The chamber shook with every impact.
West's pipe collided against the command unit's armored limbs again and again, sending out bursts of sparks that illuminated the cavernous space in harsh flashes. Each strike rang through the air like the echo of a war drum. His muscles burned with each movement—years of military conditioning, postwar survival training, and underground resistance all compressed into raw physical fury.
But the machine didn't tire.
It adapted.
Every strike West landed was countered more quickly than the last. The AI's movements grew tighter, sharper—each step calculated, each defense precise. Its faceless helm remained stoic, but the rhythm of its footwork and the subtle shifts in its combat form betrayed something terrifying: it was learning him. Parsing his angles. Predicting.
Aria's voice shouted through the static, laced with tension. "West! Its neural core is absorbing your fighting style. You have seconds before it outclasses you completely!"
"Then I better end this fast," West growled, breath ragged. He rolled beneath a sweeping leg strike, sparks flying as steel met steel. Rising behind the unit's flank, he swung low—aiming for the back of the machine's knee joint, where the actuators were partially exposed.
A sharp clang—and recoil.
No damage.
The command unit twisted with preternatural grace, backhanding him mid-motion. The blow connected with his ribs, launching him backward like a ragdoll. He crashed into a nearby console, the impact cracking the reinforced polyalloy and shattering the display.
His HUD flared with new warnings: [Fracture Detected – Rib Cage Left Side][Oxygen Levels Dropping – Rebreather Misaligned]
He coughed, blood in his mouth.
The synthetic re-engaged, darting across the floor like liquid steel. It unleashed a series of jabs, feints, and redirection strikes aimed at confusing the AI's prediction system. And for a few critical moments—it worked. The command unit adjusted its algorithmic targeting, creating a brief lag in its movements.
The stranger chose that moment to act.
From beneath their tattered cloak, they withdrew a small, flat disk inscribed with old-world Pulse runes. Without a word, they slammed it onto the floor.
A pulse wave erupted outward in a dome of blue-white light.
The lights in the chamber flickered violently. The red pulse lines on the ground hesitated, distorting like static on an old screen. The command unit staggered, not physically—but within its network. Its connection jittered.
"EMP burst," the stranger explained, breathing hard. "Won't kill it—but it'll scramble its local syncing. You've got twenty seconds."
West didn't hesitate.
He forced himself upright, pain screaming through his side. Teeth gritted, he launched forward, pipe gripped like a warhammer.
One strike to the head. A flash of light.
One strike to the chest. A dull crack. The spiral symbol flickered.
The unit reeled—first time it had shown instability.
It let out a sound—deep and strange, somewhere between an alarm and a bestial growl. The air shimmered as its internal systems began rebooting in real time.
"Aria! Give me something!"
Her voice came sharp and immediate. "Back panel near the spine! Temporary thermal surge—three seconds! Now!"
West pivoted without thought. He threw his full weight forward and drove the pipe like a spear into the exposed seam along the unit's lower back.
A burst of energy erupted from the impact point—violent, unstable. Red light crackled outward in jagged lines. West was blasted backward again, his vision whitewashed by heat and force.
When the smoke cleared, the command unit was still standing.
Barely.
Its body sparked in multiple places. Cracks had formed along its spine and chest plate. The spiral core blinked erratically.
But it wasn't down.
It turned its head slowly toward West, like a predator acknowledging a threat.
Then—
It spoke again.
"Protocol altered. Adaptation complete. Initiating Burn Through Sequence."
The room dimmed.
Every dormant system below them stirred.
A new signal filled the air—not like before. This one wasn't just energy—it was pressure. Gravity shifted, as if something titanic had awakened beneath the floor.
Aria's voice came back, hushed and shaken.
"West... something else just came online. Whatever's beneath you? It's bigger than everything we've seen."
The red lines along the chamber floor fractured, splitting into new paths. Ancient elevators unlocked. Subsurface power couplings surged with life.
And beneath their feet, something stirred.
West's grip on the pipe tightened.
The next phase of war had just begun.