While General Saigo’s team faced off against the androids that had attacked them, Zoey and Viridi had just entered the other target building, closing the door behind them. In the darkness that instantly submerged them, the two of them walked down the empty echoing hallway with confident strides. Both of them could easily see in the dark, and Zoey had already performed a scan of the vicinity to ensure none of those laser traps were lying in wait for them, so they were reasonably confident that nothing was lying in wait for them, at least not in the hallway.

When they stepped out into the open room though, both of them stopped in place when they saw the orange light behind the door at the other end of the room, and the host of dormant androids lined up along the walls as they waited for any intruders. Actually, they were not dormant anymore! Zoey and Viridi readied themselves while hundreds of red glowing eyes came to life around them as the androids became aware of the biological life forms in the room.

The eerie silence was shattered as the androids started moving towards Zoey and Viridi with their robotic movements clanging and scraping along the metal floor as they came. Zoey and Viridi were ready, and the closest android never got within five meters before a Shadow Blade sent by Viridi’s tail sliced it in half. The sudden explosion of metal parts and oil splattered and clamored on the ground as the android fell and scattered its internal parts like a broken vase. Meanwhile, Zoey had been about to send out a deadly Shadow Blade of her own, when she suddenly noticed something strange. Just as Viridi had decommissioned the first android, the rest of them had frozen in place!

Silence settled in again as the echoes of the androids’ movements drifted away, leaving behind hundreds of red eyes that stared emotionless at Zoey and Viridi, the red glow seeming even more pronounced in the oppressive darkness of the room they were in.

What the hell is this? Zoey wondered as she sensed a similar question coming from Viridi through their link. They didn’t shut down, so why did they freeze? Threat detection, or a defensive reaction maybe? She glanced around warily while she kept her Crystal Claw Bracer and Gravity Rune Anchor ready to use in a moment. I wonder if Praesidio would know?

In the next moment, the room suddenly filled with echoing clangs and loud noise once again as the androids resumed their movement! However, Zoey had a puzzled frown on her face as she watched the machines move, not towards her and Viridi, but clustering together in a growing pile of androids in front of them. Her frown grew deeper as she watched them crawling over themselves like ants, their limbs and parts banging together and… linking with each other?

What the hell are they doing?

Zoey was struggling to reach a conclusion to what she was seeing, because she had never seen this behavior before from the androids, but she had a sinking feeling that it was not going to be good!

Suddenly Praesidio’s spoke inside of Zoey’s mind, “What you are witnessing is the machines attempting to adapt to a great threat, in this case, you. The collective intelligence that is controlling them is adapting. I suggest you take action immediately.”

“Let’s finish this before they get done Viridi!” Zoey said through her and Viridi’s mental link. She had no intentions of letting these machines finish what they were doing!

She pulled the DAAC from her storage ring and rapidly loaded up a double load of magically charged, high explosive shells into the breach and snapped it closed with a flick of her wrist. In a flash, she steadied her sights on the growing pile of androids, and pulled the trigger. The thundering BOOM of the DAAC was deafening in the confines of the room as Zoey fired, sending both shells screaming towards the androids while Viridi followed up with a pair of huge, overcharged Shadow Blades for desert.

There was a blinding flash and a bone-shaking CRACK as the shells detonated, the blast sending android bits and pieces scattering everywhere as leaking oil was set aflame by the explosion. An instant later, Viridi’s two huge Shadow Blades cleaved into the growing pile of machines with the sound of shrieking metal, the magical blades slicing deep into the construct in the wake of Zoey’s attack. Their combined efforts had left behind a flaming, writhing pile of androids that were still climbing over each other and linking together to quickly repair the damage Zoey and Viridi had caused!

They are actually repairing the damage?! Zoey thought in fascination as she watched the machines linking and re-linking together where their attacks had landed, working on forming a strange, dome-shaped construct made of entirely of androids. Her hands were not idle while she watched though. She had already cracked open the DAAC’s breach, ejecting the spent shells with a hot hiss as magic vapor drifted into the air. Two more high explosive magical shells slid home and the breach snapped closed, then the arrays etched into the side of the DAAC lit up with a blue glow as Zoey started to pour magic power into her weapon, readying for the next attack.

80%... 90%... 99%... Okay, that's enough… Any more and I’ll blow the breach. Zoey thought as she sensed the feedback from the DAAC’s array system. She then activated her Dark Star Vision, her custom fabricated glasses lighting up with magical power as the arrays within activated. As the magic energy from the technique flowed into her visual cortex with a cool sensation, the world around her seemed to slow to a crawl, letting her see everything with incredible clarity, even down to the rivets and cracks in the metal wall on the other side of the room!

Now, deep breath, aim slightly below center mass… where is the weakest point… There!

Another BOOM shook the building to its foundation as Zoey fired, the sound louder this time than before. The subsequent CRACK was louder as well, and the shockwave it released was not inconsiderable either, almost reaching the level of an old Gaian ballistic artillery shell as it ripped into the flaming mass of machines with incredible explosive force.

Thanks to her passive ability, Dark Star Enmity, and the effects of her Dark Star Vision, Zoey had been able to pinpoint the most exposed part of the android construct. The two slugs she fired were able to penetrate deep into the pile of machines before detonating when they struck their target, resulting in a brilliant explosion of flaming debris and android parts as the dome-shaped construct the machines had been trying to build was blown wide open.

Zoey showed a grim half-smile on her face as she reloaded her DAAC with smooth precision. These machines want to mess with me? I’m an Engineer… Try to adapt all you want, taking apart machines is what I do best. She thought confidently.

All that was left now was to clean up the mess.