“Maaaannnaa,” the creature croaked, its voice holding a metallic, inhuman note.
It surged forward in a flurry of limbs, giving up any pretense of hesitation this time. Julia moved to smash it aside again, but the creature seemed to anticipate the blow. It ducked under her attack, scoring her metal breastplate with metallic, claw-like fingers. Julia kicked at the creature’s leg, her mailed boot caving in the metal with a crunch. The monstrosity lurched to the side and fell, but didn’t stop its assault, scrabbling at her legs.
“Maannnaaa!” it cried, the sound now a tortured scream.
Realizing its metallic fingers weren’t effective against Julia’s armor, the creature’s mana surged again, flames rippling across its arm and swiftly warming its claw-like hands to a dull red glow. At the same time, more mana flared along its ruined leg as the limb began to piece itself back together.
Fuck. It can repair like the other mechs.
Finn saw the creature’s Najima pulse, dimming slightly as it expended mana and then gradually brightening again. It’s also regenerating mana, he realized belatedly. Damn it!
Finn’s thoughts raced. It was becoming clear now what the staff must have been fighting and why no corpses lined the hall. And if there was one of these creatures, then there were likely more…
They needed information – fast.
Making a quick decision, Finn barked an order to Julia. “Give me 5 seconds, then back out of the room. Don’t let it cross the doorway.” Already, the creature was regaining its feet and lunging at Julia as she backpedaled toward the door.
“Daniel, get a scan now and then get the hell out of there!” Finn barked.
He didn’t wait to see whether they followed his orders.
Finn’s fingers raced, and the metallic sphere in his hand was soon coated in flame. It rocketed through the air as he simultaneously increased the heat, causing the fire to surge and the metal to begin to glow a bright red. He smashed the orb flat, creating a makeshift molten blade capable of cutting and slicing with pinpoint precision. He aimed for the creature’s joints and neatly severed each limb.
Julia rushed forward as the creature stumbled, her shield crashing into its metallic head. She put all of her considerable strength into the attack, sending the monstrosity flying backward into the wall once more, its body crashing against the stone and its limbs exploding across the room.
Even with its body dismembered and Julia’s devastating attack, Finn could see that the mech wasn’t finished. Already, more mana was flaring along the cores in its chest and that decayed, fleshy limb. As he looked on, tendrils of crystal stretched out from the torso and across the ground, inching toward the dismembered limbs. It was planning to pull itself back together…
Yet he didn’t plan to wait around for that.
As Daniel flitted through the room and the occasional fan of orange energy struck the malformed mech, Finn directed his orb out of the room and dropped the channel, the molten metal cooling rapidly as it struck the stone floor with a dull thunk.
Finn cast Imbue Fire again, this time on the deadbolts embedded in the partially open door. Flames soon sprung up around the metal, and Finn poured more mana into the spell to raise the temperature. The creature was already beginning to rise once again, and it took an awkward, shambling step forward toward the door, its limbs hanging askew – some only connected by a few strands of crystalline thread. Julia had backed out of the room, keeping her shield raised, even as Daniel’s form raced through the exit behind her.
As the mech’s legs snapped back into place, the monstrosity lunged at the narrow gap in the door, flames rippling along its metallic claws once more. It raked at the air, and an ear-piercing howl escaped whatever it used as a throat.
“Any time now!” Julia said, urgency tinging her voice.
Finn yanked at the door with everything he had. The combination of stone, crystal, and metal resisted at first. Time seemed to slow as the creature barreled toward them, reaching out a lone arm as it clawed at the air. Finn jerked at the deadbolts again, and the door finally moved, slamming shut with a crash of stone on stone and a shower of sparks, and a thick cloud of dust drifted down from the doorway as the walls trembled from the impact. With a quick flick of his wrist, Finn drove the deadbolts home and securely locked the door, maintaining the channel to ensure they stayed in place.
The creature’s arm had gotten caught in the doorway at the last moment, the door severing the metal at the elbow and leaving a ruined limb lying along the ground. Finn glanced down and could see a sickly, multi-colored liquid leaking from the pale flesh and pooling on the stone. Already, tendrils of crystal were reaching out of the ruined limb, stretching toward the rest of the mech’s body, but finding its path blocked by the door.
Which left the group standing in the darkened hallway, lit only by the flickering light of Daniel’s body, and staring at the malformed limb along the ground. They could hear the muted scratches and howls of the creature on the other side of that door – the grinding shriek of metal striking stone as it clawed at the door.
“Ahh, I made a mistake,” Daniel chirped.
Finn eyed him in confusion.
“You remember back in the reception area when you asked what was the worst thing that could happen if we tried to force our way inside this section? I forgot to add the possibility of encountering magical, self-healing mech/human hybrids hellbent on devouring mana. I’ll make certain to update my records accordingly.”
Chapter 15 - Corrupted
“What the fuck is that thing?” Kyyle muttered, the group listening to the creature scratch against the other side of the door.
“It appears to be a combination of the former human staff and the security mechs stationed in this section,” Brock answered with a rumble.
“How is that even possible?” Julia demanded, whirling toward the elemental. “You said this place has been under lockdown for at least 50 years. Anyone in here should be long dead. And, as far as we know, it doesn’t look like anyone else managed to make it past reception.”
The rocks that made up the earth elemental’s body ground together as he pondered her question. “It’s possible that the security mechs incorporated their human counterparts in order to maintain their mana and fulfill their primary directive.”
“Which is what exactly?” Julia asked sharply.
“To protect the facility, of course.”
“That just doesn’t make any sense,” Julia muttered. “Why would incorporating the human staff help keep some magically powered…” Her eyes widened as she stared at the door, the realization dawning on her. “Oh… oh, shit.”
“Yep,” Finn replied to her unspoken conclusion.
“You two want to share with the class?” Kyyle offered in a dry tone.
Finn glanced at Daniel. “You manage to get a scan during that confrontation?”
“Of course, I did,” the fire elemental replied. “That’s just one of my many useful talents, which clearly demonstrates the superiority of fire elementals over a lumbering pile of rubble—”
“Just show us the scan, Daniel,” Finn grumbled, rubbing at his temple. They didn’t have time for elemental rivalries.
With a mutter from Daniel, an image soon appeared in the air, showing the corrupted mech in a glowing orange silhouette. Now that the creature wasn’t lunging at them, it was far easier to make out the pieces of pale human flesh amid the metal panels and crystalline wiring. The thing looked like it had been cobbled together by a mad mechanic. It lacked the clean lines and symmetry of the other mechs. Instead, it was just a mash of human and synthetic parts terminating in two arms equipped with jagged metal claws.
Finn pinched at the air and centered on a patch of pale skin along the creature’s arm. “I managed to get a good look at the thing while it was attacking Julia. It has a Najima in this arm,” he said, tapping at the display. He shot a glance at the severed limb on the floor. Despite the energy beginning to fade, Finn could still mak
e out traces of the Najima. “The same arm that’s resting right there,” he muttered.
He let out a sigh. “I think Brock is right. Those clusters naturally absorb ambient mana and convert it to the various affinities. Even two Najima would be enough to recharge and power the creature, albeit much more slowly than an intact human.”
Finn eyed the door beside them. It could be his imagination, but it seemed as though the scratching had begun to wind down. “That should also mean…”
He trailed off as the noise abruptly cut off. Finn peeled back the intervening layers of mana. The interference from the crystals lacing the door made it difficult to see much on the other side, but he was just barely able to make out the corrupted mech slumped against the doorway, its body pulsing faintly with mana.
It looked like its energy had been largely depleted.
“…it’ll eventually run out of juice,” Finn finished in a distracted voice.
He chewed on the inside of his cheek in thought. Could this mech be a one-off? he wondered hopefully, trying to ignore the doubting voice at the edges of his mind.
Yet that voice refused to be disregarded… his brain chipping away at the problem automatically – no matter how hard Finn tried to resist the conclusion that was gradually beginning to form.
This room must be a security checkpoint. Which meant it likely had a guard and at least one security mech. The mech could have begun running out of power, and it might have incorporated the human guard into itself. Yet Finn didn’t recall seeing any other bones or remains inside, and only one Najima lingered in its body.
So, what had happened to the rest of the guard?
And that was only the first question. They knew that there was no record of any enemies breaching the blast doors leading farther into the facility, at least before the reception area went offline. Someone had also cut the main conduit leading back into the reception area. And, as Brock had suggested, the only way to sever power to the section was to manually and simultaneously cut the main conduits while deactivating the fire pylon. Which meant the danger most likely came from within the section.
So, had the staff done it? If so, why?
Maybe this was an anomaly? An unanticipated bug in whatever magical code that the mechs were using to operate? A byproduct of leaving the security lockdown in place for so long – much longer than the system might have been designed to handle? But if the power had still been online, why would the mechs have needed to incorporate human staff? Finn paused at that thought, his gaze drifting to the scratches and scorch marks that marred the walls of the hallway.
Maybe the staff had simply been an easier target. It seemed more straightforward to incorporate their Najima than to attempt to drain the facility’s power directly. Finn had already witnessed firsthand how resilient the walls could be – especially if there had been sufficient power to repair them. Maybe the mechs hadn’t had the firepower to manage that feat. Or the fire mana alone wasn’t enough. Incorporating the human staff would have given the mechs an infinitely renewable source of energy – one that also provided multiple types of mana.
And if the staff had started to see the mechs incorporating their own…
“Damn it,” Finn muttered as the realization finally hit him.
He looked back down the hall in the direction of the blast door. “I think we were on the right track before. I don’t think this section lost power by accident or from an attack. At least, not exactly.”
“I don’t understand your conclusion,” Brock rumbled. “Could you please elaborate?”
“He means that the human staff must have cut the power to this section and blocked it off to stop these… things from spreading throughout the facility,” Daniel answered sharply, his form dancing in front of the earth elemental. “Any elemental with more than one mana core to rub together could have figured that out.”
“Ahh, that is an interesting deduction. Thank you for explaining it to me,” Brock rumbled, seemingly oblivious to Daniel’s scathing tone. The AI’s fiery form just pulsed in irritation.
“Okay, so these mechs started going crazy and incorporating the staff,” Julia began slowly. “The people that worked here got scared. Maybe they were worried that the bug would spread…” A grimace swept across her face. “But if that’s right, then it means that there are likely more of these things in here.”
Finn nodded. “Which is why we didn’t see any other human remains in that room,” he offered, waving at the sealed door beside him.
Kyyle spun toward the earth elemental. “How many staff members did you say were stationed in this section exactly?”
“Between 50 and 100, although not all staff members may have been present when the facility went into lockdown.” A moment of hesitation. “It’s also not clear whether all of the human staff were incorporated by the security mechs.”
“And the better question is probably how many mechs were stationed in this section,” Kyyle answered in a distracted voice as he stared at the floating image of the corrupted mech. “This one didn’t use a full person. So, it’s probably safe to assume that the other mechs only assimilated one or two Najima each. There were probably plenty of staff members to go around…”
“There were approximately 200 security mechs stationed in this section,” Brock rumbled in response.
“200…” Julia echoed, her eyes going wide. “Even if we cut that number by 25% to account for mechs in storage or without access to human parts, that still leaves upward of 150 of these things?” She paused. “I guess that’s a manageable number.”
“Uh, were you there when that thing attacked us?” Kyyle asked. “It didn’t seem fazed by your attacks and repaired itself almost instantly.” The earth mage pinched at Daniel’s projection of the creature, pivoting the display. “And there don’t seem to be any obvious weak points. Well… short of dismembering the thing to remove the Najima.”
Finn was rubbing at the dull ache in his left arm, trying to tamp down on the pain that simmered there and now stretched up into his chest. Even that short encounter had been enough to inflame the infection. “You’re right,” he grunted at Kyyle. “And if we encounter mechs with more than one Najima, we’d need to sever all of those limbs at once to stop it from regenerating.
“Even then, there’s still this.” Finn’s fingers flicked at the display, centering the image on the creature’s chest. A cluster of glowing mana cores was nestled in its torso, surrounded by a cage of metal and that strange crystalline wiring. “The thing is still part mech, which means it’s storing backup or overflow mana in its original mana cores. That could potentially allow it to reattach the severed limbs. That’s also why the mech kept going even after we severed its arm,” Finn offered, gesturing at the nearby door.
“And that also explains why the mech was inactive when we found it,” Julia continued. “It was effectively in standby mode. It powered down to conserve power and allow its natural regeneration to outpace its consumption – likely only maintaining its sensors to scan at regular intervals. Which means if we find any more of these things, they’ll probably be inactive, but they’ll most likely have topped off their mana cores.”
Finn nodded along with her explanation. “Exactly.” He glanced at the door beside them. “And we can estimate their mana reserves. That fight and its ensuing assault on the door took approximately...” Finn trailed off, shooting Daniel a questioning glance.
“10 minutes, give or take,” the AI replied immediately.
“Our one advantage is that these things are using mana to repair, charge their attacks, and to move and operate,” Finn explained with a nod. “It seems safe to assume that they don’t have a separate stamina pool like other biological enemies we’ve faced. Everything here runs on mana. Even the flesh that they’ve incorporated is ruined, and the muscle seems to have been replaced with the mech’s regular pneumatic systems,” he added, gesturing at the ruined limb on the floor. “That means we have two options: either we need to overwhelm
them, or we have to whittle them down so that they run out of power and go into standby.”
“And it’s safe to assume that they have some way of draining mana from other power sources,” Julia continued. “Otherwise, the staff wouldn’t have bothered to cut the power. If we’re right, they must have been afraid the bug would spread to other systems or that they might grow strong enough to tap into the facility’s power. Hell, for all we know, this could be some sort of magical virus.”
As she finished speaking, the group as one glanced at the severed limb, backing away from it slowly.
“Just fucking perfect,” Kyyle muttered. “So we’re trapped in this section of the facility. We need to turn the lights back on to lift the lockdown and reach the center of the Forge. But that’s probably going to draw the attention of anywhere from 150 to 200 of these mech-human hybrids. And risk allowing whatever is happening in here to continue to spread through the facility. Oh, and we can barely kill one…”
“Well, there’s always running away for 10 minutes or so,” Julia offered with a tired smile. “Plus, some of us have little or no mana. Sounds like I’m just fine.”
“Lucky you,” Kyyle retorted with a grin of his own. “Hope you enjoy wandering the same dark hallways for all of eternity.”
Finn’s brow furrowed at that comment, a glimmer of an idea flaring to life – one that might also save him from having to use his mana. At the rate he was going, the infection was spreading quickly, and he wasn’t looking forward to discovering what would happen when it reached another Najima.
“Daniel, bring up the facility map again,” Finn instructed.
Immediately, the display floating before them shifted, now showing the layout of the Forge. Finn’s gaze hovered on the darkened section where they stood, his eyes tracing the complicated network of rooms and hallways.
“Brock, are all of the rooms equipped with the same locking mechanism as this one?” Finn asked, waving at the door beside them.
Awaken Online: Inferno (Tarot #3) Page 16
