ShipCore

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

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

Thea shared Alex’s sentiment; she would have preferred dealing with this issue after resolving the rampancy problem. However, whether willingly or not, Alex had become entwined with forbidden technology.

Thea weighed her options, knowing that dealing with Alex while the princess was preoccupied with the rampant AGAI would be more manageable, even if it made handling the other two adversaries more challenging later on. Her directives were clear, and she had no choice but to follow them.

She considered the likelihood of the frenzied AGAI attempting to escape the system—unlikely, given its level of insanity. On the other hand, Alex had already demonstrated both the motivation and capability to traverse different systems. Preventing the spread of forbidden technology that could override authority codes was her directive’s top priority.

Thea let her voice waver. “I don’t want to fight either.”

She let the tip of her blade dip slightly toward the floor, watching Alex’s reaction intently. As soon as she sensed Alex’s guard relaxing, Thea sprang forward. She unleashed her nanite cloud—which she had been keeping tightly pulled in—with a furious surge.

In an instant, she reached Alex. Her hopes of ending the conflict before it escalated dwindled when the young NAI’s arm morphed into a blade at the last second, intercepting Thea’s first strike. Alex’s swordsmanship was unrefined and clumsy; she narrowly avoided being sliced in half but sustained a bloody gash across her midsection.

Thea launched a powerful kick that sent Alex cartwheeling down the corridor. As she prepared to give chase, a sudden eruption of blue nanites from the floor forced her to halt. She cleaved through the nanite attack and absorbed it with her defense field.

“Not bad for someone who’s 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,” Alex pleaded.

Thea glanced to her side, realizing their exchange had pushed Alex away and positioned her right beside an emergency pod. “I’m sorry. I’m not free to make a deal here.”

With a mere thought, her arm morphed into a railgun, which she raised and aimed at the wounded, unconscious girl’s head.

“Give up and surrender, or I’ll blow her head off,” Thea said flatly. She saw shock and hurt flash across Alex’s face—a sight that made her feel a twinge of guilt.

“Okay, I surrender.”

Thea hadn’t expected that answer. It took her a moment to consider her next move. “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. She shook her head slightly before murmuring, “I can’t do that.”

“I’ll shoot her in the head,” Thea declared.

Frustration and anger flared on Alex’s face as she took a step forward. Thea emitted a warning sound and pressed the railgun barrel against the pod, halting Alex’s advance.

Alex clenched her fist. “Still, I can’t do that.”

Thea nodded. Lifting her foot, she placed it on the pod and forcefully pushed it out through the shimmering I-field and into space. Alex paled, rushing to the corridor’s crystal window to watch it drift away.

“Sorry, I had to try. Directives, you know. Thankfully, they don’t actually require me to shoot her,” Thea commented, feeling somewhat like a villain herself.

“Directives, eh?” Alex mumbled. The girl glanced over her shoulder as if searching for someone to come to her aid.

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

Alex turned back to glare at Thea. “That’s not it. I just wanted to make sure no one was in danger.”

With a resolute slap against the corridor wall, a blue spiderweb erupted across its surface, dissolving into a cloud of shimmering particles and leaving behind a five-meter-wide I-field glowing in its place.

“Oh?” Thea murmured, intrigued by Alex’s actions.

From the nanite cloud, Alex forged a solid blue metal rifle with a long, sharp bayonet where the barrel should have been. “First, let’s pick a weapon I’ve got experience with.”

Thea raised an eyebrow at the unorthodox weapon. She considered that Alex might prefer using a rifle and bayonet since she had likely trained with them at Fort Glisson alongside the humans.

However, there were reasons NAIs used vibrating blade arms. Having the blade be part of one’s body allowed exceptional control over the nanites in the weapon. Vibrating anything else at the rate required to create sonic energy that could carve through nanites was nearly impossible—even for higher NAIs like her mother Rea or Moneta.

Her sword would simply cut right through Alex’s fabricated nanite replica rifle, just as it would cut through anything other than another blade vibrating on the same harmonics.

‘Maybe she doesn’t know?’ was Thea’s first thought.

Deciding that ignorance was most likely the simplest explanation, Thea readied her weapon.

“Nameless, you handle the cloud,” Alex commanded.

Thea’s brow furrowed as the girl rushed toward her. The air filled with the buzzing crackle of nanites annihilating each other. She sidestepped Alex’s first jab with her spear, but as she prepared a counter cut, a length of writhing metal lashed out at her.

Ducking beneath it, Thea was met with a second metallic whip stabbing straight out of the floor, aimed at her groin. Retreating revealed a third and fourth length of metal flying in her direction.

The attacks were dense enough to withstand her defense field, and thickening it proved impossible amidst the ongoing clash filling the air. Forced to focus on slashing away the nanite-propelled projectiles, Thea felt as though she were fighting the AGAI’s seemingly unlimited barrage of nano machines once again.

How had the young NAI become so skilled at field control?

Despite Alex’s attacks with the bayonet being relatively stiff compared to her mastery of nanite projections, they still posed a significant danger—especially since Thea had avoided parrying to keep her advantage a secret.

After dodging another slash, Thea saw an opening and committed herself to a full lunge. She could see the girl’s surprise as her textbook-perfect block resulted in her weapon disintegrating upon meeting Thea’s blade arm.

Without further resistance, Thea’s blade found its mark and plunged into Alex’s chest.

There was no time for surprise as Thea’s blade slid through Alex’s chest with the ease of cutting into her favorite cake. Acting swiftly, Alex redirected all her agility points to strength just in time to grapple with Thea’s arm, preventing herself from being split in half.

As the nanite fields around them collapsed into a narrow space, the sudden density ignited sparks and flares amid the battling blue and yellow clouds. Both women pressed hard, struggling against each other for better leverage.

Thea changed the direction of force on her blade from upward to downward, now threatening to split Alex from chest to groin. Resolute, Alex held onto Thea’s arm and charged forward, slamming her opponent’s back into a wall that immediately began dissolving into material for the yellow nanites to use in their relentless attack.

It felt like millions of enraged insects were crawling over her skin, stinging and biting her relentlessly. Her mouth went dry as an unbearable searing pain pulsed through her chest. Any movement of the vibrating blade helped pulp her internal organs, and it was impossible to fully compensate for Thea’s continuous changes in force.

Gasping for air, Alex coughed violently, expelling blood from her mouth that splattered both combatants. Each convulsion intensified her pain. Alarms and emergency notices swarmed across her HUD like gibberish.

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

[Informative: Hostile vibration weapon frequency determined. Isolation counter-frequency deployed as an integral patch to Avatar chassis.]

Alex glanced down at the blade embedded where her lung and heart used to be, not appreciating Nameless referring to her torso as a chassis. A dense cluster of nanites swarmed around the blade, slowly dampening its violent vibrations. The pain lessened from mind-consuming intensity to a persistent, gnawing reminder of impending death.

[Recommendation: Terminate hostile NAI immediately.]

As much as Alex hated admitting it, Thea was more skilled at combat than she was. That wasn’t her fault—it was her first time fighting another NAI. Playing soldier with Tia didn’t count, since they hadn’t used any of their NAI abilities during those training sessions.

She discarded her first thought to try to chop the woman’s arm off 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.

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