The single red eye of the awakened drone fixed on me. It was a look of cold, calculated malice. This was not a mindless janitor drone. This was an executioner. The System had anticipated our every move. It had herded us into this room and locked the door behind us. This was not a random encounter. This was a targeted assassination attempt, with me as the target.
The drone detached itself from its charging station. It was much larger than the standard Cleaners, its chassis heavily armored and painted a stark, clinical white. It was an older, military-grade model, an Alpha Cleaner. As it rose to its full height, various appendages unfolded from its body. One arm ended in a high-pressure decontamination hose, which now hissed with a corrosive green acid. The other arm split open, revealing a set of long, gleaming surgical blades, each one razor-sharp. It was a walking nightmare of medical malpractice.
This was a direct response to my System Anathema status. This was my personal guardian devil, spawned by the game itself to eliminate me.
"Jax, hit it hard!" Anya yelled, already raising her rifle.
Jax did not need to be told twice. He braced his massive plasma repeater and unleashed a torrent of blue energy at the Alpha Cleaner. The bolts of plasma, which could melt through solid steel, slammed into the drone's armored chassis. They sparked and sizzled, leaving blackened scorch marks on the white plating, but they did not penetrate. The armor was too thick.
The Alpha Cleaner ignored the plasma bolts as if they were annoying insects. It raised its hose-arm and sprayed a wide arc of corrosive acid. We all dove for cover, scrambling behind the rows of dormant drones. The acid hit the floor with a loud hiss, eating through the metal plating, leaving a smoking, melted scar.
Veda, the scout, moved with incredible speed. She zipped between the rows of drones, trying to flank the guardian. She fired her silenced pistols, aiming for the joints in its armor. But the Alpha Cleaner was impossibly fast. It spun around, its surgical blades extending in a blur of motion, deflecting her bullets with a series of high-pitched pings.
My own rifle fire was just as useless. The bullets ricocheted harmlessly off its armor. We were completely outmatched. In a direct confrontation, we stood no chance.
And the timer on our HUDs was a constant, terrifying reminder of our impending doom.
[LOCAL STERILIZATION IN: 02:00]
Two minutes. We had two minutes to defeat an invincible guardian, retrieve the neural interface from the other drone, and find a way out of this locked room before we were all vaporized.
"We can't destroy it!" I yelled, my mind racing. I was a tactician now. I had to think like one. Brute force was failing. We needed a new plan. "We have to disable it! Bypass it!"
My eyes scanned the room. The maintenance bay was filled with equipment. Power conduits ran along the walls. And in the center of the room was the large, open diagnostic cradle where our target drone was resting. The cradle was connected by thick cables to a master control console.
That was it. The cradle was not just a charging station. It was a diagnostic tool. It could be used to deliver a massive electrical surge, to overload a drone's systems from the inside.
"I have a plan!" I shouted to the others, my voice cutting through the chaos. "We need to lure it into the diagnostic cradle! I can use the main console to overload it!"
It was a crazy plan that would require perfect coordination.
"How do we get it in there?" Jax boomed, firing another volley of plasma that did little more than annoy the Alpha Cleaner.
"I'll do it," Anya said, her voice determined. She looked at the stabilizer brace on her leg, which was already starting to flicker under the strain of the battle. "I'm the fastest. I can get its attention."
"It's too risky!" I protested.
"We're out of options, Leo!" she shot back. "Just be ready at that console!"
The team snapped into action. Veda and Jax began a strategic retreat, providing covering fire not to do damage, but to herd the Alpha Cleaner, forcing it to move in the direction of the cradle. Their shots bounced off its armor, but the constant barrage forced it to turn, to react, to move where they wanted it to go.
Anya took a deep breath. And then she became a blur of motion. She blinked, teleporting a short distance, appearing right in front of the Alpha Cleaner. "Hey, ugly!" she yelled. "Over here!"
She fired a burst from her rifle at its single red eye. The bullets sparked against the optic sensor, having no effect, but it got the drone's full, undivided attention. The Alpha Cleaner let out a furious electronic screech and charged after her.
The chase began. Anya was a ghost, a blur of blue and red static, leading the mechanical monster on a deadly dance around the room. She blinked from one piece of cover to the next, always staying just out of reach of its surgical blades and corrosive acid. The stabilizer brace on her leg sparked and sizzled, the blue light flickering violently. She was pushing it, and herself, to the absolute limit.
While they were occupied, I sprinted for the main control console. I slammed my hands on the screen. It was locked, of course. I pulled out my diagnostic tool and interfaced it with the console. I had to hot-wire the system, to bypass the safety protocols and prime the cradle for a massive energy discharge.
Another hacking minigame appeared on my HUD. But this was worse than before. My System Anathema was in full effect. The system was actively fighting me. The interface glitched and stuttered. Lines of code would corrupt and delete themselves as I was trying to work. It was like trying to perform surgery during an earthquake.
[LOCAL STERILIZATION IN: 01:00]
Sixty seconds.
Anya's voice came over the comms, strained and breathless. "Leo! My brace is failing! I can't keep this up!"
I looked up from the console. The blue light of her brace was almost completely gone. Her corrupted leg was beginning to de-rez, the red static becoming more pronounced. She was slowing down. The Alpha Cleaner was gaining on her.
"Just a little longer, Anya!" I yelled, my fingers flying across the screen. I bypassed one firewall. Then another. The overload sequence was almost primed.
The timer was a blur. [45 SECONDS].
Anya's brace finally gave out. It sparked one last time and died. Her leg became completely unstable. She stumbled, her speed gone. The Alpha Cleaner seized the opportunity. It lunged, cornering her against a wall of dormant drones. Its surgical blades extended, ready for the killing blow.
"Leo!" she screamed.
[30 SECONDS]. The room would be sterilized. We were out of time.
I finally broke through the last piece of firewall. The console flashed green.
[DIAGNOSTIC CRADLE OVERLOAD READY].
I looked up, ready to yell for Anya to lead the drone into the trap. But the cradle was empty. The Alpha Cleaner was not there. It was across the room, standing over Anya, ready to end her life.
My plan had failed. We were too slow.
Anya was trapped. She looked at the massive drone towering over her. Then she looked at me, across the room, standing at the ready console. I saw a look of fierce determination in her eyes. A look of sacrifice.
She did not try to escape. She did not try to dodge.
She used the last of her energy, the last of her strength. She blinked.
She reappeared behind the Alpha Cleaner. And with a desperate, two-handed shove, she pushed the massive, surprised drone with all her might.
The guardian stumbled forward, its metallic feet screeching on the floor. It stumbled right into the open, waiting diagnostic cradle.
"NOW, LEO!" Anya screamed, her voice a triumphant roar.
The Alpha Cleaner was in the trap. But Anya was right next to it, directly in the blast radius.
Activating the overload would hit them both.