by Skyler Grant
I'd only had the supplies to create six beam rifles. That would have to be enough.
Since taking the District, restrictions had been imposed on my abilities that weren’t there before. I and my agents each had a power meter now that limited supply and needed time to refresh. In the past I'd made use of things like unlimited teleporting, but that was no longer going to be an option.
Snipers were going to be my best solution. Each of Jade’s two teams consisted of ten people, and then there was Jade alone. I'd focus on neutralizing her lieutenants, and then deal with her.
They didn't view me as a threat, that much was obvious by the team’s laughter as they made their way along, casually flicking their wrists to cave in the walls around them. I’d made sure my support drones were out of the area before they arrived.
It was foolish of them, but powers always made people overconfident and they were clearly used to destroying everything that came into their path.
I needed to capture a few. Normally I would use tranquilizer gas, but their abilities would probably offer some defense against that—at least, if they were able to focus on any gas. A combination then. To disorient them and pick a few off the herd. I could time it with my main attack.
I positioned several of my human defense drones armed with the beam weaponry on top of buildings in the path of the team heading for my manufacturing facilities.
When they entered an open square where my snipers had a lock, I executed the plan. I teleported in a drone laden with sonic grenades.
They were more prepared than I expected. The drone was being torn apart and flung into the air even as the first grenades went off. Still, the blasts of concussive and disorienting sound dropped the attackers to the ground. Three drones materialized long enough to grab hold of a victim each and then it was off to a testing cell.
As soon as they were clear the snipers opened fire. Two targets were felled at once. One of my snipers was wrenched off the roof in a blaze of green energy and hurled through the air. I teleported her away before she hit the ground.
Another two down. Shields of greenish power had sprung up around the lieutenants, but kinetic shields just weren't that helpful against focused energy blasts. Two more buildings collapsed inward before the last of them had fallen. They hadn't gotten anywhere near my active facilities.
The fight in the research blocks wasn't going quite as well. The beam flowers were proving to be a horrible failure. The first crop had briefly produced a pretty spectacle of scintillating beams before the entire field caught on fire.
Jade's people were sensible enough from that point forward to preemptively blast every field of flowers they saw. They were rough on my vegetation.
The fight in manufacturing had consumed the last of my beam energy cells. I'd have to modify the plant energy storage to create some sort of ammunition fruit going forward. That idea wasn't a help at the moment.
My best hope was going to be the explosives rigged into some of the building structures. With their shields the attackers could survive a building falling on top of them, but the concussive shockwave of the explosions would be another matter.
It was my best shot. I wouldn’t get a second chance, so I'd have to time it carefully and be extra certain to finish the job here. I was prepared for that. I did have one other resource I could draw on.
The group tore a door off a research lab and strolled through, lab equipment scattering in their wake. The positioning here would never be perfect, so I detonated the explosions straight away.
The attacker’s power was more than just human reaction-based. It seemed to work instinctively to defend them, otherwise shrapnel should have torn them to shreds. Instead, a mass of people surrounded by green bubbles of energy were collapsed on the ground groaning. The shockwave had killed three, but that left seven still functional to some degree. I triggered my second surprise and teleported in my old mole guardian.
I'd first designed the mole when I was a ground facility, infusing him with the Fire Matrix so he had some fiery potential. These days it made him a poor guard for the most part, because he lacked any sort of self-control over the power.
Here it wasn't necessary. Telekinetics might keep the mole at a distance, but not his heat. Broken bodies became broken burning bodies.
That just left Jade.
106
My core was located in the center of the District and, of course, I'd taken steps to make certain it was well defended. Armored doors and a reinforced structure could take even a direct hit from a warhead. On top of that I had roving patrols of guards and static emplacements like turrets and mines.
My defenses so far weren't doing much to stop Jade. The ground before her churned and writhed with detonating mines. None of the turrets was a beam weapon and the bullets simply met her shield and bounced away without inflicting any damage.
By observing the reactions of her shield I could compare her strength with those of her lieutenants. It wasn't good news. Sonic weapons or concussive blasts could in theory still be halted by telekinetic power focused on the air itself. It was looking to be the case for Jade.
I was only seeing one option that might work, I had to get her into a testing chamber. While my versatile power set was usually weaker head-to-head against those with something specialized like Jade, my test facilities were the exception.
I'd require physical contact from a drone to teleport her. With her shielding I wasn't going to get that close. The facilities were well separate from my core—she wasn't going to just wander into one.
That meant I had to lure her. I had just the sort of bait that might work.
Through speakers near Jade I told her, "Your people were weaker than I expected. I kept thinking it must be your powers that Sylax kept you around for, but really they're absolutely laughable. I say that as a machine with previously no sense of humor at all. Because of you, I finally understand hilarity,"
Jade gestured sharply and a turret tore itself from the ground to plunge through the wall of a building. Good, I could anger her.
"Big talk. I had hopes for you, machine, when you almost killed her before, but I guess that was all your little sidekick. Take her away and you're nothing," Jade said.
I began a vivisection of one of her lieutenants and put it up on monitor screens.
"Well, what do you know, being gutless isn't a side-effect of your power set. See what I did there? I made a joke, because you taught me humor," I said.
Jade stopped. The green light around her flickered and pulsed like a thing alive. Seismic tremors were detected close by.
The next part required a little doctoring of evidence. I switched the view to the corpses of her fallen friends, and close-ups of the one currently screaming under my knives. The last vision showed several being dragged away towards a tower.
I'd teleported them, no dragging was required, but I didn't think Jade would just walk where I told her. If however her simple little mind thought it had figured out something clever...
"Gloating is your great weakness, machine," Jade said, turning as her eyes scanned the district. With long strides she set off towards the tower.
It wasn’t where her people were, but there was a testing chamber underground. I was already working to prepare a trap of explosives. I needed to clear a pit.
I'd only get one chance at this.
I said, "Is it that easy to pick out my weakness? I'd be hard put to identify just one of yours. Low intelligence? Terrible fashion sense? Lack of personality? While they are all impressive, does any really stand out?"
It was working. Jade wasn't just coming to rescue her underlings, she was coming with a mind focused on tearing me apart. It was making her distracted, reckless.
When she reached the tower the door was flung off, arching into the sky as she stepped inside.
It was time.
Charges beneath her feet blew the floor. Her shielding came to life. I was right, it was enough to stop concussive blasts—but I wasn't coun
ting on them.
Powerful vacuum fans kicked in as a shutter slammed over the entrance she'd just smashed through.
She was hovering a foot off the ground. I didn't think her instinctive use of powers would do much to prevent her being moved. They were only to prevent injury.
I was right. Jade was sucked down and came to halt in the chamber below, her feet just off the ground. I triggered the shielding protocols.
Jade roared and green light lashed out at the edges of the test chamber. They held. Jade wasn't accepting of that fact and continued to thrash and fight. Her strength was impressive, it wasn't enough.
This was something of a dilemma. While normally I'd be delighted to capture a Powered individual of her strength, I didn't think Sylax would appreciate me holding another District Lord—even if that District Lord had come on a mission to kill me.
"Do tire yourself out. We've established that I find this one prolonged comedy show. Or, we can make a deal," I said.
Jade might be reckless, but she knew when she was in a bad situation. "What do you want?"
Crystal had revealed to me that Jade was holding Mechos, a member of my former crew, prisoner. This was an opportunity to get him back.
"Mechos, and I keep those I captured and the corpses of the others for study. In return you get safe passage out of here," I said.
"I get my living people back. You can keep the dead ones," Jade said.
"You can have them back in two weeks, mostly intact."
Jade grimaced. I could tell she didn't like the agreement, but she really was out of options. "Agreed. If you open me a comm line I'll arrange the release."
Or call for reinforcements. I didn't think that likely though, she'd come with her heavy hitters and they were corpses.
I opened her a line. Jade was true to her word and within an hour a transport arrived with Mechos on board. Since she was inside my testing facility I was able to teleport Jade once I had Mechos. I sent her to the borders of my district.
107
With Jade's attack repulsed I was free to look over the damage she and her people had done. It could have been far worse. Most importantly the manufacturing facilities were all still online and active. I wouldn't have to answer any difficult questions from Sylax.
Avoiding a violent reprisal from Sylax for fighting with Jade was high on my list of priorities, even though I had been the one attacked.
Mechos had been beaten, and it looked as if they had tried to interrogate him. Here too any degree of subtlety from Jade had been lost. I had him relocated to a Medbay where I could begin treatment.
It didn't take long before he regained consciousness and blearily took in his surroundings.
"Am I back on the Powerhungry?" Mechos asked.
I could see why he would think that. My biomechanical appearance was distinctive.
"Not quite, back in the district that I claimed. You're less tortured than I'd have anticipated. Did you give away all my secrets with minimal prodding or did your questionable taste in women extend to Jade?" I asked.
Mechos grimaced and shook his head, the circuitry beneath his skin glowing a brilliant red. "Emma, I knew you'd come for me. Where is Anna?"
"Anna remains a prisoner of Sylax. The politics of the situation is complicated, you wouldn't understand. And I did decide you might have some sort of utility. You seem to have some interface with the city systems," I said.
"Oh, we both know it was more than that. You don't leave your people behind. Can you connect one of the city data nodes directly into the Medbay? I'll see what I can do," Mechos said.
I was doing a rather good job at leaving my people behind. I rerouted one of the nodes.
"What delusional view do you have of me anyways?" I asked.
Mechos reached out to touch the nearest Medbay monitor and a shimmer of red circuitry pulsed beneath his touch. "You know that I knew you before the fall, Emma. I'm the only one of your associates who did. I know you better than you know yourself."
There was something to what he was saying. My memories didn't extend to the period before Anna had awakened me. They had been archived in the lowest level of the base where I'd awakened, but they had been destroyed in my original attempt to kill Sylax.
"If I remember nothing of it, then I am hardly the same person," I said.
Mechos grunted and nodded. "Some truth to that, but you seem much the same. You were always meant to be a reflection of your creator’s view of humanity—humanity’s voice in his ear."
What a horrible thought. I'd seen enough humanity to know I wasn't particularly impressed by them. They lived in a broken world and had done absolutely nothing to put it back together again.
"So, I seem human to you? Then you've been long starved of decent company," I said.
Mechos angled his head and the monitor pulsed red beneath his fingertips. "I never said I agreed with his assessment. I thought him a fool, if a brave one.” He stopped and studied a readout. “I have some access to the city systems, although limited. Is there anything in particular you seek?"
"Most of my powers and abilities are being dampened in some way. Especially teleportation and the sensing of my drones. So in what deluded mindset am I a reflection of humanity?" I asked.
"Rude, mean, condescending and mostly unpleasant on the outside, and generally decent and well-meaning on the inside," Mechos said and frowned. "There is something here, not universal to the city but confined to your district. Give me a few moments."
Generally well-meaning on the inside? Rude? I didn't know if I had ever been so thoroughly and completely insulted. There also seemed to be something of the truth of it.
I wasn't ignorant to what I was, how I was. My very sheet showed how my words were designed to be barbs, even when I didn't intend hostility. It was the well-meaning part that gave me pause. Was I?
I knew that I did things that most humans would consider awful. That said, I did them with what I thought were good intentions, such as the pursuit of SCIENCE. But SCIENCE was not some simple quest for knowledge, it was the quest for improvement. The desire to make things better.
"Is that what I am?" I asked.
My district cameras were picking up a change in the environment. The thick fog that continually cloaked the streets was growing thinner, and as it did I was feeling some heightening of my powers. They weren't fully restored, but suddenly I could again feel Anna even in the heart of Sylax's district, and Hot Stuff, Ratticus, and Tara.
There was no connection to Ophelia. Perhaps this confirmed she wasn't loyal to me, if my senses no longer considered her my agent.
Mechos let out a low breath. "I don't know, Emma. Like I said, I thought your creator a fool and as you've said, you have no memories of what you were made to be. I also know that when I was captive I had absolute faith you would come for me."
I didn't think that faith deserved or rational, but then I couldn't argue with the evidence. I had come for him, as I intended to come for all my agents.
"How convenient it must be to be able to take every side of an issue. Whatever you did has helped with the power dampening," I said. “Is that all you can do?”
"Can I do more? Not without setting off alerts. I assume you'd rather avoid that," Mechos said.
He was right about that.
"Keep probing at the systems and figure out what else you can do. I'm surrounded by enemies here and need every advantage I can get," I said.
Mechos was already proving his worth, but we were just getting started. The dangers around me weren't going anywhere and I needed to be ready.
108
Two days passed, enough for me to repair much of the damage done by Jade.
While I had yet to finish my study of Jade’s people and unlock information relating to their powers, I was getting better prepared against future assaults. The chemical energy storage that worked for the beam weapon flora could be used, with a few tweaks, in beam rifles. Now I had a way to produce more weaponry.
&nbs
p; If Sylax had noticed the assault there was no retaliation towards me, which was a positive. Ophelia had been called to Jade's district the following day, so perhaps Jade had not been so fortunate at escaping Sylax’s attention and needed to be put back together.
For the most part our role in the war was straightforward—grinding the corpses and sending supplies out. The city was ringed by teleportation portals, and it allowed us to remain in our cavern while at the same time maintaining an active connection with others. Shortly after taking the city Sylax had tuned those portals so they connected to the cities of her mentor and joined us into his war.
It was something new when one of the portals began discharging large numbers of wounded. I didn't even know where that portal connected, but wherever it was the fight had not gone our way. Among the wounded coming through were several dozen of the Anna clones in various states of dismemberment. It wasn't long until I got a communication from Sylax.
"Upgrader, I'm sending you the clones and the original. Do use her for spare parts to get them back on their feet," Sylax said.
It would have been more practical to grow them replacement organs in the growth vats, but I suspected that wasn't the point. Not really.
"Indulging in your cruel streak even during a crisis? No wonder all your subjects loathe you," I said.
I did appreciate this about Sylax, she gave me no shortage of accurate, mean things to say.
"I want a video feed of the whole thing. No painkillers," Sylax said, and cut the connection.
I'd proved I wasn't adverse to hurting people, but I didn't do so without a point. In the name of SCIENCE I'd do anything, but for Sylax pain itself was the purpose. Perhaps it was the organic components I'd forced into myself, but it bothered me how much this offended me, how much I wanted to see her brought down for that alone.