Yeah… the makeshift riot shield was going to have problems very soon. I could see the center starting to sag as the steel was slowly melting.

“Another 24 meters to go then it will be a 90 degree left turn.” Aegis told me as we continued to inch the heavy lifter along.

“Alright what's the firing cone look like for the jury rigged heavy plasma rifle?” I asked.

“Well… it can hit anything on the ceiling when that center gives out…” Aegis told me.

“I should have mounted it higher…” I was in the middle of saying when the center of the shield exploded violently.

“Heavy lift drone is down from 73% to 41% integrity. Primary forward sensor array is toast.” She informed me.

“Alright… they've reached phase two of the boss battle.” I said then I started to lob medium drone power cores through the hole to bounce off the side walls and into the group.

Aegis had to command the drone cores to overload the internal capacitors. This gave me a window of about 300ms to throw one bounce it off a wall and rupture. Too soon and one of the other AI could easily override and neutralize a core… too late and it posed a real risk of self destruction that would chain react with any other volatiles in the area.

“Aegis… I can make the throws… but this is actually a bit nerve racking…” I said to her while tossing my 5th.

“Unfortunately we are at the upper limits of unaugmented human reaction time… the way this is solved is via practice… but I'll give you that practicing throwing jury ridgid power cores through a melted hole is not a high priority item…” she told me.

Then to reassure me “If you dropped one or held one too long I could disable it.”

“Wait, how would practice help? If this is all in my head?” I asked confused… It wasn't the best time for questions like that but I was genuinely curious.

“Your spine aids in the development of twitch reflexes, in fact some much of muscle memory doesn't even get to the brain; it hits the spine and returns.” She told me.

“Damn… that's actually an interesting topic… can you remind me later?” I asked.

“Sure!” She said excitedly.

The tail of these current bodies had a comprehensive sensor package. I was using both bodies to build up a basic idea of what was going on on the other side of the steel plate by peeking through the gaps.

“I've taken out maybe half the group it looks like.” I commented.

“Yes and very few of the drones have avoided any damage.” She added. I continued to push forward, inching ever closer, then I started to take fire from behind.

“Fuck… should have left a rear scout or something…” I commented.

I switched to my other body and charged the new group behind. It was maybe a dozen medium drones. Their focus seemed to be more on the heavy lifter which did allow me to get in close. The actual hallway we were in was very heavily obscured by this point to do all the burning materials. What was left of the heavy lifter sensors was able to cut right through it so I assumed the smaller drones could as well.

I still managed to get in close once whoever was issuing commands realized I was charging. I just had to keep moving individually, they were no threat but if they could focus fire I would not last long. I speared one through the chest and used the body as an impromptu shield. I switch my standard flechette rounds to hypersonic flechette rounds just to help make quick work of them.

I pounced on another drone and used the body's claws to tear it to shreds. During that movement Aegis assisted me in throwing the impromptu shield off my tail and into three more behind. I was still taking hits but the armor was holding up for now. I jumped at the wall in front of me then jumped again to position myself just behind the last of the group. I deployed the heavy plasma cannon and made quick work of the remaining 8. I then left this body to act as rear guard in case anything else showed but. It would just be a quick sprint anyway to regroup.

My initial body that was lobing power cores had 4 more left and maybe 8 heavy combat drones still in formation. I found a safeish spot to stash the remaining power cores then had Aegis drop the steel shield. While it was still falling I charged along the plate and jumped up to the ceiling bouncing off and into the crowd of heavy combat drones. Seconds later Aegis using the heavy plasma rifle via the heavy lifter started to fire into the side of the group. I kept low to the ground to allow Aegis to continue a strafing fire of the group. During that time I was spearing with my tail and hamstring what I could reach.

Overall damage sustained to all my bodies was low and self repair systems could handle quite a bit if I had the time. The heavy lift drone was almost done however. I had my second body and the drone with its heavily damaged shield act as a rear guard. I then finally was able to approach the security office.

“Be Careful of the highlighted area I am displaying. Inside that and we will lose communications with the current body.” Aegis told me.

“Okay… how do we get around then?” I asked.

“Two methods, one we can find the generator for the Trans-Dimensional Suppression Fields. The other would be to leave this body's Trans-Dimensional Entanglement Node outside and guide the body via wire. Technically there is a third option which is to tether up to another body.” She told me.

“Fuck… I'm going to need to do this again for the Vault… aren't I.” I asked.

“You have to do them at the same time… sorry.” She said.

“Alright… I'll keep the second body where it's at… how do I do this?” I asked.

It took only seconds to set up but both the security access path and near the vault entrance were starting to see activity… I was running out of time fast.

“How tough are the cores? Also is this going to feel odd?” I asked.

“They will be ok as long as they don't take direct fire… but they won't last long unprotected. No you won't notice any difference other than the cable.” Aegis told me.

With my first body at the security checkpoint I moved into the suppression field. I didn't sense any other change but I did see a warning as well as jamming on multiple wireless frequencies. I made my way over to a security console and as soon as I turned the corner that body disconnected.

“What the fuck?” I shouted in alarm from my second body.

“Unknown, but high probability of attack. Most likely the physical connection between the body and communication node was damaged.” Aegis told me.

“Fuck…” I said as I was running back down the hallway with my second body.

“Wow… didn't expect that.” Aegis said. Standing just over my old body was a drone not too different from a heavy lifter, except this thing was more like a heavy tank.

“What's controlling it?” I asked as I ducked back behind the corner.

“Umm… not sure… I didn't register any physical connections and I am still detecting the EM jamming effects and suppression field.” She told me.

“So what, a basic AI?” I asked.

“No, the test is supposed to limit the use of intelligent systems… That's why all of us have been driving all the bots.” Aegis told me.

I positioned the tail high and my head low and very quickly peaked around the corner to get another look. The shot that struck the wall was right at head height and could have decapitated the unit I was currently controlling.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“No still no connections… and all of AI’s are accounted for… if one of us is driving that thing it's a massive violation of the spirit of the test…” She said.

“Other options?” I asked, something had to be driving that thing.

“Oh… Umm sure… Imagine having your brain or organic body moved into the heavy tank…” She said.

“Does this unit have speakers?” I asked.

“Yup, go ahead and yell at them if you want.” She said.

“Hey, who's driving the tank?” I asked from around the corner.

“Hola, Elena!” Alex’s voice came booming from the tank.

“Oh come on… that's just unfair!” I accused.

“Hardly… if you take out the tank I'm out of the simulation.” he said.

“Yeah well 4v1 if everyone does that Im fucked! And on top of that you know you’re not actually toast!” I shouted back.

“Okay… fair point on the last one…” He said thinking about it.

“Aegis the clock is still ticking right? Also, is this Alex’s idea or Rasptins?” I asked.

“Yes… this is an interesting tactic… Oh this is 100% Alex’s idea, Rasputin was restricted from that level of suggestion for this exercise.” She said somewhat amused.

“Wait… if he's here, how did he get here? Yes I am also aware this is all virtual, but within the confines of the exercise how did he get here?” I asked.

“Very good reasoning skills, his ‘body’ was already here. In fact they have all been using ultra high bandwidth wireless relays to talk to different bodies to fit to their side's technology limits.” She said.

“Alright if I remove Alex I can probably remove the rest without any more of a fight if I can find them…” I said.

“That is a very good assumption.” She said.

“Alex! Let's make this more interesting and give you some real ‘skin’ in the game!” I shouted towards him.

“Oh? What do you have in mind?” He asked.

“Oh fuck… what would he want…” I whispered to Aegis.

“There are several possibilities, but I am curious to see what you come up with.” She told me.

“Well crap all I've done so far is play dress up… Oh! That's an idea” I said with a virtual smirk.

“Alright Alex if you Survive and successfully defend the objective from me, You choose what I wear to our date night.” I said.

“And if I fail?” He asked me.

“I choose what you wear!” I said with a growing smile.

“Deal!” he said.

“Fine just so you're aware it might be a dress!” I told him.

“Wait WHAT! Ah Crap…” he said after a second.

“Very nicely done.” Aegis told me.

“Right… what do I have that can punch through a tank?” I asked.

“Thermite grenade” Aegis told me.

“Alright and where do I need to put it?” I asked.

“When it's in optimal position I can throw it for you via the tail.” She told me, and I felt my tail grab a cylinder off my back.

“Wait… he's not coming out…” I said.

“No he is not. If you can get in close he is guaranteed to lose. Also warning, the heavy lifter on this level is on its last legs, you will not have any cover soon.” She told me.

“Alright, recall the third body and the second heavy loader to this point, if I can remove everyone else anyway then I bet I ‘win’.” I said.

“That would be a reasonable assumption assuming the facility can no longer defend itself.” She said.

“Right… Well heavy plasma cannon time at least…” I commented, as I brought up the firing reticle for the shoulder mounted cannon.

“Elena? You still over there?” Alex asked me.

“No” I said just to have some fun then I rolled out from behind my cover blasting repeatedly with the plasma cannon. Aegis at that moment also threw the thermite grenade which stuck right to the front of the armor.

“Get to cover.” She told me as soon as the grenade was away. No need to be told by my AI twice, I ducked back around after nearly being hit by a second main cannon fire.

“Wait, what was that?” Alex asked, then a moment later “OH SHIT!” as the grenade went off. I could see bright white flashes.

“Holy shit that's bright, what is that again?” I asked.

“I called it a ‘thermite’ grenade but it’s a combination of different chemicals and materials that burns at nearly 20,000 Kelvin.” She said.

“Wait, is that hot?” I asked confused.

“It's nearly 4 times hotter than the surface of the Sun in the Sol system.” She told me. During this time I could hear spinning and circling and heavy machinery shuffling as the bot tried to remove the offending object.

“It will have taken sufficient damage by this point that a single heavy plasma cannon round should take care of it.

“Alright I'll give you fire control of that just like that grenade.” I told her.

“Elena! That was not very nice!” Alex said amused.

I ducked back around the corner and took a shot right in the chest. Lucky my armor and durability managed to hold up to some degree. The heavy plasma cannon was still operational and Aegis fire three quick blasts from it.

“Ah fuck me…” Alex said as the last shot burned through the remaining chassis.

“Nicely done Elena.” Aegis said to me.

“That was intense for sure…” I said as I took a moment to look at the tank properly. It was a squat and heavy looking thing with a turret mounted on top. It used 4 heavily reinforced and armored legs to move around as well. Other than that it seemed to just be a heavy lifter drone with extra armor and a giant fuck you cannon.

My other body was currently knocked over inside of the suppression zone. The cable that was being used to communicate was completely obliterated three-quarters of the way to that body.

“How long before body number 3 arrives, I think I would prefer to use that as a relay instead of removing the communication core again.” I said.

“Almost up here body 3 is just entertaining the hall now the heavy lifter drone is 2 minutes away and continuing to fire at targets.” she told me.

Once body three arrived I daisy chained in and collected body number one. Once that was handled I sent body two back to the front of the hallway. It was the worse for wear, might as well have them chip their teeth on that while I looked.

Inside the security boundary was nothing more than storage racks and several access terminals. The layout and design was certainly intended for ‘organic’ bodies to be manning much of it.

“Alright so I see several access terminals but any idea where the rest of the squad might be?” I asked.

“Scanning… this might take a moment. Most of the sensors are being blinded by interference needing to use visual inspection…” she said, then I felt my head move of its own accord taking in the entire area. In the end it took two laps of the entire security section to find a false wall blast door. Luckily I could take a moment to actually try to open this one instead of having to back and cut my way through it.

Inside the new space I was met with 3 glowing cubes each on its own pedestal.

“Alright these are the representations of each ‘organic’ combatants.” She told me.

“Can I just unplug them? Or do I have to shoot them?” I asked, I didn't feel super comfortable shooting what accounted for my friends in a defenseless manner.

“Yes, I will highlight the data port. All you need to do is sever that connection.” Aegis told me.

I then went to each cable indicating and using a ceramic blade cut through each.

“Well now what?” I asked.

“Hidden objective complete, ending simulation.” Aegis then informed me.

“I was an absolute fool!” Alex said as soon as everyone appeared in our virtual waiting room.

“Fuck that was a tough fight…” Sasha said.

“I honestly got lucky… also my tactical advantage was significant…” I commented.

“You're underselling your skills and critical thinking…” Max said.

“I agree with Max’s statement.” Aerithis said.

“You did damn well Elena… and a great call on questioning how I was able to bypass the suppression field.” Alex said, with a self deprecating chuckle.

“So how long was I away from being overwhelmed?” I asked.

“The next wave which was already engaging the last heavy lifter and Body 2 was almost certainly going to destroy. The wave after that you would have been completely overwhelmed. The exercise was within 10 minutes of very likely being over anyway.” Aegis said.

“Damn… if it had taken just a little bit longer to find I would have most likely pulled back to try and finish off the wave…” I said.

“That was a very likely outcome, yes.” Aegis finished.

We then did a brief after action review where we were shown possible failings on our part.