorched metal and the frenzied whirlwind of devastation. Before she could obliterate another row of modules, black tendrils of nanites erupted from the mainframes nearby, lunging to ensnare her midair.

Thea’s nanites exploded outward in a spherical, defensive cloud, applying pressure to delay the tendrils’ advance. The tendrils, possessing a much higher density, were only momentarily slowed. Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Thea morphed her railgun into a rapidly vibrating blade.

Twirling gracefully like a dancer, the sonic disruptions from Thea’s blade fragmented the incoming masses enough for her nanite field to absorb the hostile machines and fortify itself. More tendrils shot out after her as she pushed off from a wall. Instead of focusing on evading them, she propelled herself directly toward a computronic module, slicing her way through an expanding minefield of malevolent nanites.

Driving her fist into the module’s primary nanite compartment, she shrieked in agony as the malicious nanites gnawed at her. Before they could inflict any lasting harm, the EM pulse she had primed detonated. Her own nanites, having momentarily shielded themselves, reactivated to gorge on the bountiful mass surrounding them.

Thea braced herself against the wall, her muscles tensing as she yanked a fresh glob of yellow-tinged nanites from the module’s housing. With a surge of adrenaline, she hurled them upward, the machines forging a dense, focused beam as they surfed a wave of energy directly toward the plunging AGAI. Black limbs redirected themselves away from Thea, concentrating on halting the beam.

As they intercepted the attack, the black limbs were either assimilated, obliterated, or battered out of its path. Angry, black claws tried in vain to grasp the yellow pillar, attempting to pull it back or divert its flow. Thea leaped, continuing her freefall through the chamber.

She glanced up to see the AGAI mirroring her form, creating a dark blade of its own to slice the yellow beam in half. The severed nanites swirled around the black figure as it slashed through, reassembling and redirecting themselves in pursuit of the AGAI in a spiraling descent.

The chamber filled with more black tentacles surrounding the AGAI, weaving a denser web of snares that rapidly began to diminish the yellow cloud chasing it. Thea swore aloud as it dissolved completely, and suddenly, the AGAI rocketed toward her with a burst of speed.

Thea reacted instinctively, her body a blur as she brought up her blade to intercept the AGAI’s strike. Their nanite shields crackled and sparked with a blinding light while the blades collided and vibrated fiercely with sonic energy. The force of impact sent Thea hurtling backwards through the air, smashing through a flimsy section of wall behind her.

Instead of trying to reverse course, she transformed the material she collided with into more nanites to hurl at the pursuing AGAI. Breaking through the section she entered a long, dark tunnel. A wave of panic washed over her upon recognizing what it was. Suppressing her instinct to flee, she leaped backward to the opposite side of the chamber.

The AGAI trailed close behind, shrieking malicious promises of digital destruction and chaos. Thea couldn’t fathom what she had done to incite such hatred, but its single-minded pursuit worked to her advantage.

A deafening screech of metal grinding filled the tunnel as the high-speed rail tram slammed into the AGAI at it reached the halfway point to Thea. She calculated that the tram’s power and mass would stun the abomination while carrying it far enough down the line to buy her time to destroy the remaining computronic modules.

She exhaled a relieved breath as the rest of the tram sped by.

Without any warning, a solitary black tentacle coiled around her ankle, yanking her from her hiding place to chase the vehicle. She collided with the tunnel walls and the tram’s sides, sparks flying from her arms as she shielded her face from the impacts.

Her armored nanite sheathe screeched in protest, gradually wearing away. Desperate for something to brace herself against, Thea drove her fist through one of the tram’s windows, wedging her forearm inside the frame. The tram’s side bulged outward as the tentacle strained to drag her away, but she reached back with her other arm, materializing a sword to sever its hold on her.

As she pulled herself inside, she was met with the horrified, screaming faces of the tram’s passengers. The space was littered with jagged metal, plastic, and glass shards. Thea slowly rose to her feet, recovering from the disorienting effect of being battered around. It was then she realized that she and the area were smeared with blood.

Casualties.

Thea sensed the tension in the air as two off-duty soldiers brandished concealed sidearms and began shouting at her. She paid them no mind, focusing her attention on the front of the tram. Her quick reaction allowed her to form a new shield just as two black streaks speared through the compartment ahead of them and into their car.

A shower of sparks flew as the black nanites solidified into poles, attempting to puncture her defense. But they failed, as she assimilated the material with ease.

Her eyes locked onto the terrified passengers. “Get to the back, now!” Thea shouted.

The tram wailed in agony as the emergency brakes strained to halt the speeding vehicle, even as it endured the abuse she and the AGAI had inflicted upon it. A heavy clank echoed through the tunnel as the passage narrowed, tearing the bulging wall from the side of the car entirely.

It was a testament to the safety and engineering of the tram that it hadn’t derailed and caused a catastrophic pileup.

A volley of smaller black darts pierced the front wall, stopping only as each black shard melted into her shield. Thea expanded her cloud into the forward car before ripping the separating doors off their hinges. The car ahead was a horrifying scene of blood and carnage.

Thea’s eyes narrowed, anger surging within her as she witnessed the AGAI’s blatant disregard for life in its pursuit of destruction. Reaching back through the entryway, she used her blade arm to sever the connecting brace between the cars. Then she applied an extra brake formed by nanites to help slow them further. The rear cars quickly fell behind. Turning back toward the front she charged forward, forcing her nanites to assimilate as much material around her as possible.

Her cloud of nanites multiplied rapidly as she cleared the first car. There were no survivors in the next car either. She quickened her pace, and in just a few moments, she reached the front of the tram.

The instant she opened the door, she spotted the AGAI and froze, recognizing the imminent danger. It hadn’t chased her down the tram because it had latched onto the vehicle’s miniature reactor. A glowing, writhing mass of nanites pulsated menacingly.

As if triggered by her presence, a laser erupted, incinerating everything in the surrounding air. Her nanites were vaporized in the sudden flare, and she hurled herself to the side as the cars behind her transformed into a molten mess of material.

One car chasing behind them detonated and was torn from its links, causing them to collide with the tunnel’s walls leaving just the lead engine and passenger car she had landed in hurling down the track.

She realized she had been struck as a warning indicated her pain threshold had been reached and had shut down multiple clusters of nerve fibers. Her left hand landed on her right shoulder, finding nothing but a writhing blob of nanites plugging a hole where her arm should have been.

A screech from the AGAI reminded her she didn’t have time to recover.

A black blade whizzed downward at her, and she narrowly converted her left arm into a sword in time to deflect the blow into the tram’s sidewall. The sizzling pop of nanites cannibalizing each other escalated as her cloud folded inward, rapidly losing the battle for dominance.

Infuriated at having its strike thwarted, the AGAI retreated a step to transform its sword arm into a comically oversized hammer.

Thea pushed herself up, but the movement only lifted her an inch before she bounced back onto the floor leaving her to lean back against the tram’s sidewall. A dizzying array of errors and warnings had accumulated in her peripheral vision, but she had been discarding them all as damage accumulated, resources were devoured, and her modules has begun to overheat.

It turned out she needed more time to regain her strength—time she didn’t have. In a hurry, she crafted a data packet and broadcast it widely, hoping something CS would catch it.

At least if she went down here, they’d have some warning of what Meltisar had created.

The AGAI swung its black hammer horizontally, aiming for Thea’s head. She weakly raised her sword to try to deflect the blow, but even if the hammer didn’t crush her, the densely packed nanites would flay her until she was dissolved in a bubbling mess of rampant machines.

As the tram arrived at the main hub transit station, the AGAI’s hammer sliced through the thin sidewall of the car like it was nothing. Just before it reached her, it collided with one of the station’s main support columns, hooking onto it.

The AGAI was yanked away as the tram continued to move forward, hurling the abomination into the vehicle’s roof and then out the back of the last remaining car.

The abuse was simply too much for the tram, and it twisted sideways out of its rail guide, turning sideways as it barreled through the hub.