E-UNIT: The Blue Angels of Death.

top-tier world-building

V O L U M E . S I X : C O D E_R E S E T

Chapter 136: Father-Daughter Activity"Father." Infinity stepped out of Metro Robotics headquarters and stopped on the street, running diagnostic checks on the new CPU as the scientists had shown her. Her eyes shifted grey. "I cannot believe this. My vision is split into two simultaneous feeds, one of them is a constant ten-second prediction of everything around me. And if I hold focus long enough—" The grey deepened. "—I can extend it to a full minute. How is that architecturally possible?"

"I've said it before," Reaper replied, running a thermal scan through her frame at the same time. "Nick was, without question, a brilliant man with catastrophic judgment. My frustration with our scientists is significant, they haven't come close to replicating the crystal technology, let alone producing a reduced version of it."

"Give them time, father." Infinity smiled up at him and rose briefly onto her toes in an attempt to close the height gap. It accomplished nothing. "We've only just confirmed that the crystals can function as external power sources. With enough time and the right resources, an army of brace holders isn't an unrealistic goal. We have E-UNITs available to test on."

Reaper laughed, brief, quiet, and tapped the top of her head. "Your words and your expression are telling different stories. You shouldn't look that pleased about building a destruction force."

"I know I shouldn't." She straightened the brace. "That's not really the point. And it does look good."

"Then let's—"

Something passed beneath them in the sewage system, fast, loud, the sound of a heavy motor at full output fading through the concrete and then gone.

Infinity had the sewer grate off before the sound fully disappeared. She dropped to one knee at the edge and scanned the tunnel below. "One truck, moving at roughly one-fifty, fully loaded. Two occupants, both glowing blue. Heading out of the city."

Reaper's eyes went red. "Infinity. I believe we've found the perfect test for your new hardware."

06 and 07 had separated from the main group ten minutes into the operation. Their truck carried charging stations and crates of cable, heavy, loud, and lit well enough to be visible from a distance.

07 sat in the passenger seat without a seatbelt, which tracked. "I'm telling you, the captain's route is safer but longer. Robots don't pay attention to what's moving through the sewage system. We're fine."

"We're driving a loud, glowing truck under a city." 06 had taken the wheel after 07's detour had cost them three minutes. She didn't look away from the tunnel. "If a single report goes up, the whole operation is compromised. And 02 and Delta still have to come back through for the rest of the population."

"Nothing will happen to them." 07 was already looking at the occasional light catching her reflection in the tunnel walls. "02 took 11 apart in four minutes. She's more capable than she lets on. Though this version of her is significantly less fun. I'd bet she could face Reaper right now and come out ahead."

"'Less fun' means she's accounting for the margin she doesn't control," 06 said. "If she's that capable and still treating him as a genuine threat, he's not something you approach without preparation. I asked Delta about him. She said, and I'm quoting, 'If you see him, run.' She's survived more contact with him than anyone we know. That's enough for me."

"She's overprotective." 07 had started opening compartments, checking drawers, looking for something to do with her hands. "We've been sitting in that bubble building a clone army until even that got taken from us. We haven't tested a single direct engagement with the Golden Circle."

"You sound like a veteran complaining about the weather despite having the most out—" 06 went still.

"Despite having the most what?" 07 turned.

"We're being followed."

07 leaned toward the window. Infinity was running behind them in the tunnel, silent steps, no sound, barely a shape in the dark. 07 pulled her head back in and rolled the window up with the slow, deliberate calm of someone deciding not to acknowledge what they've seen. "How did you feel her before I could see her?"

"The original captain trained me personally." 06's jaw was set. "I still hear my joints complaining about it. The end of the tunnel is close. Open space gives us better angles, if we both move at the same time, we can work with that."

The tunnel opened into a large concrete basin, a water treatment staging area, dry now that human infrastructure management had ended, the quarter-sphere walls rising to ground level. 06 stopped the truck in the center.

They got out and turned around.

07 pressed her palms together. Her energy gloves hummed up.

"07, hold yourself together," 06 said, drawing her blade in a slow arc. "I know her face is tempting."

"I'm not going to hold anything." 07's voice had gone flat and cold. "She did what she did to this team. Seeing her internals fill this basin is the minimum I'll accept."

Infinity rose off the ground on a pillow of thruster output, the grey glow of the predictive crystal spreading outward from her brace. "Since all I need is your mission details, I'll offer the option to stand down and we'll—"

07 was already moving. Dust kicked up behind each step.

Infinity touched down and brought her shields up, the energy surface shifting from its usual red to the grey of the crystal feed. A prediction came. ‘Wait, standard shields won't—'

07's fist hit the shield and shattered it entirely, the energy scattering in fragments. The second punch followed without pause.

Clang.

Infinity went backward across the basin floor, the plating across her midsection dented from the impact.

06 closed in from the opposite angle.

The predictive display screamed red. Infinity left the ground immediately.

07 bent her knees, gathered the momentum, and launched, the concrete cracking clean beneath her feet. In the air, Infinity ran the simulations fast, options collapsing and branching faster than she'd used the crystal before. As 07 reached her, she drew one blade.

Crack.

She caught the incoming strike with her right forearm. The impact sounded like a detonating artillery shell. The cracks spread from the impact point through the plating and up toward her shoulder in a spiderweb pattern.

She pulled 07 up close. "Perhaps not my best calculation." She let the observation sit for a moment, then started cutting, right side, working inward, the blade moving in smooth passes through the frame.

07 hit her with the free arm. Infinity generated a shield, let it break, rebuilt it. Hit, break, rebuild. 07's strikes came harder and then more desperate and then not at all.

The battery housing separated cleanly. The lower half came down in a single thud, components following in a brief metallic scatter. When an E-UNIT is split at the battery, the system cuts out immediately.

06 didn't move.

Infinity landed and looked at her. "I think what I did to this team left you all past the point of reacting to loss."

"Do you think we're operating without a plan?"

"Yes," Infinity said. Then she looked at 06's expression more carefully. "Though I recognize that look. 11 had it when she went in knowing her backup was current. Someone who's made the calculation."

"Exactly." 06 reset her stance. "Our father is dead. You call whoever built you 'father.' I can draw a line between those two facts. You're not my sister."

Infinity crouched and pulled one of 07's gloves from the basin floor. "It took you this long to arrive at that?" She moved.

06 came forward in controlled steps. They met at the center of the basin. 06 brought her shield up.

Infinity drove her fist through it, the battery-sourced energy unable to regenerate fast enough. She brought the blade around toward 06's shoulder.

Red warning, full display.

She stepped back immediately. She reviewed the playback, 06's blade had been aimed at her neck. If the predictive system hadn't flagged it, it would have connected. ‘The system tracks my surroundings independently. It's not waiting for me to run the calculation. It's running them in the background on its own.’

06 followed through with a kick aimed at her flank.

Infinity caught it. Raised her blade.

The blade sheared through metal and synthetic muscle with a high, clean whistle. 06's leg came off at the knee. She hit the basin floor on her back and started pulling herself away from the fallen limb.

"How? My sisters couldn't predict my angles when I forced their attention somewhere else."

"I'll give you credit for that." Infinity dropped 06's leg and walked toward her. "I nearly lost my head. Solid execution." She pulled her blade free. "You can stop feeding the HUD to your captain now, the connection is visible in your uplink traffic." She placed the blade against 06's eye and pushed it in.

06 seized, hands going to her head, the blade working through the internal components. She pulled it out, one eye dark and gone.

"Father," Infinity called up without looking away from 06. "Do we question her or take the SSD?"

Reaper came down from above, the basin floor registering the landing across its full surface. "Take the SSD. I won't have my kind tortured. Finish it quickly."

06 watched Infinity approach and crouch beside her. "Now I understand what Delta meant." Her voice was barely functional. "How are we supposed to get ahead of this?"

Infinity paused. "Interesting phrasing. You already restored her from backup. That makes your SSD significantly more interesting." She smiled. "Goodbye."

06 had one last moment of focus.

Sleek.

Her head separated from the frame and came to rest on the basin floor beside it. Infinity retrieved both SSDs, 06's and 07's, and brought them to Reaper.

"Not a bad outcome." She straightened.

Reaper reached for her arm and removed the glove. Her hand had deteriorated badly, the cracks from catching 07's strike had spread through most of the structure. "We're repairing this first. I'll review the SSDs after." He lifted her. "Hold on."

Infinity looked at his grip. "I don't need to hold on. You're not going to drop me."

"You're testing the limits of my patience," he said, rising.

"You used me as a field trial for the crystal." She rolled her eyes. "I think we're even."

"Consider it a father-daughter activity. I might post about it."

"You'll be banned if you include the part where I cut 07 in half."

"Probably."

Infinity smiled. "Then post it."