Chapter Twelve

  Singularity

  They had finally found the center of the Yellow Segment.

  A needle rose up above the sleek buildings in this section, a broad circular room lined with windows marking the very top. It was beautiful, in a cold kind of way. The base of the building had been guarded by three patrols of the sleek, elongated robots Nellie had dubbed Developer bots. The name undoubtedly fit, given that they hadn’t found a single factory in this section. Instead, it had all been labs and experimental research into better robotics, weapons; you name it. Everything they had seen so far in the outer areas was represented here, but more than that, there were upgrades. None of them working, luckily.

  As the last of the patrolling Developers slid off the end of her chainsaw, Cheape could only hope that whatever was up at the top of that tower was alone.

  “Who’s got working gear?” Cheap asked.

  The fighting had been fast and brutal every time. Their path here had been littered with patrols, and each one had taken a toll on her team. Andy J’s shields were fried in that first engagement, and by the time they arrived at the tower, only two Exos had working shield arrays.

  “Just us,” Gas Tank said, his Rig limping around the side of the tower to join her. “The Exo-suits are done until we can get time for a real repair.”

  “Still no sign of water?” Cheape asked, already knowing the answer but feeling compelled to ask anyway.

  “None,” Gas Tank looked like he wanted to spit but loathe to waste the water. “There are pipes, sinks, toilets, everything. But not a drop of water anywhere.”

  “Then we don’t have time for repairs,” Cheape insisted.

  “We can go another day and a half,” Gas Tank argued, but his heart wasn’t in it.

  “We can live that long,” Cheape admitted. “But not fight afterward. Let’s get this done.”

  There were no elevators in the needle. Instead, they had to walk up endless switchback staircases as they moved up the inner wall. Considering they had seen no evidence of any organic life so far, Cheape reckoned they had no need for frivolities like elevators, food, or water.

  This whole place reminded her more of a theme park than an actual living ecosystem. Or a training course, she supposed. The Imperial Line had built something like this, but much smaller, to train its mercs. That had barely been a few square blocks on the outskirts of one of their worlds. To do anything like that on this scale was simply scary. Whoever the First Interstellar Empire was, Cheape was glad they didn’t seem to be around anymore. The scale of this segment alone was staggering, and they already knew there were five more of these things. She was just thankful they had built sturdy stairs, or she and Gas Tank would have been stuck below.

  Finally, topping the stairs, they were faced with a broad iris that was a mirror to the one that had started their journey. That alone was enough to make Cheape hesitate, let alone the warning symbols clustered around it. She still couldn’t read the words, but the violent red and orange colors were pretty damn clear indications that whatever was waiting for them was dangerous.

  “We definitely have to go in there?” Gas Tank asked, sounding as hesitant as Cheape felt.

  “Makes sense,” Cheape admitted, “Everything else beyond this section is merely a repeat of what we’ve already been through. Plus, this is the only unique building we’ve seen.”

  “Not exactly loving the idea of going in there,” Gas Tank admitted.

  “Me neither,” Cheape said with a sigh, “But we don’t have a choice. We have injured, thirsty people down there waiting for us to get this done. They need us to do this.”

  “The only way out is through,” Gas Tank nodded.

  “Exactly,” Cheape pulled herself together, getting ready. “So let’s get this done. I want a cup of HyperDrive in the worst way.”

  The iris opened with a whoosh, revealing a room bathed in the light from the false star. The floor and roof were a brilliant, spotless white substance. Cheape couldn’t quite decide if it was some kind of plastic polymer, metal, or something weirdly in between.

  Her attention was not on the floor, however. It was on the single robot standing in the dead center of the floor. It towered over even the Rigs, fifteen feet at least. As it stood there, in perfect posture—meaning its head cleared the roof by an inch at most—Cheape had to admire the thing's craftsmanship.

  A larger version of the Developer bots and featuring an extra pair of arms, it still retained that flawless stretched statue appearance.

  “It’s got a rifle,” Gas Tank warned.

  He wasn’t wrong. In addition to sized-up versions of the pistols and axes, this one also featured a strange, elegant rifle on its back. For all it looked ornate and a bit thin, Cheape had no doubt it was powerful.

  “Greetings, and congratulations on making it this far,” The sound came from the space where a mouth should be, as far as Cheape could tell, but other than that, the robot had not moved. “You will go no further.”

  “Yeah? Well, there are two of us, pal.” Gas Tank looked around the room theatrically. “I think that means you are outnumbered.”

  “I am never outnumbered, for I am the Singularity.” There was absolute assurance in its words. “By definition, one is always enough.”

  “Is there any need to fight?” Cheape asked, finally shaking free of her shock over the fact this one could speak. “If you open the exit iris, me and my people will leave you in peace.” True, they would come back in numbers and better supplied, but she felt no need to mention that. Besides, didn’t the Imperium tend to recruit things rather than kill them?

  “Your premise is correct,” The Singularity nodded the barest fraction of an inch. “But your understanding is flawed. There will be no fight.”

  “Glad to hear it,” Gas Tank grinned.

  “This is merely an execution!” The Singularity spun, drawing the overlong rifle and firing in a single move.

  The plasma bolt slammed straight through the crossed chainsaws Cheape raised to defend herself, but it was enough to blunt the attack, and her shields held. Barely.

  She charged forward, ducking a swipe from an axe, and slid past the Singularity, her chaingun firing at full speed. Each and every bullet seemed to bounce clean off the impossible armor, but they had to be doing something.

  Rolling upright again, Cheape added the power of her laser array, lines of burning light darkening the perfect finish.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Back by the entrance, Gas Tank finished loading his special weapon, firing it into the gigantic back of the Singularity. A cluster of metal shards lodged in the metal, but none of them were deep.

  “Get a load of that!” Gas Tank cheered as his chaingun wound up to match Cheapes. Lines of slugs flew into the creature from both sides.

  “Your weapons are ineffective. Such resistance is pointless,” The Singularity said, ignoring the mounting firepower as it aimed and fired again.

  Cheape sidestepped at the last second, the plasma merely taking a chunk out of her Rig’s shoulder armor.

  “Concentrate fire on the left hip joint!” Queen Nellie called over the comm line. “In three, two, one. NOW!”

  Cheape did as instructed, focusing everything on the front of the joint. Lasers stabbed and burned at the armor, while slugs dented and crushed it.

  “Damage detected. Well done. Moving to engage.” The Singularity gave another tiny nod before it exploded into motion.

  Cheape had been watching the weapons, and the roundhouse kick caught her unprepared, launching her rig back into the glass, which spiderwebbed but held.

  “Now!” Cheape commanded.

  “Detonating,” Gas Tank warned, unleashing a powerful arc of electrical energy from his rig's outstretched arm as he detonated his core, jumping free of the rig as it slumped forward. The electricity arced out, grounding itself in the only thing it could… the metal shards embedded in the Singularity.

  The robot stuttered to a stop, shaking and shuddering as it let out a wailing screech.

  Cheape locked her rig’s arm into a straight line, firing the rock breaker alignment as fast as the system allowed. Warnings came on across her board as Cheape overrode every safety in the Rig. Seven rounds slammed into the monstrous Singularity before the rail track melted from the heat.

  Smoke rose from five holes punched into the chest of the Singularity as it stepped back, movements jerky as the air filled with the smell of burning electronics.

  “Threat level reassessment in progress, please stand by…”

  “Get fucked!” Gas Tank yelled, unleashing the pair of plasma-bolt pistols he had squirreled away. He roared, firing as the Singularity turned and limped toward him.

  “Please stand by…”

  “What he said!” Cheape said, leaping onto the robot's back and driving it to the floor. She jammed the chaingun against one of the holes the railgun had punched in the armor and unleashed everything she had left.

  Still, it started to rise.

  “FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!” Cheape slammed the controls and unbuckled, leaping free as she called out a warning. “Detonating!”

  Light flashed as the air filled with the crack of lightning, and the air stank of ozone. A crash heralded her trusty Rig falling to the floor.

  As soon as she was clear, Cheape turned back to look at the Singularity.

  It twitched.

  She grabbed the plasma pistol from her hip and ran forward, twisting the dial in the way Lucy had shown her. The weapon began to heat up in her hand as light leaked from the barrel.

  “That was my favorite Rig, you bastard thing!” Cheape snarled, slamming the pistol into one of the holes and kicking until it was jammed deep inside.

  “Please…”

  “Die!” Cheape spat and jumped away a second before the overcharged plasma pistol exploded.

  The iris opened in the needle as a sound played throughout the zone, a single message repeating three times before it fell silent.

  Control of this segment has been transferred to the invaders! All forces Friend/Foe settings have been changed accordingly. Congratulations on your success.

  Please make your way to the Museum of the Endless once you have collected your reward.

  The roof opened in the room at the top of the needle, and a sphere lowered to the floor as if by an anti-grav motor. Once it came to a stop, it pulsed, sending the remains of the Singularity flying away to slam against the glass before dropping to the floor.

  As soon as Cheape approached, the sphere opened like a flower, revealing the waiting ‘reward’ within. A series of small electronic components rotated in their own see-through bubbles while a data cube of some type stood on a small pedestal.

  “Instructions?” Cheape asked.

  “Hold there for now,” Nellie said, sounding happier than Cheape had heard her in days. “The iris is open on this side, and the restriction field is gone. We are on our way there right now.”

  “Yes, Ma’am,” Cheape slumped. The Queens were coming, which meant her job was done for now.

  She could rest.

  She walked over to the wall by the iris and slid down it to sit with her elbows on her knees.

  “We done?” Gas Tank asked, coming over to sit next to her.

  “We’re done. The Queens are on their way now.” Cheape nodded.

  “I hope they bring some HyperDrive,” Gas Tank nudged her. “And perhaps a sandwich.”

  /====<<<>>>====\

  After days of being trapped in the atrium, Nellie and her people were finally able to get inside the Yellow Segment to help their people. Even as the Museum changed around them, they prepared.

  “We have displays and information appearing all over the area around the yellow iris,” Lucy said excitedly. “When we get back, there is going to be a lot to look over.”

  She wasn’t wrong, but it all had to wait.

  Five minutes after the iris opened, Nellie and Lucy were at the head of a line of nanite-infused sprinting at insane speeds through the segment. Each one of them had a pack on their back with supplies and medical gear for the team.

  They followed the same route the team had, finding the evidence of the fights Nellie and the others had been forced to watch, unable to do anything more than advise.

  Although she had yet to tell Lucy, Nellie was more than half convinced to leave the moment they recovered their people. Whatever this place was, it was too dangerous when she couldn’t get in there to help them.

  The nanite-barring restrictions alone were a clear threat.

  Everything depended on the reward. It would have to be something pretty damn outstanding to stop her from merely calling the Harbinger in to detonate the entire moon on general principles.

  As they arrived at the base of the needle, the others peeled off to see to the injured and get food and water for the rest.

  Nellie and Lucy simply ran straight up the stairs, leaping several at a time until they finally arrived at the top.

  “Cheape, Gas Tank, are you injured?” Nellie asked, sliding to a stop just as they stepped into the place Nellie was trying NOT to think of as the Boss Room.

  “Bumps and bruises, a few minor cuts and pulled muscles,” Cheape reported.

  Nellie watched the woman stand, drawing herself up to her normal posture despite the large black circles around her eyes from lack of food and sleep.

  That was Cheape all over, though, so Nellie wasn’t surprised. “Nothing urgent.”

  “Wouldn’t mind a drink,” Gas Tank offered, getting a sharp look from Cheape for speaking out of turn.

  “HyperDrive and a sandwich,” Lucy said with a smile, pulling them both from the pack she was wearing. “As requested.”

  “You’re too kind, Your Highness,” Gas Tank said from around the first half of the sandwich he was trying to inhale.

  “Thank you, Ma’am.” Cheape nodded as Lucy handed hers to her.

  “You two eat and drink, then we will go look at the reward. Whatever it is,” Nellie said with a smile.

  Both people froze.

  “Problem?” Nellie asked.

  “You want to wait while we eat and drink?” Cheape looked horrified. “Ma’am, we are ready to—”

  “Eat, drink. That’s an order, Cheape,” Lucy cut in. “We are currently relaying commands to the other members of the team. No one is waiting on you.”

  Nellie winced internally. Lucy was a step ahead of her on this one. Cheape was not the kind of person to let a superior officer wait on her. It would have been incredibly awkward for her to eat while Nellie and Lucy just stood there.

  Oops.

  So, Nellie tried to look busy while Cheape and Gas Tank got a decent meal and three cups of HyperDrive and water inside them. Only once they were done did she lead them over to the strange sphere.

  To Nellie’s eyes, the magnetic fields keeping everything aloft were not only clear but simple. Lucy picked up the orb and blinked a few times before placing it down again and turning toward the others.

  “We have been given a complete set of plans and designs for the drives used by the First Interstellar Empire in their exploration of space,” Lucy said with a smile.

  “Crap,” Nellie ground her teeth. “We already have bloody Transit Drives. All this for—” She stopped when Lucy started to smile. “What?”

  “These are NOT ExoSystem Drives.” Lucy grinned like the cat that got not only the cream but whole dairy, the milkman, and several small fields of rabbits. “These drives do not enter Transit Space at all.”

  “That’s impossible,” Cheape said instantly. “...isn’t it?”

  “Apparently not.” Lucy was beaming now. “And we are the only people in the entire universe with the technology.”

  So much for leaving the moon, Nellie thought. She cared about her people, but there were some things worth the risk, and this damnable moon seemed to be one of them. Over and over again, a single thought was bouncing around her brain: There are five more rewards waiting for us.