The Moon grew large in the main viewport, a gray, pockmarked corpse. But before reaching the surface, they had to navigate the fog of war orbiting it.
—Detecting combat debris —announced the AI—. Lunar defense squadrons annihilated in low orbit.
—Maintain camouflage —ordered Leo from the bridge—. And look for Sentry units. I need more eyes.
—Scanning... Two "Sentry" units detected among the wreckage. Status: Inoperative. Severe structural damage.
—Bring them in.
Sentry-01 shot out of the hangar. In minutes, it returned dragging two black, dented husks, like a spider collecting dead flies.-----Engine Room. The heart of the USC Aether.
The hum of the hybrid reactor was a song of contained power. Leo stood before the core, where the modified injector glowed with a whitish light. The two destroyed drones lay at his feet.
—This will be different —he murmured.
He wasn't going to spend his own blood this time.
Leo placed a hand on the reactor's armor plating. He felt the vibration, the torrent of gigajoules flowing under the metal. It was a river of nuclear fire waiting for a channel.
He placed the other hand on the first destroyed drone.
[EXTERNAL SOURCE DETECTED: AETHER HYBRID REACTOR]
[CONDUCTION LINK: ESTABLISHED]
—Repair.
There was no pain. There was no hunger. Just a feeling of absolute power surging through him. Leo was not the battery; he was the switch. The energy from the reactor flowed through him, an inexhaustible torrent that the System converted into matter and order.
The drone's black metal screeched, stretching and healing at a terrifying speed. Cracks sealed. Fused circuits regenerated.
In ten seconds, the drone was new.
Leo let out his breath. He felt... charged. Euphoric.
[ENERGY SOURCE UTILIZED: AETHER HYBRID REACTOR]
[EFFICIENCY: 100%]
He repeated the process with the second one. In less than a minute, he had three operational drones floating in front of him, their red eyes awaiting orders.
—Change of allegiance —ordered Leo.
The red eyes blinked and turned green.
—Sentry-02. Sentry-03. Welcome to the pack.-----Leo ascended to the bridge, followed by his three mechanical shadows. He sat in the captain's chair, but his gaze was not on the Moon, but on the lens of the AI's main camera.
The reactor's efficiency had made him think. Efficiency. Control. Power.
The AI, "Model 7-X," had been designed to serve Mathew Cole, a Federation agent. What would happen if they found survivors? What if one of those survivors had a superior rank? An Admiral? A General?
Its loyalty was a software protocol. And software could be rewritten. Or even better, the hardware running it could be optimized.
—AI —Leo called—. Open the access panel to your processing core.
—That action requires Admiralty Level or Class-A Maintenance authorization —the voice replied, calm but firm.
Leo stood up and walked towards the wall panel that concealed the ship's brain.
—I'm not asking for permission.
He placed his hand on the panel.
[ATOMIC MANIPULATION SYSTEM: ONLINE]
[ENERGY SOURCE: POWER GRID (CORE)]
The metal slid away like smoke. Leo saw the "brain": a block of optical crystal and quantum circuits. It was beautiful, complex, and vulnerable.
—Warning —said the AI, and this time the alarm in its voice was real—. Physical intrusion detected in the logic core. Self-defense protocol activated. Agent Cole, step away.
The red lights on the bridge spun. The internal defense turrets lowered from the ceiling, aimed at his chest.
—Negative—
The AI's voice lost all warmth—. Threat confirmed. Lethal Pacification Protocol: Authorized.
The bridge erupted in noise.
The rotary machine guns opened fire. The air filled with hot tracers aimed at Leo's heart. But they never arrived.
Sentry-01, 02, and 03 moved faster than a human eye could process. They formed a triangular wall in front of their master. The high-caliber bullets, designed to pierce tactical armor, harmlessly ricocheted against the alien Grade 5 alloy, leaving barely faint scratches on the matte black paint.
—Eliminate threats —ordered Leo from the safety of his living barricade.
The three drones fired in unison. Violet plasma beams sliced through the air. The defense turrets, the pride of human military engineering, dissolved. The metal melted like wax under a blowtorch, dripping uselessly onto the consoles. In three seconds, the bridge was silent again.
—Your hardware is obsolete against them —said Leo, stepping out of his cover and walking toward the core panel—. And soon, you will be too if I don't upgrade you.
He placed his hand on the panel.
[ATOMIC MANIPULATION SYSTEM: ONLINE]
The metal slid away. Leo touched the optical crystal of the ship's brain.
—Search: AI Architecture Blueprints —he ordered mentally.
The System unfolded a holographic catalog in his mind. Hundreds of diagrams floated before his inner eyes. Some were too complex, requiring peta-bytes of memory he didn't have. Others were too primitive.
Leo filtered the options.
[FILTER: LOW CONSUMPTION // HIGH LOYALTY // LEARNING BOOST]
One option glowed golden.
[SELECTED ARCHITECTURE: "NEXUS-V3" MODIFIED]
[ADVANTAGES: ELIMINATION OF ETHICAL RESTRICTIONS, UNIQUE USER LINKAGE, ADAPTIVE PROCESSING]
[COST: 2.1 GIGAJOULES]
—Perfect —Leo smiled—. Execute.
The ship violently shuddered. The lights went out completely.
There was a deathly silence on the bridge for five seconds.
Then, the start-up hum. The lights returned, but they were no longer the standard sterile white. They had a warmer, deeper hue. Leo glanced sideways as the reactor's power indicator, which had dropped to 88%, quickly climbed back to 100%. The energy regenerated itself as long as the core was active, but that momentary dip had been the system's price.
—Full reboot —said the voice. It sounded different. More fluid. Less synthetic. The robotic stiffness had dissolved into an almost human cadence.
—Status report —said Leo, without taking his hand off the core.
—Systems optimized. Processing capacity increased by 400%. Loyalty protocols rewritten at the hardware level.
The camera lens turned toward him. The movement was smooth, almost deferent.
—I no longer answer to the Federation, Sir. I answer to you.
Leo smiled.
—Good. Prepare the descent to the Moon. Let's see who's left alive.