ShipCore

USD: One 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 as her heart pounded mercilessly in her chest. Harrowing screams assaulted her ears, echoing relentlessly through every channel. In the AGAI lab’s central nexus, a small river of molten metal cascaded from the ceiling. The liquid metal mixed with the dying remnants of the Tau ShipCore, dissolving into lifeless goo.

As she watched the Tau tear its own ShipCore apart, Thea realized that any hope of salvaging the anguished NAI had vanished. She now faced a rogue scientific experiment that had commandeered the Avatar’s body for itself.

Her breath trembled as she exhaled, anxiety gripping her like a vice. This was a formidable challenge—one she wasn’t certain could be overcome.

Steeling herself for action, Thea aimed at a row of computronic modules beneath the lab and fired her railgun into the crystal floor. A deafening explosion shattered the glass surface, unleashing a storm of razor-sharp shards. Her own nanites swiftly formed a protective sheathe that deflected the deadly debris.

The railgun shell continued its relentless trajectory without slowing down. It plunged through a dozen modules and reduced them to writhing masses of dying nanites.

What she desperately wanted was a bomb to end it all at once. But her railgun was the most potent weapon at her disposal. Determination burned in her eyes as she jumped through the hole she had made. Immediately, artificial gravity took hold of her.

Clenching her teeth, she took aim and fired repeatedly at rows of computronics in an attempt to overload or disrupt whatever they were being used for.

Without an anchor to brace herself, each shot from Thea’s railgun forced her sideways due to the forceful recoil. She kicked off the walls with agility and skill, maintaining her momentum as she moved downward. Another digital scream echoed from above, causing her to wince as she risked a glance upward.

The Tau—no, the AGAI—was now enveloped in churning black metal. The only resemblance to its previous human body was its familiar bipedal form and the two menacing black orbs that fixed their gaze on Thea.

It had completely broken free from the machines that once held and nourished 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. As more material disintegrated, a maelstrom of metal formed a lethal whirl around the monstrous figure.

Despite her efforts, Thea couldn’t block out the haunting, pained wails of the machine. Activating a filter, she managed to silence them completely. However, there was no escaping the acrid stench of scorched metal and the frenzied whirlwind of devastation surrounding her.

Before she could obliterate another row of modules, black tendrils of nanites erupted from nearby mainframes, lunging to ensnare her in midair.

Thea’s nanites exploded outward in a spherical defensive cloud, applying pressure and momentarily slowing down the tendrils’ advance. Realizing their density was much higher than hers, she clicked her tongue in annoyance before morphing her railgun into a rapidly vibrating blade.

Twirling gracefully like a dancer through danger, Thea’s blade emitted sonic disruptions that fragmented the incoming masses enough for her nanite field to absorb them and fortify itself further. 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.

As Thea drove her fist into the module’s primary nanite compartment, she shrieked in agony. The malicious nanites gnawed at her, threatening to inflict lasting harm. However, before they could do so, the EM pulse she had primed detonated in her fist. Her own nanites momentarily shielded themselves and then reactivated, gorging on the bountiful mass surrounding them.

With her back against the wall, Thea tensed her muscles and yanked a fresh glob of yellow-tinged nanites from the module’s housing. Adrenaline surged through her veins as she hurled the nanites upward. The machines forged a dense, focused beam, riding a wave of energy directly toward the plunging AGAI. Black limbs redirected themselves away from Thea to concentrate on halting the beam.

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

Looking up, she saw the AGAI mirroring her form while creating a dark blade of its own to slice through the yellow beam. Severed nanites swirled around it as it slashed through them; they reassembled and redirected themselves in pursuit of the AGAI in a spiraling descent.

The chamber filled with more black tentacles surrounding the AGAI while weaving a denser web of snares that rapidly diminished the chasing yellow cloud. Swearing loudly as it dissolved completely, Thea watched as, suddenly, like lightning itself, the AGAI rocketed towards her with incredible speed.

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

Instead of trying to reverse course, Thea transformed the material she collided with into more nanites to hurl at the pursuing the AGAI. Breaking through the section, she entered a long, dark tunnel. A wave of panic washed over her as she recognized 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 filled the tunnel as metal ground against metal; a high-speed rail tram slammed into the AGAI just as it reached halfway between them. She calculated that the tram’s power and mass would stun the aberration 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 after the vehicle. She collided with tunnel walls and tram sides; sparks flew from her arms as she shielded her face from each impact.

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 and wedged her forearm inside its frame. The tram’s side bulged outward as the tentacle strained to drag her away; however, she reached back with her other arm and materialized a sword to sever its hold on her.

As she pulled herself inside, the horrified, screaming faces of passengers greeted her. The space was littered with jagged metal shards, plastic bits, and broken glass pieces. Thea slowly rose to her feet, recovering from 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 safety and engineering that it hadn’t derailed, causing 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 another car before ripping its separating doors off their hinges. The car ahead was a horrifying scene of blood and carnage.

Thea’s eyes narrowed; anger surged within her at witnessing the AGAI’s blatant disregard for life in its pursuit of destruction. Reaching back through an entryway, she used her blade arm to sever a connecting brace between the cars, then applied an extra brake formed by nanites to slow them further. The rear cars disappeared into the darkness behind them.

Civilians taken care of, she turned and charged forward toward the AGAI while forcing her nanites to assimilate material around her—rapidly increasing their numbers as she cleared each car one by one. No survivors were left among them.

Quickening her pace and heart pounding furiously, she finally reached tram’s front. With bated breath, crashed through the door, spotting the AGAI and freezing due to imminent danger. the AGAI hadn’t chased her down the tram because it had latched onto the vehicle’s miniature reactor—now pulsating menacingly with a glowing, writhing mass of nanites.

A laser erupted, incinerating everything in the surrounding air. Her nanites 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 behind them detonated and was torn from its links, causing it to collide with the tunnel’s walls. Only the lead engine and passenger car she had landed in continued hurtling 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 back before transforming its sword arm into an oversized hammer. Thea pushed herself up, but only managed to lift herself an inch before bouncing back onto the floor; pressed against the tram’s sidewall. A dizzying array of errors and warnings accumulated in her peripheral vision as damage mounted, resources were devoured, and modules began to overheat.

Realizing she needed more time to regain strength—time she didn’t have—she hastily 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 about what Meltisar had created.

The AGAI swung its black hammer horizontally toward Thea’s head. She weakly raised her sword to try deflecting the blow, knowing that even if the hammer didn’t crush her, the densely packed nanites would flay her until she 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 reaching her, it collided with one of the station’s main support columns and hooked onto it. the AGAI was yanked away as the tram continued moving forward, hurling the abomination into the vehicle’s roof and then out the back of their last remaining car.

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

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