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The detachment of arhans of the security service, under the command of Kristine, invaded the ruins that hid the rocket. They had never partic.i.p.ated in a silent war. There were no signs of warmth, no hints that someone was hiding there. All around were rows of dilapidated buildings.
Veronica reported, "We were informed from the orbit, that a next generation arhan landed with 17 containers."
"And what is he going to do to us all alone?"
Hilde was obviously having fun.
"Stop all conversations." Kristine cut in. "All machines, attention. Our goal – the booster rocket. There is also a central processor of an uncontrolled AI. Angela… Be careful with the new arhan. Even though there"s only one."
And then several missiles appeared from the building. The group of arhans began an evasive maneuver and broke the formation. However, the rockets exploded in the air above them, not reaching their target. It made a smoke curtain. The thick white smoke enveloped the entire detachment of arhans, the visibility of the optical chambers was reduced to zero.
"d.a.m.n it!"
"An ambush?"
"Don"t panic!" Kristine tried to bring the alarmed group back to their senses, "Switch to infrared mode."
But it didn"t work. Even in infrared mode, everything remained white. The smoke jammed the signals in the infrared spectrum.
"The satellite tracking system is not responding!" reported the frightened Veronica.
Since infrared mode didn"t work, she wanted to know the situation using satellite tracking system. But the connection was blocked. There was a message about attempted hacking, to prevent it, they had to disconnect. Fortunately, the arhan support system was on a different line, so it remained untouched.
Kristine gave an order to the AI support system.
"Determine the source of the fire, hurry!"
Hilde"s voice was heard.
"Movement detected at 5 degrees. Something is coming closer."
"The enemy arhan?"
"No, its… heavy construction equipment."
"Amount?"
"I don"t know for sure, there are many signals. Hmm, because the enemy is in minority, he decided to use heavy equipment on us? Get together. However many there are, they can"t our…"
Heavy robots appeared out of the smoke, directed by Pioneer. They surrounded the group of arhans. They weren"t armed. But they had laser targeting systems. And now, they were all aimed at the arhans.
Kristine turned pale.
"Retreat!"
From above by guidance, they were struck by a lot of ground-to-ground missiles. The robots continued to point at the quickly retreating arhans. The missiles sharply changed directions following their targets. When they got to the arhans, they exploded. There was a noise of a blow to the ground. The arhan was not destroyed, but it was now acting too slowly, so the missiles attacked it like piranhas. The missiles attacked the black arhan also. Kristine activated the laser guns and aimed at the heavy robots by herself. One shot – and that"s it.
The missiles lost their target. Now they switched to the closest moving objects. They pursued the black arhan. To get rid of them, she began to maneuver around the remains of the buildings.
Angela opened one of the equipment containers. She fixed up the rocket installations with the help of the manipulators so that they attacked air targets. Kristine"s detachment, pursued by missiles, had to pa.s.s through here.
Checking with her map inside the c.o.c.kpit, Angela asked, "What is the situation?"
Observing everything through the camera of a heavy robot, Pioneer reported,
"What"s with the black arhan?"
Upon hearing this, Angela launched more missiles.
"Now the third trap. Pa.s.s to Dingo. Where is the container with the a.s.sault equipment?"
"Useless. It won"t work the second time. Kristine… The security agents should have adapted by now. They were prepared for this."
"Got it."
Checking with her map, Angela headed there.
Kristine was able to get rid of her pursuing missiles. She rounded the area and came to the robots from behind. She destroyed them all at once. From the 10 arhans, only 4 were left. The accelerators of one were damaged, so he couldn"t maneuver. As a result, only three were left: Kristine, Hilde, and Veronica. Soon new security forces were to arrive, but the trio didn"t want to appear before them with nothing.
Kristine inquired, "Veronica, what"s with the satellite tracking system and connection? Still not working?"
"No, they"re alright. The attempted hacking was just a snag, everything works perfectly. But it will take some time to restart."
"If we connect, there shouldn"t be any difficulties. Track the positions of the containers. As soon as you find them, destroy them immediately."
"Got it!"
"Angela herself wouldn"t have been able to do this. She has an a.s.sociate somewhere."
Frightened, Hilde looked around, and said, "So the uncontrolled AI didn"t do all of this?"
"The traps were made by someone who knows him. Surely, it"s one of the locals. In any case, we"ll have to deal with more than just the new arhan model. Be careful."
Then, an alarm sounded. Hovering over them, Angela"s new arhan model opened fire. She was advancing, showering them with fire from an a.s.sault machine gun. The AI support of all three of the arhans began an automatic evasion from enemy fire. Hilde"s arhan flew up, leveled, and opened fire out of Gatling machine guns, built into both its hands. The noise of the shots was deafening, in a minute it could release 6,000 20mm cartridges. The ground was completely torn. Pieces of concrete and asphalt flew in every direction. And yet, not even a single bullet touched Angela"s arhan. The incredible reaction speed allowed it to evade all the bullets.
Kristine opened fire from the laser guns, and Veronica from a large-caliber rifle, but everything still missed. The forecast of the movement and ballistic a.n.a.lysis was done by Pioneer, but the mobility of the new arhan model was a step higher.
Kristine tried to contact the new arhan model.
"Angela! What are you thinking?!"
There was no answer from Angela. However, the new model, moving in a straight line, turned sharply and fled.
"Wait! At least say something!"
Kristine continued the pursuit, with Hilde and Veronica behind her. And here, the trio was attacked from the back, but they were able to avoid it. The speed of the new arhan was simply incredible, they could hardly keep up with it.
Kristine and Veronica hastily climbed onto the roof of a building. Hilde hid inside of a large residential complex.
Dingo was waiting on an overpa.s.s in his buggy.
"Hid in a place, where I can be easily caught."
He pressed a detonator b.u.t.ton. The concrete under Hilde"s arhan exploded. The ground fell through. There was a parking lot below.
"A trap?!"
The lower part of the body was stuck in the rubble. Hilde struggled to get out. Dingo blew up the other charges. Continuous explosions were heard in the residential complex. Glancing up, Hilde turned pale. Ten floors of the complex began to sink. With a loud noise, the building collapsed. The arhan"s legs were clamped between the debris, it simply couldn"t move. It was too late to use the accelerators.
"h.e.l.l! Screw you!"
She shot at the collapsing building with both the Gatling machine guns. It was all useless. The building collapsed, and the arhan was crushed with concrete and metal frames.
The pressure on the overpa.s.s was huge. Broken columns of the road began to fall. Dingo ran to his buggy. He hurried away from the collapsing road and a cloud of dust formed because of the fall. Nothing was visible because of the smoke. However, it didn"t look like the arhan could get out. Such traps were installed throughout the whole city.
On choosing buildings into which to install the charges, Dingo was guided by Pioneer"s information, thereby choosing only the buildings that were guaranteed to collapse.
Dingo breathed out a sigh of relief, and then his face became harsh again.
"It"s probably not easy for them in physical bodies."
A physical body can be destroyed, but a backup copy of the virtual personality was stored in their spine, so a thing like "death" was nothing to them. Although they could experience what diseases and sufferings are.
"And it"s even worse for her."
Angela led a battle on a roof of one of the buildings with the security service"s arhans. Kristine and Veronica attacked her together. Under incessant fire, Angela had no time to relax. She repulsed with all her strength. She had to do her best; two professional pilots, working together, were not at all simple enemies. Thanks to the high accuracy of the calculation system, she somehow managed to evade, but their support systems worked as a pair too, which made their movements even more complex and too difficult to counterattack. The expense of aimlessly spent ammunition was enormous. She heard a message that the cartridges from machine guns and short-range missiles were all used.
"Where is the closest container?"
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"Got it."
She pushed the lever and went down sharply. In between the abandoned buildings, she saw a container in the form of lighting. Following her, Kristine and Veronica also saw it.
Edited by: Akshaythedon